Humanitarian assistance and its expected behavior and land use changes: Insights from Bangladesh and Kenya

Disasters routinely lead to acute impacts and prolonged suffering around the globe. Humanitarian programming (HP) provides short-term aid to communities and nations alleviating hardship. Traditionally, and more conspicuously, the focus of the HP interventions has been on providing immediate relief and support in the aftermath of extreme social and environmental events. However, HP often involves layered interventions that not only address immediate needs but also develop individual and systemic capacity with benefits that persist to the future. Although there is evidence suggesting that short-term humanitarian interventions contribute to longer-term resilience and development, how HP interventions influence behaviors have not been thoroughly explored. This manuscript examines expected behavior and land-use changes from HP interventions using a two-phase mixed-methods design. We systematically analyze 40 HP programs funded by the US Agency for International Development's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance across Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Kenya. We also hold discussions with 71 HP implementers from 25 humanitarian organizations in Bangladesh and Kenya to elicit expected changes and challenges in monitoring them. The findings highlight a critical gap in systematically evaluating longitudinal data across diverse contexts to assess the enduring effects of various short-term humanitarian interventions. We argue that a more comprehensive assessment of the impacts of humanitarian investments should include monitoring and evaluation of behavior and land-use changes over time. This approach would provide valuable insights into how short-term interventions shape long-term resilience, guiding more strategic and equitable resource allocation, further enhancing our understanding of the broader impacts of short-term interventions.