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Non-Governmental Organizational Health Operations in Humanitarian Crises: The Case for Technical Support Units

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

P. Gregg Greenough ,
Rahim Nazerali ,
Sheri Fink  and
Michael J. VanRooyen
P. Gregg Greenough*
Affiliation:
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Rahim Nazerali
Affiliation:
Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA
Sheri Fink
Affiliation:
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Michael J. VanRooyen
Affiliation:
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
*
P.Gregg Greenough, MD, MPH Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, 14 Story Street, 2nd Floor Cambridge, MA 02138, USA E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

As the humanitarian health response industry grows, there is a need for technical health expertise that can build an evidence base around outcome measures and raise the quality and accountability of the health relief response.We propose the formation of technical support units (TSUs), entities of health expertise institutionalized within humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which will bridge the gap between the demand for evidencebased, humanitarian programming and the field capacity to accomplish it. With the input of major humanitarian NGOs and donors, this paper discusses the attributes and capacities of TSUs; and the mechanisms for creating and enhancing TSUs within the NGO management structure.

Keywords

humanitariannon-governmental organizationsindicatorstechnical support
Type
Special Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , October 2007 , pp. 369 - 376
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2007

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