DSCA’s Institutional Programs

Defense Institution Building and Humanitarian Assistance – DSCA’s Institutional Programs

By Jan Tegler - September 15, 2014

Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, addresses the Fellows of Advanced Security Cooperation (ASC) attending the ASC course at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 16, 2014. The course was designed to advance knowledge, skills, and networks related to multilateral security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region among mid-career security practitioners. Photo courtesy of APCSS

“The key to MoDA is that we’re training people in advisor skills. Many people may be technical experts but don’t have the ability to work in a very different cultural environment in a ministry for a long while. It’s a year-long relationship and requires trust building and maintaining.”

Humanitarian Assistance (HA)

“Few outside the DSCA recognize the role DSCA plays in HA globally and the benefits that accrue from this type of engagement,” said Diane Halvorsen, Programs Deputy for the agency’s Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid [OHDACA] appropriation.

“This is a combatant commander tool that allows them access and influence, mainly in areas where we may not have many other DoD programs,” Halvorsen noted.

The HA mission is broken into three areas – targeted Humanitarian Assistance, the Mine Action Program, and Foreign Disaster Relief/Emergency Response.

The Foreign Disaster Relief/Emergency Response Program enables rapid response from Geographic Combatant Commands to address a range of crises. Approximately $20 million of HA’s budget is set aside on an annual basis for the mission to provide logistics management, airlift, search and rescue, humanitarian daily rations, and emergency supplies such as plastic sheeting, tents, bedding, water.

Humanitarian Assistance includes efforts focused on improving basic living conditions – from addressing poverty and improving sanitation and access to water, to engaging in construction (building clinics and schools to aid health, disease control, and basic education). Disaster mitigation is part of the equation as well.

“We require that there be face-to-face interaction between DoD personnel and the people on the ground, who in most cases are not military personnel,” Halvorsen added. “We deal primarily with civilian populations.”

Usually, the Security Cooperation Offices (SCO) in conjunction with Defense Attachés or DATTs in embassies worldwide identify the humanitarian needs. The State Department, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and foreign service nationals are also involved. In all cases, the provision of HA must also be aligned with U.S. foreign policy.

“Aid is determined, frankly, not just by a country’s need,” said Halvorsen, “but by where we want to go. What areas of a country do we want to be in to support a GCC’s engagement strategy?”

DSCA personnel administer HA projects via the Overseas Humanitarian Assistance Shared Information System, working with the GCCs, OSD(P) and the Joint Staff to approve projects and allocate funding.

Subsets of the $109 million HA effort include the excess property program, which provides humanitarian, non-lethal excess property sourced from the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to fulfill a wide range of needs. Two transportation programs support transportation of private donations, disaster relief materials and excess property on military platforms or vessels contracted by DoD.