Effective Components on Cash-based Intervention to Affected People by Natural Disasters Using Information and Communication Technology in Iran

Rescue and relief organizations start their operations from the first moments after the occurrence of a disaster. Moreover, they set up emergency accommodation camps after the emergency period to deliver aid and health packages with standard content based on the general needs of the affected people. However, if a family has infants, children, elderly, or sick members, these packages will not be able to meet their needs. Cash donations instead of goods respect the human dignity of the affected people after the emergency period and result in the recovery of the families and the economy of the region. Usage of information technology for this purpose leads to speed, accuracy, and transparency in the implementation of the above-mentioned method. Given the differences between the situation in Iran and the international community, the present study aimed to find localized components that affect the provision of cash-based interventions to the affected people by natural disasters using information and communications technology.

This mixed method research was performed in two stages; meta-synthesis was used in the first stage and Fuzzy Delphi was used in the second stage to extract the domestic components of the cash-based interventions. The statistical population in the meta-synthesis stage was the local and international journals as well as the performance reports of international aid agencies published during 2004-2019. Finally, through sample selection and systematic selection based on the defined keywords, 71 out of 388 studies were selected for the purposes of the research. In the second stage, the statistical population consisted of executive directors of local aid agencies and crisis management instructors at universities and international workshops. Eventually, 14 experts were selected judgmentally who participated in three Delphi rounds.

In the first stage, 18 components in four categories were determined using the seven-step model of Sandelowski and Barroso. In the first round of Delphi, one component was omitted and six other components were added according to the opinions of the experts. However, in the second and third rounds, all the components were approved by them without any further changes. According to the obtained Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient which was about 0.703, the local components were agreed upon by the selected experts.

The determined local components that affect the process of transferring cash-based interventions to the affected people by natural disasters using information and communications technology consisted of 23 components that were screened and confirmed by the experts. These components can be used as a basis for the development of a process model for the systematic electronic transfer of money to the affected people by natural disasters in Iran after the emergency response period.