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We are dedicated to improving the effectiveness and the efficiency of U.S. and International Disaster Relief Operations, especially where the U.S. works in collaboration with NGOs, IOs, and Foreign Governments. We focus primarily on researching a suite of communications equipment that is highly portable and self-sustaining through renewable energy sources.

HFN Learning Aid - "Disaster Challenge" Online Interactive Prototype Utility

Posted January 5, 2009 - 12:44am by Steckler

The Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey CA USA) HFN Research Group and Office of Continuous Learning have created a prototype flash/web based learning tool that in its final form will be available free to anyone. The tool, called "Disaster Challenge", features animated early responders deciding which equipment to bring to a disaster zone to enable rapidly deployed communications.

Canned info movie about the project, approx 7 minutes long - http://faculty.nps.edu/dl/HFN/DisasterChallengeConcept2/Disaster_Challenge_Concept.html

Robert Leitch: Bloody Hands and Bleeding Hearts – Civil Military Cooperation in Humanitarian Operations

Posted May 2, 2008 - 6:29am by HFNGroupAdmin


Robert Leitch and Friend at Rumbek Airfield

"[h]umanitarian agencies don’t mind coordinating
with the military but they don’t like being coordinated
by the military"

-Hugo Slim

It is almost a year ago today that I rather foolishly volunteered, without a second thought, to join a Project HOPE mission as the leader of a contingent of medical volunteers aboard the USNS COMFORT. The plan was for the hospital ship to visit twelve countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Project HOPE would provide a group of about twenty five volunteers at any one time.

During this Odyssey, I wrote a couple or articles. In one I described the mission as an exercise in what had become known as ‘Medical Diplomacy’ and promised I would examine the issue in depth at a later date. The key issues, it seemed to me, centered around the relationship between NGOs, in this case Project HOPE, and the US military and the US Navy in particular. Is this a good model for future humanitarian operations? What does the US Navy get from it? What do NGOs like Project HOPE get from it? Is this a flag waving exercise or does it provide long-term good for the recipient countries and their people? I have procrastinated for almost four months since the end of the COMFORT mission; herewith my observations.

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An HFN Case Study: USNS Comfort (T-AH20) Humanitarian Outreach to the Caribbean and Central/South America (Summer 2007)

Posted January 22, 2008 - 11:50pm by HFNGroupAdmin

When President Bush sent the USNS Comfort hospital ship to 12 nations in the Caribbean and Central / South America as part of the “Partnership for the Americas” initiative, numerous research opportunities for NPS were created.

The Hastily Formed Networks (HFN) research group focuses on the social and technical aspects of human networks that form during collaborative Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HA/DR) efforts where the U.S. Military is involved. Typically, the human networks

Newly Published National Response Framework (NRF)

Posted January 22, 2008 - 11:30pm by HFNGroupAdmin

The National Response Framework presents the guiding principles that enable all response partners to prepare for and provide a unified national response to disasters and emergencies – from the smallest incident to the largest catastrophe. The Framework establishes a comprehensive, national, all-hazards approach to domestic incident response.

DHS Secretary Chertoff Comments on Roll-Out of National Response Framework

Posted January 22, 2008 - 11:23pm by HFNGroupAdmin

"The key to the Framework is that it is a simple, straightforward guide for senior officials and emergency responders so they can plan, prepare for, and respond to all-hazard disasters and emergencies. The Framework lays out a clear understanding of the roles, responsibilities and relationships that are indispensable for effective emergency response. The Framework sets forth a doctrine, the core principles, and the structure through which this nation prepares for and responds to disasters."

Map to HFN Research Group

Posted November 15, 2007 - 2:29pm by HFNGroupAdmin


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SSTR-Observations and Recommendations from the Field

Posted November 13, 2007 - 7:17pm by HFNGroupAdmin

Planners must establish a detailed, systematic, and reproducible approach to conducting SSTR operations.We must be prepared to assist the host country with provisioning social services as soon as the circumstances are safe to do so, and US forces must perform such SSTR operations efficiently and effectively. SSTR operations must also have policies that actively integrate SSTR personnel into the activities and mesh of information flow between non-traditional partners and the local population.