engineering support, transportation assets, and civil affairs teams to the UN, and
the endangered people were moved to safety. Various relief efforts continued
well after this IDP protection/relocation project – and the partnering and unity of
effort prompted by JTF-Haiti's innovations continued to enhance success.
Recommendation.
The authors of the article "Foreign Disaster Response: Joint Task Force-Haiti
Observations" (see Event Description below), provide the following recommendations that the U.S. military, interagency, the UN, and the international community
can apply for future disaster responses:
1. Develop a more robust and capable disaster response assessment and initial
life-saving response team. (The Global Response Force was invaluable, but
greater situational awareness was needed to set priorities and drive logistics.)
2. Have combatant commands maintain a JTF capable force (with Joint logistics
capabilities adaptable to external requirements), trained and ready to deploy in
support of a foreign disaster relief operation with the Global Response Force.
3. Develop an international disaster response framework for nations to deploy
civilian and military capability to respond to disasters (a framework that allows
inclusion in planning, logistics, and information systems).
4. Conduct exercises (with U.S. agencies, partner nations, and the UN) to
develop relationships and refine processes and systems.
5. Codify the use of coordination centers like the U.S. JTF-Haiti Humanitarian
Assistance Coordination Center and UN coordinating support committee; make
them adaptable to any existing partner-nation center.
6. Develop and codify unclassified information-sharing tools like JTF-Haiti's
humanitarian assistance common operating picture; make them adaptable to any
partner-nation's existing system.
7. Examine how best to integrate and support the NGOs and public/private
sector in support of humanitarian assistance/foreign disaster relief. (Consider
integration in both assessment teams and response teams.)
8. Tackle the internally displaced persons challenge immediately. (Identify IDP
issues and develop appropriate solutions.)
Implications.
If a disaster response framework is not developed to accommodate a "whole of
international community" approach, and if exercises (involving U.S. agencies,
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