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Humanitarian Daily Rations: The Need for Evaluation and Guidelines
Author(s) -
Sklaver Ben
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/1467-7717.00232
Subject(s) - distribution (mathematics) , baseline (sea) , engineering , business , engineering management , operations management , forensic engineering , political science , mathematics , law , mathematical analysis
Over 13 million Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs) have been distributed by NGOs, international organisations and the US military since 1993. In that time, not a single technical end‐user study of HDRs has been published. Nor have practical guidelines been established for HDR distribution or use. This paper seeks to establish a baseline of knowledge concerning HDRs, surveying their history, composition and distribution. Criticisms of the ration are reviewed. A comprehensive evaluation is required to understand and improve HDR distribution, end‐use, perceptions, design and nutritional contents. HDRs must also be added to technical guidelines on planning nutritionally adequate rations.