Links to the Humanitarian Charter and international law
to identify measure and decide how to meet the humanitarian needs of disaster-affected community
Armed conflicts and natural disasters cause significant psychological and social suffering to affected populations. The psychological and social impacts of emergencies may be acute in the short term, but they can also undermine the long-term mental health and psychosocial well-being of the affected ...population. These impacts may threaten peace, human rights and development. One of the priorities in emergencies is thus to protect and improve people’s mental health and psychosocial well-being.
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A Guide to Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
(You need free registration to download the book)
Disasters and public health emergencies can stress health care systems to the breaking point and disrupt delivery of vital medical services. During such crises, hospitals and long-term care facilities may be without power; trained staff, ambulances,... medical supplies and beds could be in short supply; and alternate care facilities may need to be used. Planning for these situations is necessary to provide the best possible health care during a crisis and, if needed, equitably allocate scarce resources
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These draft guidelines are designed to encourage humanitarian and development non-governmental organisation (NGO) practitioners to think about the types of scientific information and expertise they may need, how to access and use them, and how to ensure that they are applied in an ethical and accoun...table manner. The publication addresses the need to defines the problem and the purpose of integrating science with the users of science, issues around access to science and understanding scientific information, how to apply the science and the important of monitoring and evaluation of impact. Case studies include a project from Christian Aid and the Evangelical Association of Malawi which brought together community members from Village Civil Protection Committees with scientists from the Department of Climate Change and Meteorology and District Council staff responsible for water management and disaster risk reduction in order to tackle a problem of flooding
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This document is designed to provide UNICEF staff and UNICEF partner staff with principles and concepts that can assist them to respond to the psychosocial needs of children in natural disasters and social emergencies such as armed conflict and other forms of violence. It aims to introduce humanitar...ian workers to psychosocial principles and UNICEF’s position on these principles. It also provides a number of examples from field work of how these principles have been turned into concrete actions. These psychosocial principles and concepts inform both emergency responses and subsequent programmatic responses post-emergency.
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The purpose of this guide is to provide basic information for Federal disaster responders and other service providers who may be deployed or otherwise assigned to provide or coordinate services in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.
This guide is intended to serve as a general briefi...ng to enhance cultural competence while providing services to AI/AN communities. (Cultural competence is defined as the ability to function effectively in the context of cultural differences.) A more specific orientation or training should be provided by a member of the particular AI/AN community
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Good practices from South & South-East Asia in disability inclusive disaster risk management
The disaster and Red Cross Red Crescent response to date
9 March 2019: Tropical Cyclone Idai forms over Northern Mozambique Channel. CVM preparedness and early warning actions underway
13 March 2019: IFRC Surge Capacity is deployed to Maputo
14 March 2019: 342,562 Swiss francs allocated from th...e IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to meet the immediate shelter, WASH and health needs of 1,500 households
15 March 2019: Tropical Cyclone Idai makes landfall in Beira,
Mozambique.
17 March 2019: IFRC Surge Capacity arrival in Beira with CVM to conduct preliminary assessments.
19 March 2019: IFRC issues an Emergency Appeal for 10 million Swiss francs for 75,000 people for 12 months.
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The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the issues in regulating and managing international emergency in a selection of large and small-scale sudden onset disasters (SODs). In doing so, it aims to contribute to several key international commitments as well as its objective in disaste...rs and emergencies to “reduce the consequences the event may have on world health and its social and economic implications”.
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The coastal regions of Bangladesh are hit by cyclones regularly. The country has evolved, in the face of repetitious calamities, a disaster preparedness programme. The major response to cyclones has been the building of cyclone shelters, which also double as community centers and schools. While thes...e cyclone shelters have proved to be useful, they are more in the nature of disaster management, that is, they are measures that come in useful particularly in the event of a cyclone. The approach of this study has been to look at existing houses and the process of building and maintaining these houses in the face of frequent cyclonic storms and storm surges, and gather information on shared knowledge and collective experiences of the people in all aspects of house building. The aim of this study is to find ways to make traditional structures more cyclone resistant and less prone to wind damage.
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The overall goal of the Kenya Health Sector Referral Strategy is to improve client access to referral. The objectives of the strategy are to realise improved capacity of health providers to identify clients who require referral, develop protocols that will lead to referral system efficiency and effe...ctiveness, and promote and facilitate information and communication technology (ICT) to manage referrals, improve care, enhance capacity of the referral system in Kenya, provide communication and related equipment, and promote research and innovation for referrals.
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A publication about girls escaping natural disasters and violent conflict in Eastern Africa
Children are on the move. In East Africa region, it is estimated that over 5 million children have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced in their own country.
Forcable displacement is p...ushing more and more children out of their homes and communities, escaping the violence of war and conflict, only to fall vulnerable to other forms of violence. Girls are particularly vulnerable and need extra protection.
Every day, girls on the move in East Africa face a variety of rights violations, including:
• Exploitation and violence
• Being separated from their families
• Deprivation of essential services
• Use and recruitment by armed groups
• Sexual abuse
• Child marriage
This report highlights concerns that girls in eastern Africa face and calls on international and national decision makers to prevent and end violence that children face when they are forced to flee their homes.
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Disaster planning - organization and administration. 2.Emergency medical services - methods. 3.Emergency medical services - organization and administration. 4.Emergencies. 5.Health policy. 6.Health facilities.7.Guidelines.
This expansive facilitator's guide deals with psychosocial interventions concerning multiple causes of trauma such as HIV and AIDS and post-conflict situations. The guide offers technical advice to the implementor which is usefully augmented by diagrams, ideas for games and other useful intervention...s
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The Government of Malawi, in fulfilling its primary role of protecting the lives of its vulnerable citizens during disasters and reducing their exposure to risk through preparedness, led the development of a National Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Preparedness and Response Plan.
War and natural disaster result in millions of families and children witnessing or being victims
of unthinkable atrocities. Save the Children is working to minimize the harm children
experience during and after an emergency. It is working to ensure children are protected
from participating in arm...ed forces or groups, stay together with their families and are not
subject to exploitation and sexual abuse.
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The Guidance Notes seek to help operationalize, simplify and standardize the collection and reporting of data through the application of common language and methods. They provide information on the key issues to take into account in the collection of health data and the types of data that should be ...collated, and potential stakeholders to engage with. They adapt and complement the UNDRR/UNISDR Technical guidance for monitoring and reporting on progress in achieving the global targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which has a multisectoral target audience.
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WHO-OHCHR launch new guidance to improve laws addressing human rights abuses in mental health care
Ahead of World Mental Health Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) are jointly launching a new guidance, entitled "Mental health, h...uman rights and legislation: guidance and practice", to support countries to reform legislation in order to end human rights abuses and increase access to quality mental health care.
Human rights abuses and coercive practices in mental health care, supported by existing legislation and policies, are still far too common. Involuntary hospitalization and treatment, unsanitary living conditions and physical, psychological, and emotional abuse characterize many mental health services across the world.
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