There is a strong movement of organizations and individuals who advocate for greater involvement of the private and nonprofit sectors in emergency management. At present, agencies at all government levels contract with nongovernmental organizations for such things as debris removal, inspections, the provision of equipment, and other help. However, this dependence is kept at bay as much as possible, with the Federal government attempting to keep as much of the task within its ranks as possible, and State and Local governments doing even less to plan for the emergency involvement of these players. However, in the case of Katrina, many felt that FEMA was unable to handle many of the response requirements of this event (e.g., the logistics involved in moving what was needed to those who needed it). Several companies, including Wal-Mart and FedEx, were able to do what FEMA could not. Read the following two articles, and give your opinion about whether or not you think that the Federal Government should or even could rely upon the private and nonprofit sectors to manage its disaster logistics needs. Feel free to supplement your answer with information from other articles or reports.
Article 1: “What FEMA Could Learn from Wal-Mart (Less Than You Think)” http://bit.ly/2c0DJ3D
Article 2: “How Wal-Mart Beat the Feds to New Orleans” http://bit.ly/2bFdpN4
Written Exercise
Due to the disaster, the losses of lives occur, and with that, various debris and other proven equipment are there. To remove debris, the government had to involve the nonprofit organization or private companies who should manage these parts and helps to remove the remaining debris and clean the places. The federal government should rely upon nonprofit organizations or private companies to manage disaster and logistic needs. The reasons for this are stated below-
Firstly, during disasters like Katrina, Walmart responded well to the government. The company has donated millions in supplies and$17 million in cash to emergency efforts—$20 million in total, or about the number of sales it does in about 38 minutes. The donation was made in huge quantities, and with that, the supplies and help were provided to survivors within a limited time. So here is one of the reasons to rely on the company. Here Walmart has done an excellent job, but the government has not done the work (Pascucci, 2021, p.5). The relives are provided with all the emergency needs and food and made available for the people who are there or survive the disaster.
Secondly, the other and the most important reasons for the government to rely on the Wal Fart and Federal Express companies because these are the more organized and highly profitable companies that have made various investments in the latest technology, and equipment infrastructure, and they respond to the changes quickly or according to the requirement (Roh, Lin & Jang, 2022, p.175). Here FEMA did not have so much of the latest technology, and they responded to the disaster lately with that of this company mentioned here. It is correct to say that here this company can perform well and able to manage the work more properly and efficiently than FEMA can do.
Thirdly it is seen that the government is doing all the work for their profit or the political hacks, but here these companies are doing the work for the contract they did not get benefits from. The government is taking action to take political advantage of it. Due to this, the delay in the work progress is seen where the management is not done correctly after the disaster; it days various weeks or days to manage the places whereas this company does the same work within a less time limit and with the maximum help are provided to the needy people.
Fourthly companies like Wal-Mart and Federal Express are examples for the just in the just-in-the-time economy. These companies have various ties up from manufacturing to handling everywhere they had tied up with the various sectors. Due to the ties up with the various sectors, the camp may have more inventory, which helps them increase the efficiencies per the requirement at the particular time. This is considered to be the reason for the growth of this kind of the companies over the years. The company was constantly restocking their shelves, and this is the reason that during emergencies or disasters like Katrina, they the quick management and were able to respond to the disaster quickly and make the delivery service so fast and quick as they stored all the requirements, so no time gets wasted on this.
Fifthly, one of the other reasons that the federal government should rely on companies like Walmart is that there are numerous staff available who look into the matter capriciously here in these companies. Here on normal days, only six to 10-person staff are there who respond to everyday emergencies like fire or shootings. So, it can be said that communication is transparent here, unlike the government (Salam, M. A., & Khan, 2020, p.5). Here the staff are more experienced and have the proper training on handling such types of emergencies if they occur in any of the places.
Sixthly the other of the most important things is that here the logistic is goods and the supplies are available on an urgent basis, or the essential supplies are already stored for the emergency. They make it available in emergency cases, and they perform the work promptly with the supplies they have and take the management work in hand and perform well. With that, they provide the proper aid to the victims with supplies of food and water to the people. The rescues of the people are done more efficiently (Sledge & Thomas, 2019, p.437). The other major factor is that they have also set up a satellite link for stores that lost phone or Internet service so that they can stay connected with its headquarters team. In short, it can be said that they managed the work more promptly had effectively than the government,
Likewise, with my perspective and the argument above, I prefer that the federal government rely upon nonprofit organizations or private companies to manage disaster and logistic needs because of their excellent work and management in emergencies.
References
Pascucci, E. (2021). More logistics, less aid: Humanitarian-business partnerships and sustainability in the refugee camp. World Development, 142, 105424.
Roh, S., Lin, H. H., & Jang, H. (2022). Performance indicators for humanitarian relief logistics in Taiwan. The Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics, 38(3), 173-180.
Salam, M. A., & Khan, S. A. (2020). Lessons from the humanitarian disaster logistics management: A case study of the earthquake in Haiti. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Sledge, D., & Thomas, H. F. (2019). From disaster response to community recovery: nongovernmental entities, government, and public health. American journal of public health, 109(3), 437-444.
