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Rebecca Barber has worked in the humanitarian relief and development sector for more than ten years, with a focus on humanitarian policy, protection, human rights and rule of law. She is currently a Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy Advisor with Save the Children Australia, and her work in this role has included a particular focus on humanitarian action in the Asia Pacific region. She has researched and written on humanitarian action in Nepal, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand and Vanuatu. Prior to joining Save the Children Rebecca was a Humanitarian Policy Advisor with Oxfam GB, during which time she was deployed to Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Sudan and authored reports on a range of issues including development challenges in South Sudan and the Afghan National Security Forces. Earlier, Rebecca managed protection and legal aid programs in Sudan and Pakistan. Rebecca has masters’ degrees in international development and international law and has published on a range of humanitarian legal and policy issues including the responsibility to protect, humanitarian access, security sector reform and humanitarian effectiveness.
Blanket Approaches in Humanitarian Response: Reflections from the 2015 Nepal Earthquake
In April and May 2015, two large-scale earthquakes struck Nepal, killing almost 9,000 people, damaging over half a million houses and displacing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. This essay focuses on a particular aspect of the response to this disaster—namely, the use of the ‘blanket’ approach as a basis for the distribution of relief. It suggests that while blanket approaches are commonly used in the immediate aftermath of rapid onset disasters, unless replaced as soon as feasible with approaches that target vulnerability, they can very easily result in the exclusion of those most desperately in need.
