Summary of the week

Congratulations on completing the first week of Humanitarian Action, Response and Relief.

This week, we have acknowledged that, despite the increasing emphasis on disaster risk reduction in recent years, huge numbers of people continue to be affected by disaster and complex emergencies.

We have identified that humanitarian action is the principled and unbiased provision of assistance and aid, specifically to those affected by conflict. However, the term is now used more widely, in reference to assistance for all those facing extreme suffering and hardship as a result of disaster and emergency impacts.

We outlined examples of the humanitarian dilemmas practitioners face and will explore them in more detail throughout the module.

Finally, we introduced the case of the Pakistan floods in 2010, looking at how people were vulnerable and severely affected. Moustafa highlighted the challenges for disaster response in the video at the start of this week, and it is the response of the national government and external agencies we will explore further next week.

Your task

Review your contributions to the discussion areas and revisit your notes that you have collated.

Write a reflection on your thoughts so far:

• What did you learn this week that was new to you?
• Are there any additional themes that you would like to learn more about?
• Were there any comments that you read from other learners that changed your perceptions?

Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments.