Report: Guide to Nongovernmental Organizations for the Military

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Date: 
February 1, 2010

Hours after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, both the U.S. military and American and international NGO community were en route to the island country with urgently needed food, water and medical supplies. The crisis in Haiti serves as an example of how disaster relief missions often bring military and NGOs actors together. To improve cooperation with NGOs working in humanitarian relief operations and to establish “social, economic, and political domestic order in the short-term, and in the longer term… conditions for a sustainable peace,” the Department of Defense published the Guide to Nongovernmental Organizations for the Military: A primer for the military about private, voluntary, and nongovernmental organizations operating in humanitarian emergencies globally (Guide) in July 2009. 

The 368 page Guide serves as an overview for the military on NGOs’ structure and capacity in conflict zones, peace keeping missions and humanitarian crises. The Guide highlights strengths NGOs have over the military during these campaigns, including greater flexibility, efficiency and the perception of being politically neutral.  “With staff members immersed in local populations, NGOs can absorb information faster than militaries can, often because militaries are isolated by force protection requirements,” the Guide acknowledges. However, military forces have their advantages too when responding to a humanitarian crisis.   Superior logistical and communications capabilities “can provide extensive intelligence information about population movements, security conditions, road, river, and bridge conditions, and other information pertinent to conducting humanitarian operations.” 

The Guide has four main sections: 

  • The first section identifies NGOs as “a major component of the global aid system” and describes how they follow “codified, well-tested international standards of care.”
  • The second section examines the capacities and services of NGOs, describing them as “quick, nimble, and largely free-roaming organizations strapped only by their budgets or self-imposed mandates.”  This section examines the wide variety of services and missions NGOs have.
  • The third section focuses on the importance of NGOs coordinating their activities with different groups including the military and United Nations to maximize efficiency and capacity.  
  • The fourth section includes a list of selected NGOs and their areas of expertise, resources for humanitarian aid, and dispels myths about the United Nations and the Red Cross and Red Crescent system.