Following a disaster or in a crisis situation, humanitarian assistance and humanitarian protection must be appropriate to the requirements that have been identified through timely and specific assessments. Any humanitarian assistance must be sensitive to gender, age and other socio-economic considerations, as well as being proportionate to the magnitude of the situation. Assistance must be provided first to the most vulnerable people and given in a way that respects their dignity.
Being an integral part of communities allows us a continuous understanding of their needs, vulnerabilities and capacities. Systematic disaster and crisis management starts with preparedness for early action by trained and organized volunteers. It also includes maintaining and pre-positioning contingency stocks of essential supplies, and optimizing logistics and communications. Reliable early warning systems are instrumental in saving the maximum number of lives and protecting assets and livelihoods. Additionally, our disaster and crisis response includes providing essential healthcare, food and nutrition, and water and sanitation . We help restore family links where these have been disrupted. We also lead the coordination of emergency shelter provision, as part of the agreed division of labour within the humanitarian assistance system.
Community Disaster Planning & Simulations
Community disaster planning is part of a wider process in which Red Cross volunteers and community members work together to identify strengths and weaknesses, and plan activities to mitigate the risks. A core group of residents is identified to form a local disaster committee, and volunteers from the community are trained as Community Disaster Response Team (CDRT) members, with training provided in areas such as:
- Fire safety and prevention;
- Basic search and rescue;
- First aid;
- Initial damage assessment;
- Initial psycho-social care;
- Shelter management.
The local committee and the CDRT are then tasked with the drafting of a Community Disaster Plan, and work through the community to ensure families then develop their own plan.
Pre-positioned & virtual stocks
The Red Cross Movement has proved it can provide an immediate response to disasters in the Caribbean, contributing to cover basic needs of vulnerable populations affected thanks to its regional Logistics hub in Panama. However, flying emergency goods in is done at significant cost, and shipping them in can take weeks.
As part of a pilot project, at least one container with pre-positioned relief supplies were placed each of the 13 Caribbean NS in 2005-2006. Following this experience, containers have become a necessary and integral part of National Society emergency response capability throughout the region - proving to be a practical, straight-forward and effective means of ensuring that immediate basic needs of beneficiaries can be met in the aftermath of disasters.
In 2010-2011, the Red Cross started to pre-position goods in containers again, and National Societies have also signed agreements with suppliers for priority access to goods in the event of a disaster – a system known as “virtual warehousing”.
Early Warning systems
Early warning consists in warning the general public before the arrival of a hazard (such as a volcanic eruption or a hurricane). Early warning requires both technically accurate information as well as a system to analyse risk and disseminate the information about the risk to the vulnerable population. A strong early warning system therefore combines four separate but interlinked elements:
- risk knowledge (what types of hazards are we vulnerable to);
- technical monitoring and warning service (when does the hazard become a threat);
- dissemination and communication of warnings (how are we informed about the threat);
- response capability and preparedness to act (what can we do to respond to the threat).
The Red Cross is active in communities throughout the Caribbean to help them acquire the tools necessary for the first, third and fourth component of early warning:
- What are we vulnerable to (through the Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis)?
- How is the message of a pending threat disseminated to all potentially affected?
- What can the community do on its own to respond to disaster (through Community Disaster Response Teams)?
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies devoted its World Disasters Report 2009 to “Focus on early warning, early action”. You can access the complete report here.
