Humanitarian crises, emergency preparedness and response: the role of business and the private sector - Final report

This report outlines the findings of a study aimed to capture not only the private sector’s current role in humanitarian action, but also the role it might play alongside governments and aid agencies as the nature of vulnerability and crises evolves in the future. It asserts that the private sector is contributing to emergency response and preparedness at many levels and in diverse ways. It finds that the nexus of commercial interests, emergency preparedness and risk reduction has immense potential for humanitarian action.

The report outlines a number of tangible recommendations for increasing private sector engagement, such as designing a future initiative building on regional disaster risk reduction efforts to encourage regional organizations to develop broader public–private (and humanitarian–private sector) approaches to resilience and risk reduction.

The nine-month study on ‘Humanitarian crises, emergency preparedness and response: the roles of business and the private sector’ was undertaken by the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute, the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College London, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Vantage Partners, with financial support from the UK Department for International Development, and involved original research in Kenya, Jordan, Indonesia and Haiti and additional in-person and online consultations with leading humanitarian and private sector specialists.