Canadian Red Cross

Published purpose

The project aims to save lives, reduce suffering, and maintain human dignity in communities experiencing humanitarian crises by making emergency global response efforts more effective and targeted. Recent trends indicate that humanitarian crises are changing, with an increasing number of urban disasters, slow-onset emergencies, and small- and medium-scale crises for which traditional international humanitarian response mechanisms are increasingly less effective. This project supports the development of tailored humanitarian response tools to enable the humanitarian community to better support the diversity of humanitarian crises. The project supports the Canadian Red Cross Society (CRCS) and the broader International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (RCM) to ensure that qualified humanitarian experts are quickly deployed to help reduce suffering and death in crisis situations around the world. This project builds on the First Responder Initiative, whereby the CRCS created a roster of Canadian emergency managers available for deployment to help crisis-affected people in all humanitarian emergency situations. This project aims to improve the effectiveness of the roster by: (i) ensuring that the responders are the most qualified and best-trained; (ii) better aligning the roster of Canadian emergency management experts with shifting humanitarian needs to ensure that the relevant experts are available when they are needed; and (iii) providing ongoing training to emergency responders to ensure that their skill-sets and knowledge are continually updated so that they can respond effectively to the ever-changing context of emergency situations. The project also provides targeted technical and financial support to improve the ability of the RCM to respond to emergency situations. The project provides support to the RCM in key areas critical for effective humanitarian operations including: international disaster law, information management, civil-military cooperation, and emergency shelter. This project falls under the larger DFATD - Canadian Red Cross Strategic Partnership to Enhance Canada's Humanitarian Assistance.