Emergency Preparedness and Response Section

Emergency Response Team

Every day of the year, our Emergency Response Team is working around - and against - the clock to save refugee lives. Now you can help these dedicated individuals by joing the team yourself - as a monthly supporter. To become an ERT Partner, complete the donation form on the right hand side of the screen.

Ready, Set, Go!

The Emergency Response Team is a specially trained group of staff ready to assist in emergencies at 48 hours notice. They are often first on the scene of a humanitarian emergency. In the field our Emergency Response Team members work in the toughest conditions to provide frontline assistance to refugees. Last year alone the team responded to more than 50 emergencies, helping to deliver lifesaving essentials like food, water, shelter and health care.

Right now the team is in 13 countries including East Timor.

ERT Team Lader Johann Siffionte responds to some Frequently Asked Questions below:

How do you go about preparing your team for the various places they have to go?

The Emergency Response Roster calls for applications from UNHCR staff who meet certain criteria based on experience, skills profile, languages, geographic location to be trained in emergency management (WEM). Those selected attend the Workshop on Emergency Management held about three times a year. The WEM is specifically designed to train people who already have required skills and UNHCR experience to operate in emergencies. The intensive 10-day WEM covers all aspects of UNHCR operations in emergencies from site planning to negotiating with border guards to allow refugees to cross, from first aid to 4x4 driving, from handling stress and working as a team member to chairing a coordination meeting. On the final day a series of simulated exercises test the skills team members have learned on the programme. During this workshop, people are assessed regarding their suitability to work in emergencies.

Most of the people selected for emergency management training already have significant experience with UNHCR in the field and many have worked in countries with law and order issues. What is unique in an emergency response team is that you have to deliver and respond very quickly in an unknown environment.

Getting on together is not usually a big issue. Everybody has to rely on their team members and being a proven team player is essential criteria for selection. In fact, team spirit is often at its peak at the height of an emergency.

How do you find communicating with the local people?

UNHCR staff by nature of their work would usually have good experience working with different cultures and backgrounds - that is, afterall, what the UN is about. We use participatory assessment from the very beginning in designing our response programmes and so are communicating with local people from day one.

The Emergency Response Team relies heavily on national staff. In Timor-Leste we have had large operations here previously and so have many present and previous staff to call upon. In other emergencies where UNHCR does not have a presence, one of the key priorities is to identify articulate, skilled and hard working staff and also offer then training in UNHCR operations. We rely on their local knowledge on how best to interact with the environment and local people.

How can I go about getting work with UNHCR in emergencies?

Organisations like Red R place engineers, site planners and logisticians for example with UNHCR and other UN agencies when emergencies take place. For details, contact www.redr.org.

Otherwise, UNHCR regularly calls for nominations for its International Professional Roster and has other career advice on its website. Visit www.unhcr.org and look at the Adminstration section.

Typical EPRS responses are as follows:

Code Yellow – UNHCR reviews its contingency plans or sends an assessment mission to the country to develop a contingency plan from scratch, identifying potential entry points, protection problems and suitable sites for UNHCR assistance.

Code Orange – the contingency plan goes into operation with the development of full logistics and security assessments. A complete operations plan is produced and budgets prepared for a potential refugee emergency. Stockpiles of non-food relief items may be pre-positioned and those on the Emergency Response Team roster are put on call.

Code Red – the operations plan is put into action and UNHCR’s Emergency Response Teams are deployed.

Responding to Natural Disasters

With its boosted capacity for emergency response, the UN Refugee Agency has recently been called on to assist in the wake of natural disasters like the Asian Tsunami and, more recently, Hurricane Katrina. While not covered by our core mandate, people displaced by earthquakes and floods may require many of the same survival items and infrastructure as those fleeing violence and conflict. In certain, urgent situations, UNHCR may be called upon to provide humanitarian relief, logistical support, coordination and field expertise. In response to the Asian tsunami, for example, the EPRS sent large amounts of non-food assistance from the central emergency stockpile, including tents for 200,000 people.


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