Sociology Report: Linking Disaster Relief and Development Programs

This report analyzes the crucial link between disaster relief and development assistance, emphasizing the need for long-term development programs following disasters. It discusses the importance of risk assessment and the limitations of solely relying on disaster relief, advocating for integrated strategies involving governments and international agencies like the United Nations. The report highlights key concepts such as resilience, famine mitigation, and the transition between relief and development, while also examining the short-term and long-term facets of development programs. It references the 'continuum model' of relief, rehabilitation, and development, and stresses the importance of risk reduction and recovery. The author concludes that effective disaster response necessitates a strong connection between relief and development assistance for improved outcomes for affected populations. The report also references various scholarly articles to support its claims.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
The purpose of the following assignment is to make the proper linkage between the
disaster relief and assistance in the development program. Therefore, both of these programs are
in the risk assessment. The two things are quite important to be reviewed since the need for the
development assistance in case of the disasters is very high from all the contexts (Audet, 2015).
Many developing countries have not been able to develop their risk assessment programs
properly so they are still looking to make the proper improvements for the well being of their
common people at the times of national emergency situations.
Critics have reviewed this fact as one of the most critical ones as the developing countries
are looking to make a statement in the development aid programs and providing relief and
rehabilitation for all those people who suffer from dangerous situations. The disaster relief
program should always be of high quality so the government of that particular country can make
the proper arrangements to provide relief to the people who have been largely affected by these
problems. Once a region in the country has been hit by natural disasters like earthquake, flood or
tsunami, no one should expect that those people will surely get back to their previous lives just
the way it was (Audet, 2015). This is why they should make some arrangements by which the
disaster relief programs could assist the overall development of the situation. The aim of the
development program should be long term development of the victims of the particular region
where the disaster has occurred. The scholars have also opined the fact that only disaster relief
program should not at all be enough for the people because it will do no good to their
rehabilitation program (Day, 2014). It is the joint responsibility of the governments and the
international agencies like United Nations. Both of them should take up the liabilities so they can
make the most of the possibilities.

2SOCIOLOGY
Surely there are some other terms that come up when the linking between the disasters
and the development assistance is done. These terms are mostly “resilience”, “famine
mitigation”, “transition between relief and development” and many others. This is why the
governments and international agencies must take up the charge to provide all kinds of
development assistance facilities to the victims of the disasters. There are two facets of this
development program (Audet, 2015). One is the short-term disaster relief program and another is
the long-term development assistance program. The second one is very crucial since it involves
the well being of the people after being rescued and helping them out to get back to the earlier
phase of their lives (He & Zhuang, 2016). The effectiveness of the development programs should
always be such that the victims will find it very useful when they are able to get back to their
normal lives. Some critics are of the opinion that the governments should always make some
strategies by which they can help the victims and provide them with all sorts o assistance like
food, shelter, treatment facilities, educational facilities for their children and most importantly,
financial aid (Zheng, Chen & Ling, 2015).
Several critics are of the opinion that the United Nations can arrange some programs or
seminars on reducing the risk deductions. So, both the developed and developing countries will
be able to shed light on this situation in a better manner indeed. It should be acknowledged that
the vulnerability of the earth has been increasing lately because of different natural disasters and
floods (Audet, 2015). So, proper actions must be taken to deal with these kinds of disasters and
the development of the situation of the victims. However, researchers have found out some
important gaaps while going through about the perspectives of the international assistance. The
communities associated with the development had found out that both the short term and long ter
perspectives were needed in this scenario (Wu & Drolet, 2016).

3SOCIOLOGY
It is because the urgent needs had to be mitigated from one perspective. The short term
plans were very much helpful here. On the other hand, the long term perspectives were very
much helpful as well. It was needed so the curse of poverty could be taken care of in the best
manner (Bennett, 2015). Therefore, both the needs had been very much effective. The priorities
of the disaster relief should be initiated and timeframes should be set up on how the problems
could be dealt with in an effective manner (Wu & Drolet, 2016). Therefore, the international
agencies must believe the fact that the developmental assistance should always be provided to
the victims so the disaster relief programs can work smoothly than ever before.
The aims should be set and the grey zone in terms of the development assistance should
be taken care in the proper manner indeed (Heaslip & Barber, 2014). The risk reduction and
recovery should always be the main motive of the people of the development assistance
providing organizations. In course of this perception of the linkage, the continuum model should
be given some importance indeed. The critics have explained the operations of this method
should be done according to a proper sequence indeed (Bennett, 2015). The three steps of this
development program are relief, rehabilitation and development. This is how the linkage can be
done in a proper manner indeed. The main objective of this kind of operation is to bring the
normality in terms of the socio-economic conditions. So, the relief and rehabilitation must be
done for the proper development assistance programs.
In the last section of the paper, it can be concluded by saying that the development
assistance and disaster relief programs have very close relations between themselves. This is why
the governments and the international agencies must focus on the proper procurement of the
methods so it can lead to betterment of the scenario (Bennett, 2015). The linkage between

4SOCIOLOGY
disaster relief and development assistance will make the process better for the improvements in
the conditions of the people.

5SOCIOLOGY
References and Bibliography
Audet, F. (2015). From disaster relief to development assistance: why simple solutions don’t
work. International Journal, 70(1), 110-118.
Bennett, C. (2015). The development agency of the future. Fit for protracted crises.
Day, J. M. (2014). Fostering emergent resilience: the complex adaptive supply network of
disaster relief. International Journal of Production Research, 52(7), 1970-1988.
He, F., & Zhuang, J. (2016). Balancing pre-disaster preparedness and post-disaster
relief. European Journal of Operational Research, 252(1), 246-256.
Heaslip, G., & Barber, E. (2014). Using the military in disaster relief: systemising challenges and
opportunities. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 4(1),
60-81.
Wu, H., & Drolet, J. (2016). Adaptive social protection: Climate change adaptation and disaster
risk reduction. In Social development and social work perspectives on social
protection(pp. 116-139). Routledge.
Zheng, Y. J., Chen, S. Y., & Ling, H. F. (2015). Evolutionary optimization for disaster relief
operations: A survey. Applied Soft Computing, 27, 553-566.