Selected Topics - Emergency Management

• UNSW Emergency Management Unit
  Provides an all-hazards approach to the response and preparation to and for emergencies on campus

Events

• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Upcoming Events

Global policies and related documents

Reports, guidelines and projects

• Development of Models of Emergency Preparedness
  "….The emergency preparedness models in this report can help field- and facility-based health care professionals plan for and respond to bioterrorism events or public health emergencies. The evidence-based, best-practice models provide guidance on personal protective equipment, decontamination, isolation/quarantine, and laboratory capacity. The models were developed for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)….".
• Child Protection in Emergencies
  This report from Save the Children examines the plight of children in emergency situations. It outlines the international legal frameworks that govern the rights of children including human rights law and security council resolutions, as well as the psycho-social implications for the children themselves. It offers recommendations and suggests protection priorities, encompassing integrating and implementing protection, gender based violence, children associated with armed forces and the provision of education.
• Emergency Capacity Building Project
  The Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB) is a collaborative effort of seven humanitarian agencies that are jointly tackling common problems in emergency response and preparedness. Over a two-year period, these agencies and their strategic partners are addressing issues pertaining to staff capacity, accountability (primarily to affected populations), impact measurement, risk reduction, and the use of information and technology in emergencies.
• Hazards of Nature, Risks to Development
  "This report is the first ever assessment of World Bank assistance for natural disasters, and one of the most comprehensive reviews of disaster preparedness and response ever conducted. The report calls for new thinking that integrates predictable disaster risks into development programs. The report concludes that it is possible to anticipate where many natural disasters will strike, yet expresses concerns that the World Bank's disaster assistance efforts are underutilizing these vital lifesaving forecasts."
• Malaria control in complex emergencies: An inter-agency field handbook
  This interagency handbook was developed by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Technical Support Network on Complex Emergencies. It focuses on effective malaria control responses to complex emergencies, and provides policy-makers, planners, field programme managers and medical coordinators with practical guidance on designing and implementing measures to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality.
• Protecting Persons Affected by Natural Disasters - Operational Guidelines on Human Rights and Natural Disasters
  Floods, earthquakes and storms have routinely displaced thousands around the world for decades. Over the past few years, the international community’s response to these catastrophes has become ever swifter and more sophisticated. Until very recently, however, and in the rush to deliver life-saving aid, little attention was paid to the rights of these displaced people. The publication of these guidelines reflects an understanding of the need for the humanitarian system to provide to the people on the front lines of disaster response the guidance they need to ensure the protection of the rights of the people left homeless by natural disasters.
• Sphere Handbook
  The Sphere Handbook sets out what people affected by disasters have a right to expect from humanitarian assistance. The aim of the Project is to improve the quality of assistance provided to people affected by disasters, and to enhance the accountability of the humanitarian system in disaster response.
• SUMA
  SUMA, the Supply Management System from the PAHO/WHO, is an information management tool that helps national authorities to make order of the chaos often caused by uncoordinated humanitarian assistance. SUMA uses simple software to track items from the moment donors commit to sending supplies until they are distributed effectively to the affected population.
• Protecting and Assisting Older People in Emergencies
  "This paper summarises the major policy and practice issues affecting humanitarian protection and assistance for older people, and recommends measures to ensure that older citizens caught up in humanitarian crises enjoy equal rights and a fair share of humanitarian resources, and are included in decision-making in programmes that affect their lives."

Educational resources

• Disaster Reduction Gateway
  The Disaster Reduction Gateway is an initiative of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre to promote information sharing and cooperation between people with an interest in disaster reduction. On this site you will find links to the websites of organisations, groups and individuals who are involved in disaster reduction or support it in some way. All are based in the UK but many are active internationally.
• FAO GeoNetwork
  "FAO GeoNetwork is a tool to fight hunger and rural poverty by using satellite imagery, spatial databases and interactive maps to help developing countries isolate the causes of food shortages was launched by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. ... Users overlay maps from multiple servers housed at development institutions worldwide to create customized thematic maps on their own computers covering such variables as land cover, soil quality, vegetation, population density and marketing access. ...When an emergency occurs, the maps created by the different agencies in their respective fields of expertise can be combined to see the relationship between different factors affecting the populations and the environment..."

Organisations and Networks

• Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC)
  The aim of the DIMRC website is to provide access to quality disaster health information to the nation at all stages of preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery. The initial phase of this website focuses on NLM (US National Library of Medicine) and NLM-supported resources and activities. The website will expand to include other sources of authoritative disaster health information.

UN and multinational

• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is the world's largest humanitarian organisations providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinion.
• WHO - Health action in crises
  This site outlines the health actions being taken by WHO in crisis situations throughout the world

Government

• Centre of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance
  This is a federally funded project given a mandate by the US Congress to improve the coordination and integration of the world's response to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and peace operations.

Non Government

• AlertNet: - Alerting humanitarians to emergencies
  An emergency news website provided by the Reuters Foundation
• Disaster Research Centre
  The Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware conducts field and survey research on group, organisational and community preparation for, response to, and recovery from natural and technological disasters and other community-wide crises. DRC researchers have carried out systematic studies on a broad range of disaster types, including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous chemical incidents, and plane crashes.
• GDIN
  GDIN is a voluntary, independent, self-sustaining, non-profit association of nations, organisations, and professionals, from all sectors of society including NGOs, Industry, Academia, Governments, and International Organisations with an interest in sharing disaster information.
• ProVention Consortium
  The ProVention Consortium is a global coalition of international organisations, governments, the private sector, civil society organisations and academic institutions dedicated to increasing the safety of vulnerable communities and to reducing the impacts of disasters in developing countries. Working through partnership and collaborative action, ProVention links key actors and resources together so that efforts and benefits are shared. The Consortium aims to advance disaster risk management in developing countries by forging partnerships and linkages; advocating among leaders and decision makers for increased policy attention and commitment to reducing natural hazard risks; developing innovative approaches to the practical applications of disaster risk management; and sharing knowledge and resources for organisations, practitioners and communities active in disaster reduction.
• Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI)
  The Public Entity Risk Institute's mission is to serve public, private, and non-profit organisations as a dynamic, forward thinking resource for the practical enhancement of risk management. PERI provides synergy among existing programs and organisations and serves as a catalyst in the risk management field and a vehicle for allocating greater resources to key needs in risk management.
• ReliefWeb
  News and information source provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
• Telecoms Sans Frontieres
  A member of the United Nations working group of Nations United on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET), Telecom Sans Frontieres is a specialist telecommunications humanitarian NGO.

Academic Institutions with particular focus in this area

• Australasian College for Emergency Medicine
  An incorporated educational institution whose prime objective is the training and examination of specialist emergency physicians for Australia and New Zealand.
• CRED
  The Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) is an international non-profit institution and UN Collaborating Centre located within the School of Public Health, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels.

Key Conferences, conference and workshop reports

Coming conferences

Conference reports

• Surviving Crisis: How systems and communities cope with insecurity, instability and infection
  Edited by Pilar Ramos-Jimenez, Johannes Sommerfeld and Anthony Zwi, these papers constitute the proceedings of a workshop held in the Philippines in 2002. The meeting, which brought together participants from Africa, Asia and South America addressed the ways in which communities affected by political conflict respond to infectious diseases. The participants discussed the coping strategies and adaptions made by communities and the people's resilience amidst adversity.

Journals, Newsletters, Forums

Bibliographies, Libraries

Public health bookshops

• Public Health bookshop