This study assesses how well government and nongovernmental organizations
and others performed during emergency relief operations in Nepal after the country was
struck by a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake on April 25, 2015. The primary source of
data for this study was face-to-face interviews of 302 respondents from 10 study sites in
two earthquake-affected districts. Information collected through four focus group meetings
was also used to supplement the survey data. The performance or effectiveness of relief
operations was measured by developing an additive composite index score. Both disaggregated
and aggregated scores reveal that the emergency materials provided to the
earthquake survivors in Nepal were appropriate and adequate for their needs and the aid
distribution was relatively fair and timely. Analyses of survey data further suggest that the
emergency aid was uniformly distributed among respondents of the two selected districts.
Based on the study findings, we provide several recommendations to improve relief
operations in future disasters.