Abstract

The main objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Rescue Interventions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Douala. Specifically, the study sought to determine the role of Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Rescue Interventions of IDPs in Douala; to assess the effectiveness of Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Rescue Interventions of IDPs in Douala; and to determine the challenges faced by Organisations when cooperating in rescue interventions of IDPs in Douala and propose possible solutions using best practices.

Using both qualitative and quantitative approach, this study made use of both primary and secondary data. 20 rescue organisations were used and 10 staff per organisation was given questionnaires making a total sample of 200.

After data was collected, it was coded and analysed using SPSS version 20. Data was analysed descriptively using tables and charts and findings revealed that organisations are more effective in carryout task when they cooperate together. This study therefore reveals that cooperation is essential among organisations for the rescue of internally displaced persons in Douala.

The study has proven that when organisations cooperate, they can achieve more as cooperation was seen to save time and other resources. Thereby organisations need to continue to cooperate as it is a better way to respond to the needs of a wide number of internally displaced persons in Douala.

Recommendations such as Staffs should be properly trained and educated on their responsibilities before allocating tasks were made.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background to the Study

The globe is awash with disasters, they range from natural disasters namely volcanoes, earthquake, floods, tsunamis and man-made amongst which chemical spills, transport accidents and conflicts. All these are found and are occurring in all corners of the world but with different frequencies and intensities.

Nowadays, man-made and natural disasters happen more frequently in comparison to one hundred years ago (EM-DAT, 2013). In 2010, around 385 different disasters struck worldwide, causing total economic damage valued at USD 123.9 billion, and affecting over 217 million people (Guha-Sapir et al., 2011).

In the following year, tens of millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees were reported (Gilmann, 2010; OCHA, 2012). Existing literature also estimates that the number of disasters will multiply five-fold over the next 50 years, because of global warming and rapid urban expansion, placing people and assets at greater risk (Thomas & Kopczak, 2005).

In response to the diversity and intensity of disasters, the humanitarian system, with its excess of humanitarian organisations, all with various agendas, have revealed the importance of delivering the right aid to the right people at the right place quickly to alleviate unnecessary distress particularly for the survival of displaced persons and communities (Thomas & Kopczak, 2005; Chandra, 2006; European Commission, 2008).

For this reason, collaboration is increasingly playing an important role in humanitarian response driven by the need to jointly mobilize and connect assets and resources to achieve self-sufficiency and sustainable development (Torres-Rahman, et al, 2015).

Walter and Petr (2000) observe that collaboration is commonly understood as “working together”. They equally maintain that the terms cooperation, coordination, and collaboration are often used interchangeably and have offered distinctions among these concepts. (Weiner and Ray, 2000). Most human services administrators, interventionists, and an array of public servants like Michael Lipsey (1980) attest that they commonly encounter the term “collaboration” in their work.

On the other hand, Inter-organizational collaboration is promoted as a rational and effective process through which the public expectation for accountability, results, and outcomes from human service organizations can be met (Alaszewski & Harrision, 1988).

Hassett and Austin (1997) and Neugeboren (1990) note that collaboration and coordination in human services reflects a history of reform efforts to achieve “service integration.” (Harbert, et al, 1997) maintain that “interagency service coordination, integration, or collaboration are general concepts used to describe a variety of efforts to reform the existing delivery system of categorical social services” informed by the Social Security Act.

As the complexity of social and societal problems increases, the need for collaboration becomes more urgent. Building partnership models which are long lasting, scalable and transformative, and which create shared value is therefore key (Torres-Rahman, et al, 2015). The rapid transformation heralded by the fourth industrial revolution affects economic, social, environmental, cultural and political life more widely and thus, demanding new ways of working together (Mangoyana. et al, 2014).

Already, traditional boundaries between the sectors have become blurred, with a less direct role for governments and wider governance role for business and civil society (Mangoyana. et al, 2014).

Existing collaborations in the humanitarian sector are often found between International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs), local Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), private sector organisations, governments, and military forces, each having varying motivations and missions.

For example, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) collaborate to enhance their organisational capacities, alongside the effectiveness and efficiency of their relief operations (Snavely & Tracy, 2000). Governments including military, collaborate when they lack the capability to deliver aid individually (Collier, 2007:2010).

Private corporations collaborate to strengthen their brand and expand their work (Martin & Darcy, 2011). These collaborations often entail significant challenges such as lack of mutuality, poor communication, and resources uncertainty (Kovacs & Spens, 2010).

Inter-organizational collaboration is hence growing in significance due to continued social, economic and environmental problems coupled with a quest for competitive advantage and the urgent need to solve social and environmental problems faced in the world today (Moulaert et al., 2013).

Collaboration presents significant opportunities for long-lasting, meaningful solutions through working with other organizations, sectors, and partners for additional knowledge of problems, resources or support in the implementation of solutions (Greer, 2017).

Recently, the collaboration between INGOs and CBOs have received great attention. This is because INGOs have access to global resources, but they lack knowledge and experience about the new affected regions (Crowther, 2001).

CBOs, on the other hand, have a strong knowledge relevant to their country’s policies and beneficiaries’ geographical distributions, but they lack resources (Libal & Harding, 2011). Thus, collaborative partnerships and coordination within and between organisations can lead to improved efficiency and effectiveness in resource allocation, and benefits that cannot be achieved by individual organisations.

In the context of global instability and economic transformation, there are new opportunities and new responsibilities for each sector and, increasingly, a shared set of interests in achieving the kind of world envisaged in the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Not least in SDG 17 which is about creating partnerships for the goals (UN Sustainable Development, 2018). In order to achieve a sustainable development, it is important that all levels of the society share responsibility and participate in finding sustainable solutions as this leads to creating an open society that welcomes pluralism, more people, and new ideas.

As for this study which focuses on assessing the effectiveness of inter-organisational cooperation in rescue interventions for IDPs, there is a need for a development strategy that is conducted openly, inclusively and with continual dialogue in order to ease rescue interventions, achieve more sustainable growth and greater appeal.

Furthermore, an effective collaboration strategy must encourage inhabitants, municipalities, authorities, colleges and universities, trade and industry, and the idea-based sector to work together in order to tackle social needs and create opportunities (Skane2030.se, 2018).

Over the last decades, Cameroon has been experiencing new humanitarian challenges, polarised by security crises that have come on top of disasters such as drought, floods, the resurgence of socio-political conflict in the Central African Republic, the Boko Haram crises in the Grand North and more recently the ongoing Anglophone crises in the North West (NW) and South West (SW) regions, have all given way to massive internal displacement.

The presence of externally and internally displaced persons in the City of Douala in the Littoral Region has proven to be a socio-demographic phenomenon that has generated a multitude of effects, which in turn have determined the type of humanitarian intervention deployed, and which will be a vector for long-term socio-demographic change (Nzouyem, 2019).

The crisis in the SW and NW have compounded pre-existing vulnerabilities. Since 2016, the two English speaking regions of Cameroon have been witnessing political and social instability, exacerbated by sporadic violence, which has had a negative impact on the civilian population in these regions hosting four million inhabitants that is 16% of the total population (ICG, 2017).

In November 2017, the sociopolitical crisis progressively translated into insecurity and armed violence. Since then, the escalation of tension and upsurge in hostilities between non-state armed groups and defense and security forces have triggered humanitarian needs across the two regions, linked to significant internal displacement.

Different areas of both Anglophone regions have been the scene of grave human rights violations which have amounted to the loss of human life, properties, the destruction of socioeconomic activities, an increase in criminality, proliferation of small arms and destruction of the social fabric.

1.2.Problem Statement

 

Since November 2017, the number of households forced to flee their villages, or the country in search of safer areas as a result of the ongoing Anglophone crises has rapidly and steadily increased. Recent needs assessments report that at least 160,000 people have been internally displaced in the two affected regions and today they need humanitarian and protection assistance (ICG, 2017).

In addition, more than 21,000 Cameroonians have been registered as refugees in Cross River, Benue and Akwa Ibom States in Nigeria. This crisis is taking place against a backdrop of several other humanitarian emergencies affecting 3.3 million people across Cameroon. Increasingly there has been an influx of IDPs from risker zones to different locations in the SW, NW and Littoral Regions with 135,000 IDPs located in the city of Douala.  (ICG, 2017). This huge influx of IDPs in the city of Douala has led to strains in social amenities.

Access to humanitarian response and the living conditions by IDPs in Douala has deteriorated because hostilities between Anglophone separatists and the government have heightened insecurities.

Continued violence, poor roads, the lack of housing and schooling facilities have restricted the movement of people in the city of Douala affecting school-age children, women and the elderly, all these have led to the collapse of livelihoods as well as heightened abuses.

Furthermore, the crisis and subsequent displacement have prevented people from accessing their fields and markets. For most of the affected population who relied upon agriculture or livestock as their main sources of livelihoods before the crisis, dependency on external assistance has become inevitable.

Concern continues as there is a growing number of IDPs getting into the city of Douala who struggle to access basic necessities. It is in the interest of this research to assess the effectiveness of inter-organisational cooperation in the rescue interventions for IDPs living in the city of Douala.

Thus this research strives to determine Cameroons’ emergency preparedness plans, the role of both government and non-governmental organisations in the rescue interventions of IDPs living in Douala, their effectiveness, the possible challenges they face, as well as propose solutions to these possible challenges.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

1.3.1. Main Objective

The main objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Rescue Interventions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Douala.

1.3.2. Specific Objectives

This study is further divided into the following specific objectives:

1. To determine the role of Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Rescue Interventions of IDPs in Douala;
2. To assess the effectiveness of Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Rescue Interventions of IDPs in Douala;
3. To determine the challenges faced by Organisations when cooperating in rescue interventions of IDPs in Douala and propose possible solutions using best practices.