Helping hands Local action in times of civil unrest Preparing for the worst Developing local responses to technological disasters Red Cross Red Crescent The touch of humanity Issue 1 . 2016 www.redcross.int Award-winning photos of Movement’s Ebola response Bright ideas Shedding new light on innovation THE MAGAZINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT MOVEMENT The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is made up of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the National Societies. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies The International Committee of the Red The International Federation of Red Cross National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Cross is an impartial, neutral and independent and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the embody the work and principles of the organization whose exclusively humanitarian world’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian International Red Cross and Red Crescent mission is to protect the lives and dignity of network, reaching 150 million people each year Movement in more than 190 countries. National victims of armed conflict and other situations of through its 190 member National Societies. Societies act as auxiliaries to the public authorities violence and to provide them with assistance. Together, the IFRC acts before, during and of their own countries in the humanitarian field The ICRC also endeavours to prevent suffering by after disasters and health emergencies to meet and provide a range of services including disaster promoting and strengthening humanitarian law the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable relief, health and social programmes. During and universal humanitarian principles. Established people. It does so with impartiality as to wartime, National Societies assist the affected in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin of the Geneva nationality, race, gender, religious beliefs, class civilian population and support the army medical Conventions and the International Red Cross and and political opinions. Guided by Strategy 2020 services where appropriate. Red Crescent Movement. It directs and coordinates — a collective plan of action to tackle the major the international activities conducted by the humanitarian and development challenges of Movement in armed conflicts and other situations this decade — the IFRC is committed to ‘saving of violence. lives and changing minds’. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is guided by seven Fundamental Principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. All Red Cross and Red Crescent activities have one central purpose: to help without discrimination those who suffer and thus contribute to peace in the world. Guest editorial: A message to the World Humanitarian Summit In a time of mounting crises and rapid change, we must rethink our collective response umanitarians are forever striving “The international system still ing and insuring those groups who operate for order. In spite of (or perhaps places too much emphasis on in dangerous conditions. At the same time, because of) the chaos that we see we should be careful not to swap one form of Hon a daily basis, we have an overwhelming international actors, leaving local imbalance for another. Our call is for an eco- urge to categorize, to organize. We distin- organizations with not enough system that emphasizes the complementary guish between mandates, we cluster by strengths of local, national and international sector and we respond in phases. influence over decision-making, actors. There will always be contexts, for ex- and not enough access to global ample, where the neutrality of international Of course we know that this is at least organizations will be needed. In those cases, partly artificial. When conflict starts or a humanitarian financing.” roadblocks to international access must be disaster hits, we respond, adapt, innovate swiftly and completely dismantled. and find new solutions to unexpected chal- do just that. Collective and collaborative lenges. But as the situation calms, we use responses should go beyond traditional Finding the right balance will allow us to re- those experiences to reclassify, refine and boundaries, mandates and thinking. No spond more effectively to need of all kinds. refocus. A revised order emerges. single organization can hope to respond Crucially, by emphasizing long-term and to the needs of vulnerable communities. mutually valuable relationships between The changes we have seen over the past local and international partners, it will also five years have forced some of us to ask Crucially, these partnerships need to em- allow us to provide more sustained support whether the very foundations of this order brace the extremely important role of for communities suffering from chronic cri- are still relevant. We are witnessing more local humanitarian organizations, includ- ses. We will be better able to help them to and more protracted conflicts plunging ing National Red Cross and Red Crescent identify and address their own risks and people into dire need and making it dif- Societies. The international system still vulnerabilities, to integrate them in the re- ficult to classify humanitarian contexts. places too much emphasis on international sponse and to become stronger and more Increasingly we encounter the same com- actors, leaving local organizations with not resilient in the process. The role of humani- munities affected by multiple hazards: enough influence over decision-making tarians will be to accompany communities conflicts compounded by disasters, disas- and not enough access to global humani- as they design their own solutions, rather ters aggravated by climate change and the tarian financing. than prescribe answers to questions we acute risks associated with unplanned ur- might not always understand. banization. We see them taking initiatives, This imbalance must change. While rec- too, building their own resilience, but also ognizing the importance of international This approach will allow us to create link- having very specific needs. actors, we need to ensure that the capacity ages between the many different systems of principled local actors is a key priority. that are involved in humanitarian response. We are also observing a globalization of They must be seen as true partners, not as The component that many of us are most fragility and humanitarian needs. We can mere implementers. This includes protect- familiar with — what we often term the no longer consider suffering and vulner- ‘traditional’ humanitarian system — is only ability to be the sole domains of the global What is the World part of a collection of diverse systems that south (if this was ever really possible). The are too often out of sync. majority of the world’s poor live in middle- Humanitarian Summit? and upper-income countries. The arrival of The World Humanitarian Summit will bring We need to embrace change. The World more than 1 million vulnerable migrants together heads of state, thought leaders, Humanitarian Summit is a once-in-a-gen- on European shores in 2015 illustrated representatives from the private sector and eration chance to do this on a systemwide the regional and global consequences of humanitarian organizations of all sizes to Istanbul, scale. We need to have the courage to seize chronic and intractable suffering. Turkey in May 2016 in order to “set an agenda for this opportunity and to make it happen. change to make humanitarian action fit for the Needs are changing and our response great challenges we face”, according to the United By Yves Daccord and Elhadj As Sy must adapt accordingly. The World Hu- Nations, which is organizing the gathering. Yves Daccord is director general of the ICRC; Elhadj As Sy manitarian Summit is an opportunity to is secretary general of the IFRC. ISSUE 1 . 2016 | RED CROSS RED CRESCENT | 1 In brief... Horrifying conditions in microcephaly and to Guillain-Barré besieged Syrian cities syndrome. Zika is transmitted by the With blockades of several Syrian same Aedes aegypti mosquito that cities creating catastrophic carries dengue and chikungunya, so conditions for residents, the the way to stop transmission from Movement called on all parties in these daytime-biting mosquitoes the Syrian conflict to end all sieges to humans is to reduce the number being carried out across the war-torn of places with standing water, country. As joint ICRC, United Nations where mosquitoes breed, and to and Syrian Arab Red Crescent wear insect repellent consistently convoys delivered food, medicines throughout the day, among other Photo: REUTERS/Pichi Chuan REUTERS/Pichi Photo: and blankets into the besieged measures. “In the battle against Zika, cities of Madaya, Kefraya and Foua knowledge is power,” says Julie Lyn Taiwan Red Cross responds to deadly earthquake in January, the head of ICRC’s Syria Hall, the IFRC’s director of health. Five rescue teams from the Taiwan Red Cross supported government and delegation, Marianne Gasser, visited military emergency services in searching the ruins of collapsed buildings in a makeshift health centre and wrote Better shelter for Sri Tainan City in early February, after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck in the about it for The Guardian newspaper. south of Taiwan. In the most difficult cases, the teams spent hours digging “I was met by the sight of limp bodies Lanka’s displaced through a maze of broken