The earthquake of November 2017, the great flood of April 2019, and the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 are three major emergencies in Iran during the last three years. A common issue in all these crises seems to be the issue of "trust". Official authorities including Iranian President, ministers, and the Judiciary system tried to gain people's trust by either changing policies or developing new ones. In August 2019, the new law on crisis management in Iran went into effect and the issue of people donation has been considered too. Also, in their response to COVID-19 outbreak, Iranian officials ordered to all sectors to cooperate with Ministry of Health and provide it with all necessary facilities.Therefore, it seems that new policies are still needed to overcome mistrust in Iran at the times of emergency. Developing a policy on donation management was the first step, while there are several factors could have contributing to the perception of the mistrust and failure in emergency missions. Mistrust can be the result of different causes including but not limited to lack of knowledge on capabilities and efficiencies of humanitarian organizations, engagement of a wide range of organizations from different categories, extending of mistrust of an organization to other emergency organizations in the area or all of operation, lack of unity in emergency response; and poor public relations.
Disaster medicine and public health preparedness. 2020 Mar 27 [Epub ahead of print]
Hamed Seddighi
PhD candidate in health and social welfare, Student Research Committee, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran, +989133505088, and .