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123-805: DMDC was established in 1974 as the Manpower Research and Data Analysis Center (MARDAC) and made a DoD tenant activity within the U.S. Navy . In 1976, it was made a Field Activity of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower & Reserve Affairs (OASD (M&RA)) and renamed the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). One year later, DMDC was transferred to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) for administrative support and in 1991

246-439: A biomedical approach which does not always account for the alternative beliefs and practices about health and well-being in the affected regions. This problem is rarely explored as most studies conducted are done from the lens of the donor or Westernized humanitarian organization rather than the recipient country's perspective. Discovering ways of encouraging locals to embrace bio-medicinal approaches while simultaneously respecting

369-794: A combat support agency and required that the selection of the DLA Director be approved by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . The act also directed the Office of the Secretary of Defense to study the functions and organizational structure of DLA to determine the most effective and economical means of providing required services to its customers. It helped the agency's mission evolve from functional concerns (e.g. inventory management, contract administration) to operational concerns (e.g., enhancement of materiel readiness and sustainability of

492-573: A common nomenclature. The Defense Department and the services defined the material that would be managed on an integrated basis as "consumables", meaning supplies that are not repairable or are consumed in normal use. Consumable items, also called commodities were assigned to one military service to manage for all the services. The pressure for consolidation continued. In July 1955, the second Hoover Commission recommended centralizing management of common military logistics support and introducing uniform financial management practices. It also recommended that

615-555: A country facing a humanitarian crisis, girls and women can have access to the appropriate aid they need. Some of the unintended effects of food aid include labor and production disincentives , changes in recipients' food consumption patterns and natural resources use patterns, distortion of social safety nets, distortion of NGO operational activities, price changes, and trade displacement. These issues arise from targeting inefficacy and poor timing of aid programs. Food aid can harm producers by driving down prices of local products, whereas

738-450: A crucial role in a timely delivery of humanitarian aid. How aid is delivered can affect the quality and quantity of aid. Often in disaster situations, international aid agencies work in hand with local agencies. There can be different arrangements on the role these agencies play, and such arrangement affects the quality of hard and soft aid delivered. Securing access to humanitarian aid in post-disasters, conflicts, and complex emergencies

861-673: A dark-blue typical city-style police uniform and are armed with a SIG Sauer M17 pistol along with a Benelli M4 patrol shotgun. They also have expandable batons, radios, spare magazines, and handcuffs. The seeds of the DLA were planted in World War ;II , when America's military needed to get vast amounts of munitions and supplies quickly. During the war, the military services began to coordinate more when it came to procurement, particularly of petroleum products, medical supplies, clothing , and other commodities. The main offices of

984-495: A given people's culture and beliefs remains a major challenge for humanitarian aid organizations; in particular as organizations constantly enter new regions as crises occur. However, understanding how to provide aid cohesively with existing regional approaches is necessary in securing the local peoples' acceptance of the humanitarian aid's work. Aid is funded by donations from individuals, corporations, governments and other organizations. The funding and delivery of humanitarian aid

1107-480: A given situation, organizations frequently interact as competitors, which creates bottlenecks for treatment and supplies. A second limitation is how humanitarian organizations are focused on a specific disaster or epidemic, without a plan for whatever might come next; international organizations frequently enter a region, provide short term aid, and then exit without ensuring local capacity to maintain or sustain this medical care. Finally, humanitarian medical aid assumes

1230-613: A government-supported project could weaken the insurgents' position. Related findings of Beath, Christia, and Enikolopov further demonstrate that a successful community-driven development program increased support for the government in Afghanistan by exacerbating conflict in the short term, revealing an unintended consequence of the aid. Waste and corruption are hard to quantify, in part because they are often taboo subjects, but they appear to be significant in humanitarian aid. For example, it has been estimated that over $ 8.75  billion

1353-418: A humanitarian aid organization would clash with a government's approach to the unfolding domestic conflict. In such cases, humanitarian aid organizations have sought out autonomy to extend help regardless of political or ethnic affiliation. Humanitarian medical aid as a sector possesses several limitations. First, multiple organizations often exist to solve the same problem. Rather than collaborating to address

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1476-650: A logistics miracle. As the buildup continued in Southeast Asia, on 1 January 1963, the agency acquired Army general depots at Columbus, Ohio, and Tracy, California , and the Navy depot at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania . Acquisition of Army depots at Memphis, Tennessee , and Ogden, Utah , on January 1, 1964, completed the DSA depot network. In addition to the depot mission, the agency became responsible for administering most Defense contracts—both those awarded by DSA and by

1599-699: A major logistics role previously performed by the military services. The reorganization, move to electronic commerce, and other changes in the 1990s better positioned the agency to support the war fighter in the next century. In support of Operation Enduring Freedom , DLA processed more than 6.8 million requisitions with a total value of more than $ 6.9 billion; provided $ 21.2 million in humanitarian support (3.5 million pounds of wheat, 49,000 pounds of dates, 3.8 million humanitarian daily rations and 30,000 blankets) and supplied more than 2.3 billion US gallons (8,700,000 m ) of fuel. Also, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, DLA processed 6.4 million requisitions with

1722-437: A natural disaster. Food aid can be provided by importing food from the donor, buying food locally, or providing cash. The welfare impacts of any food aid-induced changes in food prices are decidedly mixed, underscoring the reality that it is impossible to generate only positive intended effects from an international aid program. Food aid that is relatively inappropriate to local uses can distort consumption patterns. Food aid

1845-553: A new activity, was established under the agency in March 1963 to handle storage, repair, and redistribution of idle equipment. By late June 1963 the agency was managing over one million different items in nine supply centers with an estimated inventory of $ 2.5 billion. On July 1, 1965, the Defense Subsistence Supply Center, Defense Clothing Supply Center, and Defense Medical Supply Center were merged to form

1968-768: A perceived dependency syndrome associated with freely distributed food. However, poorly designed FFW programs may cause more risk of harming local production than the benefits of free food distribution. In structurally weak economies, FFW program design is not as simple as determining the appropriate wage rate. Empirical evidence from rural Ethiopia shows that higher-income households had excess labor and thus lower (not higher as expected) value of time, and therefore allocated this labor to FFW schemes in which poorer households could not afford to participate due to labor scarcity. Similarly, FFW programs in Cambodia have shown to be an additional, not alternative, source of employment and that

2091-478: A result of support to the operations in Vietnam, DSA's total procurement soared to $ 4 billion in fiscal year 1966 and $ 6.2 billion in fiscal year 1967. Until the mid-1960s, the demand for food was largely for non-perishables, both canned and dehydrated. But in 1966, thousands of portable walk-in, refrigerated storage boxes filled with perishable beef , eggs , fresh fruits and vegetables began arriving in Vietnam,

2214-709: A result. This was a result of grain food aid inflows increasing the availability of low-cost inputs to the informal distilling industry. Recent research suggests that patterns of food aid distribution may inadvertently affect the natural environment, by changing consumption patterns and by inducing locational change in grazing and other activities. A pair of studies in Northern Kenya found that food aid distribution seems to induce greater spatial concentration of livestock around distribution points, causing localized rangeland degradation, and that food aid provided as whole grain requires more cooking, and thus more fuelwood

2337-550: A separate and completely civilian-managed agency be created with the Defense Department to administer all military common supply and service activities. The military services feared that such an agency would be less responsive to military requirements and jeopardize the success of military operations. Congress, however, remained concerned about the Hoover Commission's indictment of waste and inefficiencies in

2460-608: A single executive, an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Supply and Logistics. Meanwhile, the Korean War led to several investigations by Congress of military supply management, which threatened to impose a common supply service on the military services from the outside. Integrated management began in 1958 with the formation of the Armed Forces Supply Support Center. For the first time, all the military services bought, stored, and issued items using

2583-533: A small portion of their diet. Massive shipments of wheat and rice into the West African Sahel during the food crises of the mid-1970s and mid-1980s were widely believed to stimulate a shift in consumer demand from indigenous coarse grains – millet and sorghum – to western crops such as wheat . During the 2000 drought in northern Kenya , the price of changaa (a locally distilled alcohol) fell significantly and consumption seems to have increased as

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2706-506: A statistically significan large increase in casualties, as compared to other municipalities who were not part of the CDD. as a result, casualties suffered by government forces from insurgent-initiated attacks increased significantly. These results are consistent with other examples of humanitarian aid exacerbating civil conflict. One explanation is that insurgents attempt to sabotage CDD programs for political reasons – successful implementation of

2829-502: A streamlining effort, in 1975, the eleven DCAS regions were reduced to nine. The following year, officials reorganized the DCAS field structure to eliminate the intermediate command supervisory levels known as DCAS districts. As the move to consolidate Defense contracting progressed, a congressional report in 1972 recommended centralizing the disposal of DoD property for better accountability. In response, on September 12, 1972, DSA established

2952-592: A target for armed forces, especially in countries where the ruling government has limited control outside of the capital. Accounts from Somalia in the early 1990s indicate that between 20 to 80 percent of all food aid was stolen, looted, or confiscated. In the former Yugoslavia , the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) lost up to 30 percent of the total value of aid to Serbian armed forces. On top of that 30 percent, bribes were given to Croatian forces to pass their roadblocks in order to reach Bosnia . The value of

3075-498: A task designated as "Project 100." The committee's report highlighted the principal weaknesses of the multiple-single-manager supply system. After much debate among the service chiefs and secretaries, on August 31, 1961, Secretary McNamara announced the establishment of a separate common supply and service agency known as the Defense Supply Agency (DSA). The new agency was formally established on October 1, 1961, under

3198-400: A total value of more than $ 6.89 billion, provided more than 180.5 million field meals, provided nearly 2 million humanitarian daily rations for displaced refugees and supplied more than 3 billion US gallons (11,000,000 m ) of fuel. As action on the war front wanes, the DLA mission does not. The Agency continues to supply 100 percent of food, fuel and medical supplies, as well as most of

3321-485: A vast network of distribution depots within their respective geographic boundaries. They later merged into Defense Distribution Center, New Cumberland . The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process instituted in 1993 significantly affected the way the agency organized for its contract administration and supply distribution missions. As a result of BRAC 1993, officials merged, realigned, or closed several DLA primary-level field activities. Specifically, they closed two of

3444-456: A wide range of services, including but not limited to, the delivery of food, water, shelter, medical care, and protection services, and is delivered amidst challenging and often dangerous conditions, with the goal of reaching those most in need regardless of their location, political affiliation, or status. Aid workers are people who are distributed internationally to do humanitarian aid work. The total number of humanitarian aid workers around

3567-464: Is a major concern for humanitarian actors. To win assent for interventions, aid agencies often espouse the principles of humanitarian impartiality and neutrality . However, gaining secure access often involves negotiation and the practice of humanitarian diplomacy. In the arena of negotiations, humanitarian diplomacy is ostensibly used by humanitarian actors to try to persuade decision makers and leaders to act, at all times and in all circumstances, in

3690-477: Is common. In recent years, a number of concerns have been raised about the mental health of aid workers. The most prevalent issue faced by humanitarian aid workers is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Adjustment to normal life again can be a problem, with feelings such as guilt being caused by the simple knowledge that international aid workers can leave a crisis zone, whilst nationals cannot. A 2015 survey conducted by The Guardian , with aid workers of

3813-485: Is consumed, stimulating local deforestation . There are different kinds of medical humanitarian aid, including: providing medical supplies and equipment; sending professionals to an affected region; and long-term training for local medical staff. Such aid emerged when international organizations stepped in to respond to the need of national governments for global support and partnership to address natural disasters, wars, and other crises that impact people's health. Often,

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3936-622: Is distinct from development aid , which seeks to address underlying socioeconomic factors. Humanitarian aid can come from either local or international communities through international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). In reaching out to international communities, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the United Nations (UN) is responsible for coordination responses to emergencies. It taps to

4059-780: Is ever-increasing and has long outstripped the financial resources available. The Central Emergency Response Fund was created at the 2005 Central Emergency Response Fund at the United Nations General Assembly. Humanitarian aid spans a wide range of activities, including providing food aid, shelter, education, healthcare or protection . The majority of aid is provided in the form of in-kind goods or assistance, with cash and vouchers constituting only 6% of total humanitarian spending. However, evidence has shown how cash transfers can be better for recipients as it gives them choice and control, they can be more cost-efficient and better for local markets and economies. It

4182-693: Is headquartered in Fort Belvoir , Virginia . It contains numerous offices responsible for supporting the overall agency. The agency has several major subordinate activities operating in the field: In addition to the major subordinate activities, six DLA staff elements oversee joint activities for the Defense Department. DLA Acquisition, for example, oversees the Defense National Stockpile Center through DLA Strategic Materials. DLA also operates three full-time organizations embedded with three Combatant Commands (COCOMs) of

4305-470: Is important to note that humanitarian aid is not only delivered through aid workers sent by bilateral, multilateral or intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations. Actors like the affected people themselves, civil society, local informal first-responders, civil society, the diaspora, businesses, local governments, military, local and international non-governmental organizations all play

4428-532: Is increasingly international, making it much faster, more responsive, and more effective in coping to major emergencies affecting large numbers of people (e.g. see Central Emergency Response Fund ). The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) coordinates the international humanitarian response to a crisis or emergency pursuant to Resolution 46/182 of the United Nations General Assembly . The need for aid

4551-828: Is no clear consensus on the trade-offs between speed and control, especially in emergency situations when the humanitarian imperative of saving lives and alleviating suffering may conflict with the time and resources required to minimise corruption risks. Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have highlighted the need to tackle corruption with, but not limited to, the following methods: Reports of sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian response have been reported following humanitarian interventions in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in 2002, in Central African Republic and in

4674-786: Is not available. Defense Logistics Agency The Defense Logistics Agency ( DLA ) is a combat support agency in the United States Department of Defense (DoD) . The agency is staffed by more than 26,000 civilian and military personnel throughout the world. Located in 48 states and 28 countries, DLA provides supplies to the military services and supports their acquisition of weapons, fuel, repair parts, and other materials. The agency also disposes of excess or unusable equipment through various programs. Through other U.S. federal agencies , DLA also provides relief supplies to victims of natural disasters and humanitarian aid to refugees and internally displaced persons . DLA

4797-404: Is thus important for humanitarian actors, such as the United Nations, to include challenges specific to women in their humanitarian response. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee provides guidelines for humanitarian actors on how be inclusive of gender as a factor when delivering humanitarian aid. It recommends agencies to collect data disaggregated by sex and age to better understand which group of

4920-516: Is to save lives, alleviate suffering , and maintain human dignity . While often used interchangeably, humanitarian aid and humanitarian assistance are distinct concepts. Humanitarian aid generally refers to the provision of immediate, short-term relief in crisis situations, such as food, water, shelter, and medical care. Humanitarian assistance, on the other hand, encompasses a broader range of activities, including longer-term support for recovery, rehabilitation, and capacity building. Humanitarian aid

5043-415: Is usually exported from temperate climate zones and is often different than the staple crops grown in recipient countries, which usually have a tropical climate . The logic of food export inherently entails some effort to change consumers' preferences, to introduce recipients to new foods and thereby stimulate demand for foods with which recipients were previously unfamiliar or which otherwise represent only

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5166-585: The Army and Navy for each commodity were collocated. After the war, the call grew louder for more complete coordination throughout the whole field of supply—including storage, distribution, transportation, and other aspects of supply. In 1947, there were seven supply systems in the Army, plus an Air Technical Service Command, and 18 systems in the Navy, including the quartermaster of the Marine Corps . Passage of

5289-568: The Gulf Coast . In 2017, DLA assisted the FEMA in providing supplies and personnel to support relief to Americans affected by Hurricanes Harvey , Irma and Maria . Humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homeless , refugees , and victims of natural disasters , wars, and famines. The primary objective of humanitarian aid

5412-877: The Joint Meritorious Unit Award (JMUA) in 1991. DLA support continued in the Middle East long after most U.S. forces had redeployed. As part of Operation Provide Comfort , in April 1991 the agency provided over $ 68 million of food, clothing, textiles, and medical supplies to support a major land and air relief operation designed to aid refugees—mostly Kurds in Iraq. DLA supported other contingency operations as well. In October 1994 DLA deployed an initial element to support operations in Haiti and established its first Contingency Support Team. In December 1995,

5535-661: The National Security Act of 1947 prompted new efforts to eliminate duplication and overlap among the services in the supply area and laid the foundation for the eventual creation of a single integrated supply agency. The act created the Munitions Board , which began to reorganize these major supply categories into joint procurement agencies. Meanwhile, in 1949, the Commission on the Organization of

5658-575: The U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of State , as well as the COCOMs of the U.S. military (e.g., U.S. Southern Command ). In 2005, DLA's domestic disaster support amounted to $ 409 million, with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita relief commanding the vast majority of the resources. As Hurricane Katrina began developing into a Category 5 hurricane, DLA prepared to step in, directing command and control functions through

5781-745: The United States Census Bureau declared that the accuracy of the 2020 census was at risk because deployed troops will be counted as residents of the stateside military installations where they're usually stationed (which will give a serious boost of residents in North Carolina, Kentucky, and other states with major military infrastructure). However, since the November 2017 data glitch, the DMDC cannot release anymore data on temporarily deployed service members, making it impossible for

5904-540: The 1980s, and the prevention of relief aid in the Tigray War of 2020–2021 by the Abiy Ahmed Ali regime of Ethiopia was again widely condemned. Humanitarian aid in conflict zones is the provision of emergency assistance and support to individuals and communities affected by armed conflict, with the aim of alleviating suffering, maintaining human dignity, and preserving life. This type of aid encompasses

6027-525: The 1990s and 2000s. In 2017, the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD) documented 139 humanitarian workers killed in intentional attacks out of the estimated global population of 569,700 workers. In every year since 2013, more than 100 humanitarian workers were killed. This is attributed to a number of factors, including the increasing number of humanitarian workers deployed, the increasingly unstable environments in which they work, and

6150-1024: The 1990s the agency continued its effort to eliminate managerial and stockage duplication, reducing overhead costs. In April 1990 Secretary Cheney directed that all the distribution depots of the military services and DLA be consolidated into a single, unified materiel distribution system to reduce overhead and costs and designated DLA to manage it. The consolidation began in October 1990 and was completed March 16, 1992. The system consisted of 30 depots at 32 sites with 62 storage locations, which stored over 8.7 million spare parts, subsistence, and other consumable items worth $ 127 billion in 788 million square feet (73 km²) of storage. Until September 1997, two regional offices—Defense Distribution Region East (DDRE) in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania , and Defense Distribution Region West (DDRW) in Stockton, California , managed

6273-743: The Army Civilian Police Academy (ACPA) (in Missouri ) and then further on-the-job training. During the first year, officers have 11 weeks of intensive training in the Uniformed Police Training Program (UPTP) (provided by the FLETC), or a 9-week course at the ACPA. Then, after graduation from FLETC, officers will continue to develop skills through additional in-service training. DLA Police Officers wear

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6396-472: The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, along with nearly 800 reservists. Two DLA civilian employees have been killed by hostile fire while deployed in theater as volunteers. On Sept. 16, 2014, DLA employee Stephen Byus, 39, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, was killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul. On June 8, 2015, DLA employee Krissie Davis, 54, of Talladega, Alabama, was killed in a rocket attack on Bagram Airfield . In

6519-840: The DLA Logistics Operations Center. It deployed about 19 people to work positions in support of hurricane relief efforts. The response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was massive, and it spotlighted DLA's continuing, if increasing, role in domestic storm relief. DLA provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with MREs and other supplies for evacuees and personnel fighting the October 2007 California wildfires . In 2008, DLA provided humanitarian supplies in support of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike relief efforts in Texas and along

6642-739: The Defense Electronics Supply Center in 1979 and began stocking electronic material at depots closer to the using military activities. The Defense Industrial Plant Equipment Center was phased out in the late 1980s when responsibility for managing the Defense Department's reserve of industrial plant equipment was transferred to the Defense General Supply Center in Richmond, Virginia. Another major mission came in July 1988 when, by presidential order,

6765-1093: The Defense Personnel Support Center in Philadelphia. The DSA was tested almost immediately with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the military buildup in Vietnam . Supporting U.S. forces in Vietnam was the most severe, extensive test of the supply system in the young agency's history. The agency launched an accelerated procurement program to meet the extra demand created by the military buildup in Southeast Asia . The agency's supply centers responded in record time to orders for everything from boots and lightweight tropical uniforms to food, sandbags , construction materials, and petroleum products. Between 1965 and 1969 over 22 million short tons of dry cargo and over 14 million short tons of bulk petroleum were transported to Vietnam. As

6888-950: The Defense Property Disposal Service (later renamed the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service) at the Michigan Battle Creek Federal Center , (now renamed the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center) as a primary-level field activity. During 1972 and 1973, the agency's responsibilities extended overseas when it assumed responsibility for defense overseas property disposal operations and worldwide procurement, management, and distribution of coal and bulk petroleum products (1972), and worldwide management of food items for troop feeding and in support of commissaries (1973). One dramatic example of

7011-577: The Democratic Republic of the Congo. 2021 reporting on a Racial Equity Index report indicated that just under two-thirds of aid workers have experienced racism and 98% of survey respondents witnessed racism. Countries or war parties that prevent humanitarian relief are generally under unanimous criticism. Such was the case for the Derg regime, preventing relief to the population of Tigray in

7134-547: The Department of Defense (DoD) or the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) access to several websites using a single username and password. A DS Logon supports the Personnel Identity Protection (PIP) Directive and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) e-Authentication guidance providing a high level of authentication assurance in situations where Common Access Card (CAC) authentication

7257-417: The Department of Defense allowed 16 million discharged veterans to shop online for discounted military exchange products (effective November 2017). The DMDC was put in charge of creating an application to verify veteran's identities online with the database of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs . In November 2017, different government entities, including the DMDC, gave different numbers regarding

7380-843: The DoD to operate more efficiently. Meanwhile, DLA headquarters underwent a major reorganization. In March 1993, the agency re-engineered its headquarters to form integrated business units for Supply Management, Distribution, and Contract Management. As a result, only 6 organizations, rather than 42, would report directly to the Director. In 1995 the DLA headquarters and Defense Fuel Supply Center (renamed Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) in January 1998) moved from Cameron Station to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In October 1996, Defense Printing Services, renamed Defense Automated Printing Service (DAPS), transferred to DLA. In late December 1997 and early January 1998,

7503-659: The Executive Branch of the Government ( Hoover Commission ), a presidential commission headed by former President Herbert Hoover , recommended that the National Security Act be specifically amended so as to strengthen the authority of the Secretary of Defense so that he could integrate the organization and procedures of the various phases of supply in the military services. The Munitions Board

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7626-471: The Global Development Professionals Network, revealed that 79 percent experienced mental health issues. Humanitarian aid workers belonging to United Nations organisations, PVOs / NGOs or the Red Cross / Red Crescent are among the list of protected persons under international humanitarian law that grant them immunity from attack by belligerent parties. However, attacks on humanitarian workers have occasionally occurred, and become more frequent since

7749-541: The Lendu (opposition of Hema). Humanitarian aid workers have acknowledged the threat of stolen aid and have developed strategies for minimizing the amount of theft en route. However, aid can fuel conflict even if successfully delivered to the intended population as the recipient populations often include members of rebel groups or militia groups , or aid is "taxed" by such groups. Academic research emphatically demonstrates that on average food aid promotes civil conflict. Namely, increase in US food aid leads to an increase in

7872-420: The Nigeria-Biafra civil war in the late 1960s, where the rebel leader Odumegwu Ojukwu only allowed aid to enter the region of Biafra if it was shipped on his planes. These shipments of humanitarian aid helped the rebel leader to circumvent the siege on Biafra placed by the Nigerian government. These stolen shipments of humanitarian aid caused the Biafran civil war to last years longer than it would have without

7995-474: The Surplus Personal Property Disposal Program. During the first six months, two additional single managers—the Defense Industrial Supply Center in Philadelphia and the Defense Automotive Supply Center in Detroit , Michigan —came under DSA control, as did the Defense Electronic Supply Center, Dayton , Ohio. By July 1, 1962, the agency included 11 field organizations, employed 16,500 people, and managed 45 facilities. The Defense Industrial Plant Equipment Center ,

8118-425: The Total Force Policy was being initiated, and the All-Volunteer Force era had just begun. To manage through this period, OASD (M&RA) established DMDC to collect and maintain accurate, readily available manpower and personnel data. In October 2016, the Department of Defense launched an anonymous survey conducted by the DMDC to collect testimonies of sexual assault among the US military personnel. In January 2017,

8241-459: The U.S. military: DLA CENTCOM & SOCOM, DLA Europe & Africa, and DLA Indo-Pacific. DLA has its own police department that provides police services (patrol, minor investigations, traffic enforcement) physical security, emergency response, access control, alarm response and counter-terrorism protection. DLA Police Officers are federal police officers who were trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre (FLETC) (in Georgia ) or at

8364-494: The US Census Bureau to apply this new statistics policy. The mission of DMDC can be summarized as follows: A workplace shooting took place at the DoD Center Monterey Bay, located on the former Fort Ord in June 1997, resulting in the death of a DMDC employee and the wounding of another. DS Logon (DoD Self-service Logon or DSL) is a secure, self-service logon ID created by the Defense Manpower Data Center as an enterprise identity credential that allows individuals affiliated with

8487-573: The United States food aid promoted civil conflict in recipient countries on average. An increase in United States' wheat aid increased the duration of armed civil conflicts in recipient countries, and ethnic polarization heightened this effect. However, since academic research on aid and conflict focuses on the role of aid in post-conflict settings, the aforementioned finding is difficult to contextualize. Nevertheless, research on Iraq shows that "small-scale [projects], local aid spending ... reduces conflict by creating incentives for average citizens to support

8610-416: The aftermath of earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters, DLA supports other U.S. federal agencies with supplies and personnel as requested. For domestic disasters, DLA supports the Federal Emergency Management Agency , the U.S. Forest Service (to support wilderness firefighting), the U.S. Coast Guard , and others. For disasters affecting other countries, DLA primarily supports

8733-458: The agency assumed management of the nation's stockpile of strategic materials from the General Services Administration. Soon after, DLA established the Defense National Stockpile Center as a primary-level field activity. In 1989, the military services were directed to transfer one million consumable items to DLA for management. The 1980s brought other changes as well. On October 1, 1986, the Goldwater-Nichols Reorganization Act identified DLA as

8856-510: The agency established the Defense Contract Management Command (DCMC) , absorbing its Defense Contract Administration Services into the new command. The military services retained responsibility for contracts covering shipbuilding and ammunition plants. In June, however, the services’ responsibility (5,400 personnel and 100,000 contracts valued at $ 400 million) for managing the majority of weapons systems contracts

8979-720: The agency formally began operations on January 1, 1962, it controlled six commodity-type and two service-type single managers: Defense Clothing & Textile Supply Center, (formerly the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot ); Defense Construction Supply Center , Columbus, Ohio ; Defense General Supply Center , Richmond, Virginia ; Defense Medical Supply Center, Brooklyn, New York ; Defense Petroleum Supply Center, Washington, D.C.; Defense Subsistence Supply Center, Chicago , Illinois ; Defense Traffic Management Service, Washington, D.C.; and Defense Logistics Services Center, Washington, D.C. Officials estimated that

9102-476: The agency had expanded from an agency that administered a handful of single manager supply agencies to one that had a dominant role in logistics functions throughout the Defense Department. In recognition of 16 years of growth and greatly expanded responsibilities, on January 1, 1977, officials changed the name of the Defense Supply Agency to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The next decade

9225-561: The agency's overseas support role was during the Middle East crisis in October 1973 when it was called upon to deliver, on an urgent basis, a wide range of vitally needed military equipment. Responsibilities for subsistence management were expanded in 1976 and 1977 with improvements required in the current wholesale management system and the assumption of major responsibilities in the DoD Food Service Program. By 1977,

9348-465: The aid, claim experts. The most well-known instances of aid being seized by local warlords in recent years come from Somalia , where food aid is funneled to the Shabab, a Somali militant group that controls much of Southern Somalia. Moreover, reports reveal that Somali contractors for aid agencies have formed a cartel and act as important power brokers, arming opposition groups with the profits made from

9471-440: The clothing, construction materials, and spare parts for weapons systems for the forces that remain during the reconstruction of Iraq. DLA also supports redeployments, including conducting battlefield cleanup such as removing equipment and debris and even hazardous materials. DLA did so while employing only 26,000 people, down from 65,000 workers in 1992. The Agency's military force includes slightly more than 500 on active duty with

9594-545: The command of Lieutenant General Andrew T. McNamara (no relation to Robert McNamara). McNamara, an energetic and experienced Army logistician who had served as Quartermaster General , rapidly pulled together a small staff and set up operations in the worn Munitions Building in Washington, D.C. A short time later, he moved his staff into more suitable facilities at Cameron Station in Alexandria, Virginia . When

9717-672: The consolidation of these functions under DSA and subsequent unified operations would allow them to reduce the workforce by 3,300 people and save more than $ 30 million each year. The results far exceeded these expectations. The agency, made up primarily of civilians but with military from all the services, would administer the Federal Catalog Program, the Defense Standardization Program, the Defense Utilization Program, and

9840-780: The effort to support the deployment to the Middle East and later the war. In those first critical months, most of the supplies transported to Saudi Arabia —from bread to boots, from nerve gas antidote to jet fuel—came from DLA stock. During this operation and the subsequent Operation Desert Storm , the agency provided the military services with over $ 3 billion of food, clothing, textiles, medical supplies, and weapons system repair parts in response to over 2 million requisitions. The mission execution included providing supply support, contract management, and technical and logistics services to all military services, unified commands, and several allied nations. The quality of supply support that DLA provided American combat forces during these operations earned it

9963-417: The erosion of the perception of neutrality and independence. In 2012 road travel was seen to be the most dangerous context, with kidnappings of aid workers quadrupling in the last decade, reaching more aid workers victims than any other form of attack. The humanitarian community has initiated a number of interagency initiatives to improve accountability, quality and performance in humanitarian action. Four of

10086-435: The estimated global humanitarian response requirements amount to approximately US$ 46.4 billion, targeting around 188 million of the most vulnerable people in 69 countries. The three major drivers of humanitarian needs worldwide are conflicts, climate-related disasters, and economic factors. Food aid is a type of aid whereby food that is given to countries in urgent need of food supplies, especially if they have just experienced

10209-569: The first element of a DLA Contingency Support Team deployed to Hungary to coordinate the delivery of needed agency supplies and services to U.S. military units deployed in Bosnia and other NATO forces. Closer to home, the agency supported relief efforts after Hurricane Andrew in Florida (1992) and Hurricane Marilyn in the U.S. Virgin Islands (1995). An even more dominant theme for the 1990s

10332-491: The five contract management districts and Defense Electronics Supply Center. Defense Distribution Depot Charleston , Defense Distribution Depot Oakland , and the Tooele Facility, Defense Distribution Depot Ogden, Utah , were disestablished. Defense General Supply Center became Defense Supply Center, Richmond . In response to BRAC 1993, in 1996 officials merged the former Defense Construction Supply Center Columbus and

10455-418: The former Defense Electronic Supply Center Dayton to form Defense Supply Center Columbus. On July 3, 1999, Defense Industrial Supply Center was disestablished and merged with Defense Personnel Support Center (DPSC) to form the new Defense Supply Center Philadelphia. Also on March 27, 2000, Defense Contract Management Command was renamed Defense Contract Management Agency and established as a separate agency within

10578-600: The goal of which is to ensure migrants and refugees retain access to basic goods and services and the labour market. Basic needs, including access to shelter, clean water, and child protection, are supplemented by the UN's efforts to facilitate social integration and legal regularization for displaced individuals. Since the 2010 Haiti Earthquake , the institutional and operational focus of humanitarian aid has been on leveraging technology to enhance humanitarian action, ensuring that more formal relationships are established, and improving

10701-416: The government in subtle ways." Similarly, another study also shows that aid flows can "reduce conflict because increasing aid revenues can relax government budget constraints, which can [in return] increase military spending and deter opposing groups from engaging in conflict." Thus, the impact of humanitarian aid on conflict may vary depending upon the type and mode in which aid is received, and, inter alia,

10824-595: The headquarters was again realigned, and the agency's Defense Materiel Management Directorate became Defense Logistics Support Command under Rear Admiral David P. Keller. In November 1995, DLA launched a $ 1 billion project called the Business Systems Modernization program (BSM) to replace the Defense Department's cache of aging procurement software programs with a DoD-wide standard automated procurement system that supported electronic commerce. The EMall (electronic mall) approach to ordering supplies

10947-700: The implementation of the Defense Management Review decisions, DLA assumed some of the military services’ responsibilities, such as inventory management and distribution functions. A Defense Management Review-directed study recommended the consolidation of DoD contract management. Although DLA had received responsibility for administering most defense contracts in 1965, the military services had retained responsibility for administering most major weapons systems and overseas contracts. On February 6, 1990, DoD directed that virtually all contract administration functions be consolidated within DLA. In response,

11070-586: The incidence of armed civil conflict in the recipient country. Another correlation demonstrated is food aid prolonging existing conflicts, specifically among countries with a recent history of civil conflict. However, this does not find an effect on conflict in countries without a recent history of civil conflict. Moreover, different types of international aid other than food which is easily stolen during its delivery, namely technical assistance and cash transfers, can have different effects on civil conflict. Community-driven development (CDD) programs have become one of

11193-517: The interaction between formal humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and informal volunteer and technological communities known as digital humanitarians . The recent rise in Big Data , high-resolution satellite imagery and new platforms powered by advanced computing have already prompted the development of crisis mapping to help humanitarian organizations make sense of

11316-484: The interest of vulnerable people and with full respect for fundamental humanitarian principles . However, humanitarian diplomacy is also used by state actors as part of their foreign policy. The UN implements a multifaceted approach to assist migrants and refugees throughout their relocation process. This includes children's integration into the local education system, food security, and access to health services. The approach also encompasses humanitarian transportation,

11439-424: The local socio-economic, cultural, historical, geographical and political conditions in the recipient countries. International aid organizations identify theft by armed forces on the ground as a primary unintended consequence through which food aid and other types of humanitarian aid promote conflict. Food aid usually has to be transported across large geographic territories and during the transportation it becomes

11562-611: The military services and the unified and specified commands). Further implementation of reorganization recommendations, especially from the Goldwater-Nichols Act, resulted from Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney ’s Defense Management Review report to the President in July 1989. The report emphasized improving management efficiencies in the Defense Department by "cutting excess infrastructure, eliminating redundant functions and initiating common business practices". After

11685-439: The military services since World War II. The Defense Cataloging and Standardization Act led to the creation of the first Federal Catalog, completed in 1956. The federal catalog system provided an organized and systematic approach for describing an item of supply, assigning and recording a unique identifying number, and providing information on the item to the system's users. The initial catalog, containing about 3.5 million items,

11808-527: The military services. In 1965, the Defense Department consolidated most of the contract administration activities of the military services to avoid duplication of effort and provide uniform procedures in administering contracts. Officials established the Defense Contract Administration Services (DCAS) within DSA to manage the consolidated functions. The agency's new contract administration mission gave it responsibility for

11931-437: The military services. To avoid having Congress take the matter away from the military entirely, DoD reversed its position. The solution proposed and approved by the Secretary of Defense was to appoint "single managers" for a selected group of common supply and service activities. Under a Defense directive approved by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Supply and Logistics, the Secretary of Defense would formally appoint one of

12054-513: The most popular tools for delivering development aid. In 2012, the World Bank supported 400 CDD programs in 94 countries, valued at US$ 30 billion. Academic research scrutinizes the effect of community-driven development programs on civil conflict. The Philippines ' flagship development program KALAHI-CIDSS is concluded to have led to an increase in violent conflict in the country. After the program's initiation, some municipalities experienced

12177-698: The most widely known initiatives are, ALNAP, the CHS Alliance , the Sphere Project and the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS). Representatives of these initiatives began meeting together on a regular basis in 2003 in order to share common issues and harmonise activities where possible. The Sphere Project handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, which

12300-502: The performance of most defense contractors, including some new weapon systems and their components. Yet, the services retained contract administration of state-of-the-art weapon systems. The expanded contract administration mission significantly altered the shape of DSA. The agency that had begun operations three years earlier with more than 90 percent of its resources devoted to supply operations had evolved to one almost evenly divided between supply support and logistics services. As part of

12423-423: The population is in need of what type of aid. In recent years, the United Nations have been using sex and age disaggregated data more and more, consulting with gender specialists. In the assessment phase, several UN agencies meet to compile data and work on a humanitarian response plan. Throughout the plans. women specific challenges are listed and sex and age disaggregated data are used so when they deliver aid to

12546-469: The producers are not themselves beneficiaries of food aid. Unintentional harm occurs when food aid arrives or is purchased at the wrong time, when food aid distribution is not well-targeted to food-insecure households, and when the local market is relatively poorly integrated with broader national, regional and global markets. Food aid can drive down local or national food prices in at least three ways. Beyond labor disincentive effects , food aid can have

12669-457: The recipient countries. Aid stealing is one of the prime ways in which conflict is promoted by humanitarian aid. Aid can be seized by armed groups, and even if it does reach the intended recipients, "it is difficult to exclude local members of a local militia group from being direct recipients if they are also malnourished and qualify to receive aid." Furthermore, analyzing the relationship between conflict and food aid, recent research shows that

12792-400: The services to adopt the same standard items. Over a six-year period, the single manager agencies reduced their item assignments by about 9,000, or 20 percent, and their inventories by about $ 800 million, or 30 percent. Proposals were soon made to extend this concept to other commodities. The single manager concept was the most significant advance toward integrated supply management within DoD or

12915-524: The stolen aid" Rwandan government appropriation of food aid in the early 1990s was so problematic that aid shipments were canceled multiple times. In Zimbabwe in 2003, Human Rights Watch documented examples of residents being forced to display ZANU-PF Party membership cards before being given government food aid. In eastern Zaire , leaders of the Hema ethnic group allowed the arrival of international aid organizations only upon agreement not give aid to

13038-574: The stolen or lost provisions can exceed the value of the food aid alone since convoy vehicles and telecommunication equipment are also stolen. MSF Holland, international aid organization operating in Chad and Darfur , underscored the strategic importance of these goods, stating that these "vehicles and communications equipment have a value beyond their monetary worth for armed actors, increasing their capacity to wage war" A famous instance of humanitarian aid unintentionally helping rebel groups occurred during

13161-472: The three service secretaries as single manager for selected group of commodities or common service activities. The Army managed food and clothing; the Navy managed medical supplies, petroleum, and industrial parts; and the Air Force managed electronic items. In each category, the single manager was able to reduce his investment by centralizing wholesale stocks, and to simplify the supply process by persuading

13284-561: The troops in Syria (from 503 to more than 2,000). As a result, in its April 2018 quarterly report, the Pentagon removed the troops numbers in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. The DMDC was supposedly «updating their policy for these reports» and committed to provide these numbers retroactively. The next month, the Pentagon declared there were more than 44,000 US troops around the globe that the DMDC could not track precisely. Following up on this issue,

13407-542: The uniform procedures that the Hoover Commission had recommended. Each single manager operated under the procedures of its parent service, and customers had to use as many sets of procedures as there were commodity managers. Secretary McNamara was convinced that the problem required some kind of an organizational arrangement to "manage the managers". On March 23, 1961, he convened a panel of high-ranking Defense officials, and directed them to study alternative plans for improving DOD-wide organization for integrated supply management,

13530-501: The unintended consequence of discouraging household-level production. Poor timing of aid and FFW wages that are above market rates cause negative dependency by diverting labor from local private uses, particularly if FFW obligations decrease labor on a household's own enterprises during a critical part of the production cycle. This type of disincentive impacts not only food aid recipients but also producers who sell to areas receiving food aid flows. FFW programs are often used to counter

13653-870: The various members of Inter-Agency Standing Committee , whose members are responsible for providing emergency relief. The four UN entities that have primary roles in delivering humanitarian aid are United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). According to the Global Humanitarian Overview of OCHA, nearly 300 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2024, or 1 out of 27 people worldwide. In 2024,

13776-719: The vast volume and velocity of information generated during disasters. For example, crowdsourcing maps (such as OpenStreetMap ) and social media messages in Twitter were used during the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and Hurricane Sandy to trace leads of missing people, infrastructure damages and raise new alerts for emergencies. Even prior to a humanitarian crisis , gender differences exist. Women have limited access to paid work , are at risk of child marriage , and are more exposed to Gender based violence , such as rape and domestic abuse. Conflict and natural disasters exacerbate women's vulnerabilities. When delivering humanitarian aid, it

13899-430: The very poor rarely participate due to labor constraints. In addition to post-conflict settings, a large portion of aid is often directed at countries currently undergoing conflicts. However, the effectiveness of humanitarian aid, particularly food aid, in conflict-prone regions has been criticized in recent years. There have been accounts of humanitarian aid being not only inefficacious but actually fuelling conflicts in

14022-744: The world has been calculated by ALNAP , a network of agencies working in the Humanitarian System, as 210,800 in 2008. This is made up of roughly 50% from NGOs, 25% from the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement and 25% from the UN system. In 2010, it was reported that the humanitarian fieldworker population increased by approximately 6% per year over the previous 10 years. Aid workers are exposed to tough conditions and have to be flexible, resilient, and responsible in an environment that humans are not psychologically supposed to deal with, in such severe conditions that trauma

14145-516: Was a period of continued change and expanded missions. Officials published a revised agency charter in June 1978. Major revisions included a change in reporting channels directed by the Secretary of Defense which placed the agency under the management, direction, and control of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, and Logistics. As part of various organizational changes during this period, officials eliminated depot operations at

14268-505: Was a rough draft, full of duplications and errors, but it effectively highlighted the areas where standardization was feasible and necessary. When Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara assumed office in the spring of 1961, the first generation of single managers were handling roughly 39,000 items by procedures with which the Services had become familiar. Yet, it was clear that the single manager concept, though successful, did not provide

14391-603: Was designated a Defense Support Activity supported by DLA. While the name and the supporting activity have varied over the years, DMDC's primary function has always been to support the information management needs of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness (OUSD (P&R)) and its predecessors. DMDC was established at a time of great turbulence in the Department of Defense. The Vietnam War had just ended, active military forces and military personnel strengths were being reduced significantly,

14514-477: Was developed in 1993, before many organizations were using the internet for electronic commerce. In 1996 the agency received a JMUA for saving DoD and the taxpayer $ 6.3 billion by using EMall but a 2004 GAO report questioned the value of the program. Since its establishment in 1961, the agency has successfully standardized, procured, managed, and distributed DoD consumable items throughout the military services, thus eliminating wasteful duplication. The agency assumed

14637-550: Was lost to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Non-governmental organizations have in recent years made great efforts to increase participation, accountability and transparency in dealing with aid, yet humanitarian assistance remains a poorly understood process to those meant to be receiving it—much greater investment needs to be made into researching and investing in relevant and effective accountability systems. However, there

14760-548: Was not as successful as hoped in eliminating duplication among the services in the supply area. Congress became disenchanted with the board, and in the Defense Cataloging and Standardization Act of 1952 , transferred the board's functions to a new Defense Supply Management Agency. The Eisenhower Reorganization Plan Number 6 (1953) abolished both this agency and the Munitions Board, replacing them with

14883-736: Was produced by a coalition of leading non-governmental humanitarian agencies, lists the following principles of humanitarian action: Another humanitarian standard used is the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS). It was approved by the CHS Technical Advisory Group in 2014, and has since been endorsed by many humanitarian actors such as "the Boards of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP), People in Aid and

15006-634: Was the agency's efforts to reorganize so that it could support the war fighter more effectively and efficiently. In August 1990, Defense Contract Management Regions Atlanta , Boston , Chicago, Los Angeles , and Philadelphia were re-designated as Defense Contract Management Districts South, Northeast, North Central, West, and Mid Atlantic respectively. Defense Contract Management Regions Cleveland , Dallas , New York City , and St. Louis were disestablished. Defense Contract Management Districts Mid Atlantic and North Central were disestablished in May 1994. Throughout

15129-547: Was transferred to the Defense Contract Management Command. During the 1990s, the agency's role in supporting military contingencies and humanitarian assistance operations grew dramatically. Operation Desert Shield began in August 1990 in response to an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait . Soon after President George Bush announced the involvement of the U.S. military, the agency was at the center of

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