ORCID

Abstract

Collaborative responses amongst disaster relief NGOs can be more effective in delivering aid when compared with responses conducted individually. Collaboration enables the sharing of resources, expertise, personnel, and funding, resulting in more efficient aid distribution in the wake of natural disasters. However, current research highlights that it is often challenging for NGOs to establish and sustain collaborative relationships due to different barriers. The challenges these barriers cause have been explored in previous research, but limited attention has been given with respect to how these can be addressed. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding of the relationships between these barriers, and whether barriers can influence, or be influenced by, one another. Consequently, this research identifies the most important and influential barriers to collaboration amongst disaster relief NGOs, and how these can be approached and overcome.

     Following a traditional literature review, a systematic literature review of 71 articles is conducted to summarise the existing knowledge surrounding the barriers to NGO collaboration, and to identify those most frequently explored. Indeed, due to the number of such barriers, it is not feasible to address all of them directly in one study, and so this study focuses on the ten barriers most frequently discussed in the literature. Using the opinions of NGO leaders, a DEMATEL-based questionnaire is then used to explore the relationships amongst these ten barriers and classify them into cause and effect groups, and to unveil those with the highest level of importance and influence. Communication and Trust are revealed as the two most important barriers, and Different Goals and Cultural Differences as the two most influential. Alongside this, the NGO leaders’ opinions regarding the most significant barrier for their own organisation are also gathered. Of these, communication was the most frequently stated barrier.

     In the final phase, semi-structured interviews explore how the most important and influential barriers can be approached. The interview transcripts produced were analysed thematically, unveiling 17 strategies and supportive facilitators to address the barriers. These are classified into four strategic dimensions, of which three pertain to organisational-level actions, and one pertaining to sector-level actions. This culminates in the development of a new and important strategy-based framework to illustrate how these strategies and facilitators build NGOs’ collaborative capacities.

     The practical implications of this study are significant; chiefly, it provides important strategies for NGOs and humanitarian practitioners to overcome prominent collaboration barriers and improve their capacity to develop sustainable collaborative relationships, enabling them to respond more successfully to disasters. The study also offers significant contributions to theory, being the first to explore the cause and effect relationships between collaboration barriers and how they can influence one another, rather than treating them as standalone challenges. It also contributes to theory through the development of the new strategy-based framework for classifying the identified strategies and supportive facilitators.

Awarding Institution(s)

University of Plymouth

Supervisor

Saeyeon Roh, Lijun Tang, Minchul Sohn

Keywords

Disaster Relief, NGO Collaboration, Humanitarian Supply Chain, Humanitarian Logistics, Collaboration Barriers, Collaboration Solutions

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2026

Embargo Period

2026-01-16

Deposit Date

January 2026

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