RAPID: Contribution of Linking Networks in Nepalese Earthquake Response: A Case Study

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After each major disaster, many public agencies, humanitarian organizations, and others involved in emergency relief operation to reduce sufferings of survivors of such extreme event and enhance their disaster recovery process so that they can return livelihood to pre-disaster levels as quickly as possible. For various social, political, economic, and cultural factors, each relief operation confronts with unique challenges and therefore careful examination of such operation can provide valuable insights and lessons for disbursers of emergency assistance. These insights and lessons can assist both public and other relevant organizations in developing efficient and orderly relief operation plans for survivors of future natural disasters. The findings of this Rapid Response Research (RAPID) study are expected to develop further policies and priorities to enhance linking networks' support of disaster survivors in Nepal as well as other mountainous and earthquake-prone countries of the world. Thus, the study has the potential to produce policy options that can have transformative value for confronting the extreme natural events. This study aims at investigating how well government and nongovernmental organizations (GOs and NGOs), as members of social network, performed emergency relief operations in Nepal after the country struck by a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25, 2015. The specific objectives of this study are to: 1) investigate the effectiveness of emergency aid delivered to earthquake survivors in Nepal by GOs and NGOs, 2) examine challenges and lessons GOs and NGOs learned from emergency aid distribution, and 3) identify the factors associated with earthquake survivors' opinion regarding effectiveness of GOs and NGOs relief efforts. The primary source of data for this study will come from field surveys to be conducted among earthquake survivors living in two affected areas in rural Nepal. Effectiveness of humanitarian aid will be examined by developing an additive composite index. Appropriate bivariate and multivariate techniques will be employed to accomplish the objectives of this study. The research will contribute to hazards and disasters fields through peer-reviewed journal papers and presentation at a profession meeting. Moreover, the research will contribute to the burgeoning literature on the role of social networks in disaster response.