Emergencies

Emergency Planning

© UNICEF/HQ05-0048/Shehzad Noorani

SRI LANKA: (Left-right) Nalani stands in the ruins of her home, her daughter Peumanti, 14, and her son Prashand, 10, behind her, in the village of Thotagamuwa near the popular southern tourist town of Hikkaduwa.

The Issue

Natural disasters and longstanding armed conflicts affect children in many South Asian countries. India, Maldives and Sri Lanka were severely affected by the December 2004 tsunami. Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and parts of Nepal are regularly affected by monsoon floods. Afghanistan is now contending with a major drought, and India has drought-affected areas. As always, children were among the first casualties of such disasters. Pakistan and India were severely affected by the October 2005 earthquake; in Pakistan, where half of the earthquake victims were children, the death toll reached 73,338 with another 69,400 seriously injured and more than 3.3 million left homeless.

In addition to natural disasters, several countries continue to experience political crisis and civil strife, posing severe challenges for human rights, the rights of children and child protection. In 2006, of greatest concerns in this respect were the escalation of internal conflicts in Sri Lanka and in Afghanistan, uncertain prospects for an end to Nepal’s ten-year insurgency, and continuing socio-political conflict in Bangladesh. 

© UNICEF/HQ05-1455/Asad Zaidi

PAKISTAN: Workers load boxes of high-protein biscuits for malnourished children onto a truck at the international airport in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province.

UNICEF in Action

ROSA coordinates and supports a dependable, timely, effective, and consistent response to meet the needs of women and children in emergencies as laid out in UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children in Emergencies (CCCs) and Medium-Term Strategic Plan.

The CCCs establish a minimum package of life-saving assistance and protection measures to be implemented by UNICEF during the first weeks of a crisis as well as the ensuing recovery phase. 

In 2006, Emergency Preparedness and Response training was made available to 166 UNICEF staff members and 46 partner staff in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Simulation exercises on different emergency-hazard scenarios are also offered to UNICEF Country Offices on an ongoing basis.

The pilot version of UNICEF’s global Early Warning/Early Action (EW/EA) system was launched in mid-2005.  The EW/EA system is directly linked to the process of emergency preparedness and response planning required of all UNICEF offices. Within the UNICEF South Asia Region, all eight UNICEF country offices have developed a generic Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) as well as a specific EPRP for the risk of Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza.  ROSA has also established a Regional Task Force on Avian and Pandemic Influenza to support and coordinate UNICEF South Asia Region country office’s preparedness and response to a potential influenza pandemic.

In the event of an emergency, the capacity to deploy UNICEF staff within 48-72 hours to the affected area is a formal requirement under the CCCs. Systems are in place in ROSA for the immediate deployment of regional staff at the onset of an emergency for overall managerial and technical specific support as well as follow up support in the form of externally-recruited consultants or temporary personnel.

From December 2005 to the present, ROSA staff have worked with UNICEF headquarters and selected Country Offices to test and provide training in several specialized areas:

• UNITRACK: a new supply tracking and monitoring system for emergency environments was pilot tested for tsunami-affected countries in December 2005. The final version will be available in early 2007 with UNICEF Country Offices in Afghanistan and Pakistan being the first to benefit from installation of the system. 
• Rapid Assessment for the First 72 Hours: from May-June 2006 Sri Lanka field-tested a multi-sectoral toolkit for rapid assessment within the first 72 hours of a crisis.
• Education in Emergencies Toolkit: Sri Lanka field-tested a pilot version in June 2006. A final version is expected in early 2007. The UNICEF Bhutan Office has been identified for the initial roll out of the final version. 
• DevInfo in Emergencies: DevInfo is the common UN-system database and mapping tool used to monitor progress on the Millennium Development Goals. A special adaptation of it for use in emergency programming has been under development since mid-2005. In July 2006, training on the final module took place for all South Asian Country Offices and key partner staff.
• Advanced Training in Humanitarian Negotiations with Non-state Armed Groups: a pilot version of this training module developed by UNICEF headquarters was introduced during training sessions held for UNICEF staff in Nepal and Sri Lanka in January and May 2006, respectively.