International Medical Corps was begun in response to the suffering of the Afghan people after the Soviet invasion of 1979, and is adept at providing services in dangerous places (see Attacks on humanitarian workers).
[7] The pandemic highlighted the critical role of international health organizations, with entities like the WHO coordinating global responses, including vaccine distribution through the COVAX initiative.
[8] In addition, prominent organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation work closely with UN-affiliated agencies, focusing on health innovation, such as developing affordable vaccines and strengthening healthcare systems.
National systems, constrained by budget limitations, bureaucratic inefficiencies, or geographic inaccessibility, may fail to provide equitable healthcare access to marginalized populations.
[11] For example, NGOs frequently focus on areas like maternal health, infectious disease prevention, and emergency response where national systems may be lacking.
This role became especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, where NGOs partnered with governments to distribute vaccines, provide community education, and support overwhelmed healthcare facilities.
Excessive reliance on NGOs can sometimes undermine national systems by creating parallel structures that draw resources and skilled personnel away from the public sector.
As NGO practice evolves parallel with technology, NGOs have developed more scientific and precise methods of assessment, planning and operations in humanitarian assistance and complex emergencies.
They have taken other new tools into the planning offices and field: in addition to the obligatory laptop computer, they typically rely heavily upon cellular and satellite communications, the Internet, and geographic information services,[13] or GIS.
Indeed, in a related effort, the United States Holocaust Museum teamed with Google Earth to establish baseline GIS photos of crisis-torn Darfur, updating them at intervals, and uploading them to the Internet for public access.
Since Internet "surfers" can browse these images and see where once-present villages are later obliterated, this teamwork gave lie to the Sudanese claim that it was engaging in neither ethnic cleansing nor genocide.
A similar event resulted in rapid mobilization of DoD resources in response to the 2007 Peru earthquake, Bangladeshi Typhoon Sidr[15] and Tropical Storm Nero in the Dominican Republic, all in the last half of 2007, with no reasonable expectation of material gain for America.
[17] Although these relationships are not necessarily linear, and there is no inherent guarantee of equitable distribution of wealth in a developing society, full employment and hope for the future may be powerful disincentives to conflict.
There is a growing realization among the military that MEDCAP care may not be the best model, if the result is merely handing out antibiotics for upper respiratory infections and anti-inflammatories for aches and pains.