Read the NYT Editorial, March 11, 2010, “Haiti, Two Months Later”

“Relief agencies have overcome staggering obstacles, starting with the fact that the quake demolished the United Nations mission, killing much of its leadership and employees. The United Nations is in high gear now, but it has been rightly criticized for disorganization. Last month, in a scathing e-mail message, the emergency relief coordinator for the United Nations, John Holmes, blasted his colleagues for having been too slow to step up to the challenge. Weeks after the disaster, he said, several of the agency “clusters” in charge of handling needs like food and shelter had not even developed a basic overview of what they had to do, much less a plan.”

At least some of the unspeakable human suffering might have been avoided if major relief agency personnel had been trained in even the most elementary management skills. Management education has everything to do with designing plans and then getting things done on the ground.