Editing Humanitarian aid (section)

=== Medical humanitarian aid ===
[[File:Development assistance allocated to health causes, OWID.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Global medical aid by cause (2017, [[OWID]])]]
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.<ref name="Buse-2011">{{Cite journal |last1=Buse |first1=Kent |last2=Tanaka |first2=Sonja |date=2011-08-01 |title=Global Public-Private Health Partnerships: lessons learned from ten years of experience and evaluation |journal=International Dental Journal |series=Live.Learn.Laugh. A Unique Global Public-Private Partnership to Improve Oral Health |language=en |volume=61 |issue=Suppl 2 |pages=2–10 |doi=10.1111/j.1875-595X.2011.00034.x |issn=0020-6539 |pmc=9374971 |pmid=21770935}}</ref> Often, 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.<ref name="Buse-2011" />

==== Limitations ====
Humanitarian medical aid as a sector possesses several limitations. First, multiple organizations often exist to solve the same problem. Rather than collaborating to address a given situation, organizations frequently interact as competitors, which creates bottlenecks for treatment and supplies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hunt |first1=Matthew |last2=Miao |first2=Jingru |date=April 2017 |title=Moral Entanglement and the Ethics of Closing Humanitarian Medical Aid Projects |journal=Prehospital and Disaster Medicine |language=en |volume=32 |issue=S1 |pages=S47–S48 |doi=10.1017/S1049023X17001376 |s2cid=157630210 |issn=1049-023X|doi-access=free }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fourie |first=Carina |date=2018-05-15 |title=The trouble with inequalities in global health partnerships |url=http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/4856 |journal=Medicine Anthropology Theory |language=en |volume=5 |issue=2 |doi=10.17157/mat.5.2.525 |s2cid=139190114 |issn=2405-691X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Finally, humanitarian medical aid assumes a biomedical approach which does not always account for the alternative beliefs and practices about health and well-being in the affected regions.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Khalikova |first=Venera |date=2021-06-17 |title=Medical pluralism |url=https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/medical-pluralism |encyclopedia=[[Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology]] |doi=10.29164/21medplural |language=en|doi-access=free }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jammihal |first1=Ravindra |last2=Ralte |first2=Harry |last3=Roy |first3=Nobhojit |date=February 2009 |title=Humanitarian Medical Aid to Developing Nations: A Recipient Country's Perspective |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/listing?q=Recipient+Country%27s+Perspective&searchWithinIds=5827EB647E0D2120933D43CC884BF7EA&fts=yes |journal=Prehospital and Disaster Medicine |volume=24 |issue=S1}}</ref> Discovering ways of encouraging locals to embrace bio-medicinal approaches while simultaneously respecting 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}