RedR e-news bulletin October 2011

From the office UN Secretary General’s visit to Australia United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and his wife visited Australia briefly in September. The Governor General hosted a dinner in their honour at Yarralumla in Canberra. It was pleasing to have RedR Australia on a guest list of just 30 people, including current MPs, the Australian Federal Police, various women’s development groups which the Governor General supports, and three aid agencies with direct UN links.

There was an opportunity to chat one-on-one with the Secretary General, who was still processing his visit to Kiribati and his realisation that the sea poses such a threat via tsunami and/or sea level rise. I was able to outline the RedR Australia role, to which he said how difficult he expects it to be to mobilise sufficient capable people in the years ahead.

Some of the other guests introduced themselves to me, seeking to find out more about RedR. This included two of the Governor General’s own staff. Funnily enough, I had a couple of the RedR brochures in my pocket…..

Alan McLean, CEO

Foreign Minister invited to speak at 2011 Annual General Meeting Elizabeth Taylor, Chair of RedR Australia, has invited Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to be guest speaker at the Annual General Meeting of RedR Australia, in Melbourne on Monday 24 October. The invitation read, in part:

“As I am sure you know, RedR Australia recruits, selects, trains, prepares, deploys and supports some wonderful Australians who make excellent humanitarian contributions to United Nations relief agencies arising from international disasters and emergencies.

We are very pleased with their representation of our organisation, and they are fine ambassadors for Australia, as strongly expressed by UN agencies, AusAID staff and others.

Our AGM would welcome your perspectives on this form of Australian aid, and I am certain you would find interest in hearing how we undertake our mandate.”

Standby Register personnel also invited A specific invitation is to be issued to everyone on the Standby Register for the 2011 Annual General Meeting.

Now AGMs are not everyone’s billy of tea, but they are important. For statutory reasons in our case. Every significant organisation, whether a company limited by guarantee or an incorporated association, must have an AGM.

RedR Australia’s event is always very positive. Quick reflection of the year completed, some projections on the year ahead, and best of all we hear some recent field experiences from two or three deployees, relatively fresh back from assignment. That is the really rich component, with some good interaction for all who attend.

I hope some Victorian-based Register people can join us. I recognise that few if any interstaters would make a special trip, but perhaps some have reasons to be in Melbourne around Monday 24 October at 2pm.

Engineers Australia’s Engineering Excellence Awards RedR Australia’s Standby Register Technical Specialist Dinesh Jayasuriya was shortlisted as one of five finalists for the Young Professional Engineer of the Year 2011 Award, at Engineers Australia, Victoria Division’s biennial Engineering Excellence Awards, held Thursday 22 September.

Dinesh’s work as an Information Management Officer for UNICEF in and occupied Palestinian territory piqued interest among the judges. Dinesh’s first assignment with RedR Australia involved working for three months with UNICEF to develop a system to track Human Rights Abuses against children under the UN Security Council Resolution 1612 Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism. Last year, Dinesh spent over three months working in Sindh Province, an area devastated by the floods.

RedR Australia congratulates Dinesh for making it through to the final round and for highlighting the work of engineers in emergency settings. Welcome Lauren Our team re-building continues. On 5 September we welcomed Lauren Jones to the role of Deployments Coordinator.

Lauren transferred from Australian Red Cross where her responsibilities included identification of field roles, the selection and briefing of personnel for those roles, management of welfare of staff in the field, together with recruitment and training activity.

She has worked overseas for five years, most significantly in our terms within the Australian Volunteers International programme, developing and supporting the administration of the Namibia Training Authority in 2010.

With Dominic managing the International Assignment Service, and with Jessie, Aruna and Lauren now added to the RedR experience of Jen, Jaimee, and Kim, it won’t be long before we are charging ahead with recruitment and selection, then deployment and support, at full speed. Looking around the planet right now, it is painfully obvious that we need to put all shoulders to the task……

So it is a warm welcome to Lauren.

Register election coming up Close of business Thursday 6 October is the last opportunity for people on the Standby Register to offer themselves for the 2011 election by the Register to the RedR Australia Board for a three-year term.

Jessie Gamble circulated the details on Tuesday 20 September for anyone wishing to re-visit their emails.

Enquiries about the Board role or the election process should be directed to [email protected] or phone Alan.

RedR Australia’s involvement in 2011 Spatial Summit RedR Australia was invited to present at Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute’s (SSSI) annual Victorian Spatial Summit, held on Wednesday 14 September in Melbourne.

SSSI’s Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Sub-Committee hosted a session on disaster relief in which veteran deployee Robert Crigan detailed his involvement with RedR Australia’s Standby Register, his recent assignment in Liberia and field equipment and computer programs which he uses in the field.

Thank you Robert for your time and engaging presentation!

Speaker wanted Engineers Australia’s Western Australia Division is seeking a structural engineer guest speaker for an event in Perth on 15 November. If you are interested in sharing your field experience, please email Belinda Johnston for further details or call (03) 9329 1357.

International Assignment Service As you will have read in the last e-news, we remain committed to providing the best level of service possible to Register personnel, UN agencies and vulnerable people around the .

We have started calling Register personnel and will continue to do so throughout October in order to discuss your deployment availability, your career goals, capacity development opportunities and all things RedR related. I encourage everyone to offer their honest feedback when contacted. The better we understand your desires, the better we can support you.

As the tragic situation in the Horn of Africa continues, we are now all watching as the monsoon season in Pakistan again brings with it large-scale disaster and widespread devastation. RedR still has David Youngmeyer in Pakistan (David has provided a diary entry from the field below) providing essential assistance to UNICEF. He will be ably joined this week by Michael McDonnell who will be assisting WHO with their massive logistics operations. We will no doubt see an increased call for assistance in response to this emergency in the coming weeks and months.

In July we had the pleasure of deploying Christine Clarence to Nepal as a Child Protection Officer. One of Christine’s main tasks was to help emergency preparedness and response mechanisms and to assist with national and local child protection in emergency contingency plans. Nepal was affected by three significant earthquakes recently and over 130 after-shocks in the days following. Thankfully, Christine was unharmed (although she did end up a little wet and muddy as she stood in a field near her residence). GeoHazards International recently conducted a study that determined that Kathmandu is the most vulnerable city in Asia to another earthquake causing large scale destruction and loss of life. Christine’s work, like so many of our deployees, is at the forefront of minimising the impact of humanitarian disasters.

As always, if you are travelling in, around, or through Melbourne, I encourage you to drop into the office for a coffee.

See you all soon!

Dominic Bowen Manager International Assignment Service

From the field Field diary, UNICEF Pakistan, September 2011 David Youngmeyer is on deployment with UNICEF Pakistan as an Emergency Communication Specialist. More than 5.4 million people in Pakistan are currently being affected by new monsoon floods, with Sindh province the hardest-hit area. In this field diary David describes the situation.

Badin district, Sindh province – On an emergency map of Pakistan’s new monsoon floods, Badin district, in southern Sindh province, is coloured an angry red. It is a fire engine red that flashes disaster. But the map simply A young girl holds a water bottle outside her family’s says: ‘severe intensity of floods effect’. makeshift camp on the main road in Badin district, Sindh province. © UNICEF Pakistan/2011/Zaidi That red colour on the map tries to sum up what is a severe and developing emergency for the children and families of Badin district. More than one million people, or two-thirds of the district population, are affected by the floods. Over 78,000 people – the vast majority children and women – have been displaced to 275 relief sites, in schools, public buildings and makeshift camps. More than 380,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. Badin district is only one small part of Sindh province.

I was part of a UNICEF team that visited the district this week that assessed the impact of the disaster on children and families, and helped to A UNICEF-supported water tanker fills up a water coordinate emergency assistance. What had been dry river beds are now bladder with clean water at a roadside relief site. © UNICEF Pakistan/2011/Zaidi surging torrents of muddy brown water. Under grey skies, fields on both sides of the road are widely flooded.

In some places, buildings are still untouched by floods, but surrounded with water, almost as if they are on tiny islands. Sometimes people refuse to leave their island homes and are trapped. In other parts, the roofs of houses, farm buildings and trees stick out of the water, as if coming up for air. Power poles are on crazy angles, with some completely toppled over.

A constant stream of small pickup trucks drive in the opposite direction – out of the district – loaded with people’s possessions. Many carry livestock such as buffaloes or goats.

At intervals, we pass displaced families crowded into impromptu camps on both sides of the road. They are enduring terrible conditions, squeezed on small bits of muddy ground between the road and the flooded countryside. The shelters are made of branches, with tarpaulins or rags draped over to keep out the elements as much as possible. There is a real lack of clean water, toilets, food and health services. Children play along the roadside, risking injury or death from passing vehicles.

Rescued farm machinery and livestock share the thin ribbon of space. The farm animals rely on people to bring them grass to eat and many of the cattle are little more than skin and bone.

At one point, the road is completely awash with flood waters and it looks like it won’t be long before that section of road will be destroyed, leaving families further stranded and complicating relief efforts.

The situation is dire and these people are in desperate need of help. Relief is needed not only to meet their immediate needs, but also to prevent the spread of diseases like diarrhoea and measles of which children are most at risk.

I am happy to see that at one roadside camp a 1,500 litre UNICEF water bladder has arrived and is being set up. Later in the day, on the way back to Karachi, I see a UNICEF-supported water tanker distributing water at the same camp. People come out of their shelters with every kind of container imaginable, patiently waiting their turn to get clean water. The truck also fills up the bladder and children are soon queuing for water from a standpipe.

This visit to Badin has been a real eye-opener about the extent of the disaster and the affect it is having on the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and families. It has put in my mind unforgettable images of what that red on the emergency map actually means.

A tale of two cities (or two deployments for the price of one) Originally bound for Tunisia, Roslyn Leary found herself working in Salloum and Cairo, Egypt. The RedR deployee details her experiences working as a Refugee Status Determination Officer with UNHCR.

After completing all my training I was raring to go. I responded to a callout from RedR Australia as a Refugee Status Determination Officer in Tunisia with UNHCR. The role entailed interviewing asylum seekers to see if they fit the International Humanitarian Law criteria for a refugee. Within a few days of submitting my expression of interest, it was all systems go… except how did I feel about going to Egypt instead of Tunisia? “No worries” was my response. Salloum was my destination, a town in Egypt close to the Libyan border which View from Roslyn’s bedroom window in Cairo Lonely Planet described as the middle of nowhere. Remembering my training and all the things I needed, I packed accordingly. Let’s just say that Kathmandu did OK that weekend.

I arrived in Egypt all kitted up and ready to go off to the frontier desert refugee camp… and found that I was needed in Cairo instead! I stayed on the 15th floor of a swanky apartment in the urban city – not much use for my head torch, Leatherman or desert boots there. I was pleased however to be offered the opportunity to go to Salloum for part of my deployment.

I spent ten weeks in Cairo and two in Salloum. To say that the two View from Roslyn’s bedroom window in Salloum experiences were different would be stating the obvious. Here are some examples of the contrast.

In Cairo, there were approximately 29,000 asylum seekers plus 44,000 refugees. Asylum seekers and refugees live precarious lives here amongst the urban poor with limited rights including no legal right to work* and limited health care and education, which is subsidised by the UN and NGOs. Around 3,000 refugees were attended to per month in an office of around 60 staff. I was needed to help with the backlog of cases. Asylum seekers awaiting UNHCR appointment in Cairo weekends were fun - there was the ballet, dining out, tourist visits, and Cairo concerts and on my second last weekend there was diving in the Red Sea.

In Salloum, there were approximately 1,200 asylum seekers on the border. Egypt would not allow asylum seekers fleeing from the Libyan crisis over the border unless they were Libyan nationals. Libya for years had been a refuge for those fleeing persecution and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn of Africa. Our case load consisted of those who could not return to their countries of origin for fear of persecution and Libya was no longer a viable option either. Salloum was no-man’s land between the two countries. Asylum seekers awaiting UNHCR appointment in Salloum With makeshift and UNHCR tents squeezed between narrow traffic islands where trucks and cars funneled into tollbooths for immigration crossings, a ‘camp’ of sorts sprang up. Until their refugee statuses were resolved, asylum seekers were forced to wait amidst the sand and rocks.

UNHCR attempted to have all those on the border assessed and have statuses resolved as quickly as possible, as living conditions are harsh and considered unsustainable. A team of around 30 personnel were flown in to expedite the process and manage the ‘camp’. Whilst I was there, this team consisted of 32 staff from 28 different countries (I was the only Aussie).

Salloum is an ultra-conservative Bedouin village and the international community is careful to stay on good terms with the locals to ensure the viability of operations. This means that women are forbidden to be out on their own in the town and no one is permitted to be out after dark. Alcohol is not allowed in the houses leased from the villages and is certainly not available for purchase. The nearest town is 2.5 hours away so R&R consisted of the team finding any excuse for a party (usually behind closed doors).

So while my Terms of Reference were identical, I truly had two very different deployments. Both of them had their challenges and rewards. I am very appreciative of the training and preparation RedR gave me– helping me even when in the urban jungle of Cairo.

*Since 2004 as part of an agreement with the Egyptian Government, Sudanese asylum seekers have limited work and education rights.

Current Field Activity Deployee Country Agency Position Raymon Shinkfield Afghanistan OCHA Information Management Officer (GIS) Albert Spiteri Afghanistan UNICEF Construction Engineer Fiona Lithgow Democratic Republic of the Congo WFP Logistics Officer Henri Stein Democratic Republic of the Congo UNICEF Cold Chain and Logistics Daryll Ainsworth WFP Logistics Officer Lynette Mason Ethiopia OCHA Field Coordinator Leda Tyrrel Ethiopia UNHCR Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Officer Helen Salvestrin Ethiopia UNHCR WASH Expert Victor Tapia Ghana UNHCR Site Planner Donna Carter Italy WFP Stand-by Partner Officer Danielle Brunton UNHCR WASH Expert Lisa Guppy Kenya UNICEF Information Management Officer - WASH Tim Hayden Kenya UNICEF Hygiene and Sanitation Specialist Elaine Jepsen Kenya OCHA Humanitarian Affairs Officer Hamish Weatherly Kenya OCHA Humanitarian Affairs Officer – Field Coordination Brendan Ross Kenya UNICEF Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response Val Tarasov Kenya UNICEF WASH Specialist Said Aden Liberia UNICEF Health Specialist HIV/AIDS Yolanda Cowan Liberia UNICEF Emergency Specialist Catriona Heath Liberia UNICEF Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist Ene-Mai Oks Tunisia for Libya OCHA Needs Assessment Expert Christine Clarence Nepal OCHA Child Protection Officer David Youngmeyer Pakistan UNICEF Emergency Communication Specialist Wendy Bruere Senegal OCHA Humanitarian Analyst Damien Brosnan Kenya for Somalia UNICEF WASH Information Management Specialist Peta Barns South UNICEF Logistic Officer Kerry Constable UNICEF Warehouse Officer Emma Drew South Sudan UNICEF Emergency Specialist Robert Ljubicic South Sudan WFP Construction Engineer Bill McMurtrie South Sudan WFP Workshop Supervisor Allison McNamara South Sudan UNICEF Logistics Specialist Cassie Stephens South Sudan UNICEF Warehouse Officer Syann Williams South Sudan UNHCR Protection Officer Dominic O'Dwyer WFP Logistics Officer Amra Lee Egypt for Syria OCHA Humanitarian Affairs Officer

Training update RedR Australia training team Humanitarian Logistics in Emergencies 4-9 September Drasko Kraguljac, Manager, Training Service The 2011 Humanitarian Logistics in Emergencies Course held in Alan Johnson (AJ), Snr Humanitarian Trainer September was a great success. The course, attended by 17 participants, Rich Parker, Snr Humanitarian Trainer started with a logistics assessment simulation which was very well Yvette Crafti, Humanitarian Trainer received and included site visits to warehouses, rail heads and airports Jess McNeill, Dookie Course Administrator and an assessment flight over the Dookie/Shepparton area. Louise Salkeld, Training Service Administrator

Specific training sessions from experts in humanitarian (UN/NGO/INGO) and commercial logistics outlined the major aspects of humanitarian logistics before allowing participants to apply these skills in a day long simulation.

All in all a great week for all those involved and a whole new bunch of 'humanitarian emergency loggies' now ready for action. The training team included David Neville as Course Coordinator and Associate Trainers Steve Barton, Markku Sarubin, Paul Bolger, Natasha Freeman (Red Cross), Matteo Perrone (WFP) and Ben Sommerville (DHL).

EHP 15-20 September Thanks to our September Fifteen participants attended September’s EHP – a slightly smaller group than usual course volunteers but what they lacked in size they more than made up for in enthusiasm. The gorgeous EHP weather at Dookie meant that we were able to run many of the sessions outside. Steen Rees Everyone enjoyed meeting such diverse participants and trainers, and night-times saw Graham Moore much swapping of stories and forming of friendships. Mal Haysom Geoff Lewis The course was coordinated by Jo Hutton, with the rest of the training team made up Mony Pich of Yvette, Associate Trainers Gordon Denoon, Steve Barton, and travel doctor Jeremy Christine Macharia Limpens showcasing health and stress issues in the field. Many thanks as always to Cynthia Speckman Volunteers from the Ethnic Associate Trainer Steen Rees for coordinating our fantastic team of eight incredibly Council of Shepparton enthusiastic OPE volunteers including three returning role players from the Ethnic Council of Shepparton. PSC Steen Rees PSC 22-25 September Lisa Ewensen 19 participants were put through their paces in this month’s PSC. Mark Squirrell Geoff Lewis coordinated the course, joined by Yvette Crafti, Rich Parker and Associate Trainers Graham Moore Dale Potter, Jenny Lee and Ulf Edqvist. Steen Rees assisted as a Volunteer Coordinator. Rik Thornclyff Mony Pich

Paul Bolger A big thanks to all our volunteers who participated in both the EHP and PSC. Admir Bajrami eCentre, Security in the Field Workshop 11-16 September The eCentre Tokyo ran another Security in the Field Workshop over the period 11-16 September. It was supported by UNHCR, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Interworks Madison and RedR Australia which provided a trainer (John Campbell) for the event. The course participants which were 32 in number were drawn from Afghanistan, Japan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, , Iran, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, , , Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka. It was also a very diverse group comprising government officials, aid workers, diplomatic and JICA staff. Dookie police officer Dale Potter also attended. He is an Associate Trainer for RedR Australia.

The course content covered security risk management, kidnapping, minefield drills, actions on the scene for first response to incidents, negotiating skills, radio skills and stress control amongst other vital topics for the safety of aid workers. Also featured was the customary demonstration by the Royal Thai Army of weapon effects and participants were able to see in sharp focus what protective cover will keep them safe and what will not in the event of extreme incidents. It is believed that this Security in the Field Workshop 11-16 demonstration is unique amongst security training workshops held anywhere. September

Very useful input was received by colleagues from Afghanistan advising on coping with the threat of suicide bombing and by a staff member from UNHCR in Mindanao who spoke on the stress of living within a kidnapping-rich environment.

The eCentre Coordinator, Kevin Allen, is thanked for organising such a successful training.

John Campbell, Associate Trainer Strengthening Disaster Risk Reduction capacity in the Philippines The Philippine archipelago is made up of 7,107 islands; favourably located in relation to many of Southeast Asia's main water bodies: the South China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, and Luzon Strait. The Philippines sits astride a typhoon belt, usually affected by 15 and struck by five to six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active volcanoes; destructive earthquakes; tsunamis tend to also dominate the landscape.

RedR dispatched a team of three (Regan Potangaroa, Associate Trainer; John Mitchell, a South Australian fireman and Urban Search and Rescue advisor, and AJ) with AusAID Philippines’ Senior Program Officer Anne Orquiza to investigate with AusAID the feasibility of strengthening the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) capacity in selective areas in the Philippines. The mission worked closely with the Philippines Office of Civil Defence, Department of Social Welfare and the Bureau of Fire Protection.

The RedR-AusAID team met with over 21 organisations (over 180 people) in Central Manila and three regions over the 10 days. An indicative framework plan was assembled and presented to AusAID and the Chairman of OCD for discussion. Three key areas were addressed at the request of OCD on disaster preparedness, response and management: 1. Establishment of training institute on DRR and Disaster Risk Management (DRM) support to capacity building 2. Strengthening the emergency operations centre/s 3. Establishment and capacity building for local and national USAR teams

A final report will be circulated to AusAID for an agreement in principle on the feasibility of implementing DRR programs in 2012 and beyond.

SA AUSMAT Training – 9-11 September Spreading the AusMAT-RedR relationship beyond Northern Territory and Western Australia, Rich and Yvette travelled to Adelaide for the South Australian AusMAT Team Member course. This was an important step in the roll-out of a nationally-endorsed AUSMAT curriculum, and the RedR team took the lead in delivering both generalist and security- based modules.

Twenty-five medics and Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) volunteers came together to go through the usual mix of challenging field scenarios which this time included a river crossing and medical evacuation. With other state AusMATs showing a growing interest in RedR training services, not to mention the courses we support at the federal level such as Lou Robinson's involvement in the Darwin-held National Surgical course (see below), the AusMAT training calendar really is playing an important role in the overseas deployment capacity for Australian emergency responders.

Disaster Surgical Course - 15-16 Sep 2011, Darwin The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre recently ran a two day disaster surgical course as part of its commitment to skilling-up practitioners for overseas deployment into austere environments with either the Australian Defence Force or the International Red Cross movement.

RedR continues to support this national initiative by delivering a knowledge and skills-based package centred on integrated emergency response with a particular focus on individual and team-based security.

Twenty-one doctors and nurses attended the workshop including surgeons from regional Australia, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe. All underwent various skills stations in wound and crush fracture management under the tutelage of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) head war surgeon, Dr Cris Giannou, and well respected Australian orthopeadic and trauma surgeon, Dr Annette Halian. Lou Robinson helped the team prepare for their ‘mission’, navigate to their field operating theatre, radio Lou Robinson, Associate Trainer in coordinates, and negotiate their successful extraction.

RMIT’s International Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Assistance course RedR’s Humanitarian Trainer Yvette Crafti received a letter of thanks for her contribution to the delivery and design of RMIT’s International Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Assistance course, as part of RMIT’s Master in International Development programme. The course was a huge success with guest lecturers providing a good blend of theoretical and practical knowledge. Yvette’s lectures were singled out by Training calendar - 2011 many students as a highlight of the course, providing valuable insight and content. She delivered a practical session on needs assessment which was Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in very favourably received by the students. Emergencies 17 – 23 October Dr Vandra Harris, Senior Lecturer in International Development at RMIT Essentials of Humanitarian Practice remarked that some students were “so inspired that they are enrolling in 10 – 15 November RedR courses to extend their skills in this area”. Personal Security and Communications Well done, Yvette! 17 - 20 November View course descriptions RedR Australia Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in Emergencies course, Dookie, 17-23 October 2011 Our annual WASH course is coming up in October.

Survivors of every disaster need access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene. Appropriate interventions improving water, sanitation and hygiene practices alleviate suffering, reduce disease transmission and save lives. WASH is an ideal introduction to public health in emergencies, standard equipment used in the field and simple solutions applied within complex environments.

Volunteers required for November courses We are seeking volunteers for the November Essentials of Humanitarian Practice (EHP) and Personal Security and Communications (PSC) course to assist with field simulations.

EHP Sunday 13 November: Arrival at Dookie by 6pm for dinner, briefing at 7pm. Monday 14 November: The day will finish up with a barbecue dinner and volunteers are welcome to stay overnight.

PSC Friday 18 November: Arrival at Dookie by 6pm for dinner, briefing at 7pm. Saturday 19 November: Volunteers are required for role playing from 5am - 6pm. Again, a barbecue dinner and volunteers are welcome to stay overnight.

If you’re interested in coming along as a volunteer, please contact Lou at [email protected].

Humanitarian news, updates and research requests Disaster preparedness neglected in aid spending Aid watchdog Development Initiatives has issued its annual Global Humanitarian Assistance Report showing unmet needs in the area of disaster preparedness and risk reduction, which received just 75 US cents out of every $100 spent on aid. Click here to view the article.

Western aid efforts increasingly viewed as disempowering Lack of focus on local training and capacity building in disaster-prone/affected communities is causing Western aid to be increasingly viewed as “intrusive and disempowering”. Local people often have little say in what kind of aid is needed and do not receive adequate training in what to do in a disaster, the World Disasters Report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. Click here to view the article.

UN and Lonely Planet launch partnership The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Lonely Planet, the world’s leading travel publisher, have teamed up and have announced the launch of a partnership to provide vital information for those responding to humanitarian emergencies. Click here for more information.

50 new International WaterCentre (IWC) scholarships on offer for 2012 The IWC is now offering partial-tuition scholarships to the first 50 students who enrol in an Integrated Water Management program (Masters, Graduate Diploma or Graduate Certificate) for 2012.

The program equips students with the integration, leadership and managerial skills to become part of an elite group of water leaders with sustainable and holistic solutions to global water and climate change challenges. The program takes a multi-disciplinary, whole-of-water-cycle approach. It is a co-badged and co-taught degree by The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Monash University and The University of Western Australia. The scholarship is available to Australian and international students who do not receive any external full-tuition scholarship or full-tuition funding from other sources. Click here for more information.

Research assistance request Jacquelie Hanafie is a journalism honours student at Monash University currently researching the relationships between journalists and aid workers in humanitarian disasters. Her thesis aims to identify factors that contribute to the way in which journalists and aid workers interact in the field and the negotiation of access that takes place between these stakeholders, and the outcomes they achieve.

Jacquelie is seeking the opinions of aid workers and NGO staff who have been deployed to disaster-affected areas and is asking willing participants to complete her online survey. The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and is completely anonymous. If you are interested in participating in Jacquelie’s survey, please email her for the survey link. e: [email protected]

Upcoming events Humanitarian Engineering Conference - 30 November – 2 December, 2011 Melbourne Engineers Australia and Engineers Without Borders bring you the 2011 Humanitarian Engineering Conference, in this, the Year of Humanitarian Engineering.

3 days event - includes:  Technical Workshops  Interactive Sessions  Networking Opportunities

Register personnel are asked to “talk this event up” to any engineers known to you. More information

Engineers Australia Humanitarian Workshops As part of the Year of Humanitarian Engineering, Engineers Australia is hosting a series of humanitarian workshops around the nation.

Adelaide: “Engineering and Logistics providing Humanitarian Outcomes” - 12 October Melbourne: “Humanitarian Engineering a Pivotal Role in United Nations Response to Disaster and the Ongoing Demand to Building Community Resilience” - 18 October Sydney: “Humanitarian Engineering Supporting the Response to International Disasters” - 20 October Canberra: “Humanitarian Engineering Supporting and Stabilisation Actions” - 26 October Perth: “Industry Support to Humanitarian Engineering Responses to Disasters and Conflicts” - 4 November Darwin: “Engineers Supporting Humanitarian Outcomes in the Acute Phase of Disasters, Conflict and Complex Emergencies” - 9 November

View Engineers Australia State Division websites.

Feedback and contributions We are always interested in any news about your deployment/RedR training, photographs, quotes, funny stories and observations from the field or events/websites which may be interest to others on the Standby Register. Please contact Joe Swan with your contribution.

This e-news is produced for the RedR Australia and New Zealand Standby Registers – if there is anything you would like included, please don’t hesitate to put forward your idea.

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