Getting Help to Victims of 2008 Cyclone Nargis: AmeriCares Engages with Myanmar's Military Government Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

This case affords students of strategic management a rare inside take a look at the consequential political and logistical choices that international relief agencies must often make, at high speed, when responding to a humanitarian crisis. It traces the attempts of AmeriCares to find an effective manner-in the midst of a tense international standoff-to work with the embattled and resistant military authorities of Myanmar in order to bring help to the nation's Ayeyarwady Delta in May 2008, when the area was struck by among the most lethal cyclones ever recorded. Through the narrative of a relatively junior aid coordinator on the earth in Yangon, this case tells the unfolding narrative of AmeriCares' effort to bring a $1 million, 15-ton shipment of pharmaceuticals and supplies into the state and then get it into the control of effective on-the-ground relief agencies.

While some relief organizations challenged the authorities, or tried to work around it, AmeriCares committed itself to working within the system. At every step, yet, the organization faced strategic alternatives and dilemmas and, in the end, had to decide what to do when, hours before its air dispatch was due to land, the Myanmar authorities unexpectedly adopted a new policy requiring all aid shipments to be impounded for inspection by the government on arrival. The case is structured as a cliff hanger, to allow pupils to bring a critical, appraising attention to the different facets of AmeriCares' strategy before they learn whether or not it was a success. A short sequel, revealing what occurred, may either handed out at the end of group or be summarized in category. HKS Case Number 1931.0

PUBLICATION DATE: August 19, 2010 PRODUCT #: HKS130-PDF-ENG

This is just an excerpt. This case is about ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT