Executive Summary
The international response to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck central Nepal at midday on 25th April 2015 was one of the biggest humanitarian and disaster response operations of the year. The powerful tremor and aftershocks led to the loss of close to 9,000 lives, injured over 23,000 people, fully destroyed over half a million homes, displaced over 60,000 people, and resulted in total economic losses of approximately US$ 9 billion. The overwhelming international response which followed included immediate search and rescue personnel and support, medical teams and support, emergency relief items, as well as assets, from aircrafts to deliver aid, to other equipment and machinery to assist in the relief effort.
Altogether 34 countries physically responded to the disaster, 17 of which also sent their respective military teams to assist in the immediate search and rescue phase. Bilateral aid in terms of relief items as well as financial aid was received from approximately 70 countries worldwide. In addition to this, the response also included the participation of many United Nations agencies and other international humanitarian organisations like the ICRC, IFRC, MSF, Oxfam, World Vision, CARE international, International Medical Corps, and Save the Children. There were many smaller NGOs and private sector commitments that significantly contributed to the relief effort.
The Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) research team at the NTS Centre, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) studied the international response to the 2015 Nepal earthquake to understand the dimensions and scope of the international response and to distil field observations from this particular experience. The research revealed that most international responders and parties in Nepal, who were beneficiaries of the response, considered immediate search and rescue, and relief operations a success. There was however a number of lessons which emerged from the experience for both the affected country as well as international responding parties.
Through a primary focus on the immediate relief phase following the disaster, this report identifies four themes: (i) Strategic Planning; (ii) Aid Delivery; (iii) Aid Provision; and (iv) Aid Distribution. The following recommendations from the research on Nepal is to ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency for future HADR responses. While this research assessed a relatively small but critical window, and some of the lessons were context specific, it is hoped the recommendations which have emerged will help make future international humanitarian assistance and disaster response more effective.