Caroline Hancock-Ebner
Programme Officer
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC
Domain Humanitarian Aid and SHA / Multilateral Humanitarian Affairs Division
caroline.hancock-ebner@eda.admin.ch
• Switzerland in its international engagements on DRR stresses the need to take full account of the synergies between disaster risk reduction, climate action, poverty reduction and sustainable development – and the different frameworks that guide the international community in these fields (the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda). This understanding is, for example, at the core of Switzerland’s co-chairmanship of the Consultative Group of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) in 2016-2017. Furthermore, SDC has geared its co-chairmanship towards strengthening GFDRR’s engagement in resilience to climate change as well as in the field of urban resilience
• Switzerland also advocated at the occasion of the Global Platform for recognition of the need for closer cooperation in the fields of disaster prevention, climate change and development cooperation.
• Switzerland will be the host of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2019.
• SDC has recently launched a new online tool, called CEDRIG – the Climate, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction Integration Guidance – to help development cooperation and humanitarian aid practitioners integrate risks related to climate change, environmental degradation and natural hazards into their projects, programmes and strategies. CEDRIG also helps to identify and reduce potential negative impacts of activities on the environment, the climate and disaster risks. The tool is freely available at www.cedrig.org
• The SDC gave a broad platform for youth engagement at the UN Climate Conference in Marrakech (COP22) on the “Espace Jeunesse” (http://www.jeunessecop22.com/). Designed by youth and for youth, the “Espace Jeunesse” brought young people from all horizons to discuss how best to tackle the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, to follow training modules on climate change and share their engagement through art, architecture, radio and dialogue.
• SDC supported the generation of public awareness by supporting open access e-learning courses in the field of DRR and Climate Change Adaptation (e.g. with EPFL and UNITAR – UN CC:Learn http://www.uncclearn.org/)
• SDC has continued in 2016 to support the Swiss NGO DRR Platform which does valuable advocacy work at the national and international level.
Related to first aid, the undertaken activities from the responsible SWISS public authorities are different from the confederation, from canton to canton and from municipality to municipality, due to Switzerland’s direct democracy.
One actor on national level is the Swiss Samaritan Federation (SSB).
The Swiss Samaritan Federation (SSB) undertakes a variety of activities to raise public awareness about first aid, including training courses.
• In regard to existing federal provisions the SSB provides:
- Company courses: Specific courses for company first aid officers
- Target group courses: Courses for particular job profiles e.g. in accordance with the Transport Driver Licensing Ordinance
- First aid courses: The SSB provides first aid courses for prospective drivers in line with ASTRA standards.
• In the wider context i.e. where there are no or only few federal guidelines, the SSB is focusing its efforts on schools because learning about first aid at an early age is practical and useful:
- Pupil first-aiders: The SSB has a project to provide first-aid training to pupils who can then help or take on related tasks during school events or when the school’s first-aid officers are on a break. The SSB’s proposal to include first aid in the new single syllabus for Swiss schools known as ‘Lehrplan 21’ was rejected at the time. Establishing the first-aiders project in schools is also more complicated because of differences in cantonal provisions and responsibilities, or a lack thereof.
- The SSB has taken a variety of measures to raise public awareness about first aid and to provide training courses:
- A joint online training platform (redcross.edu) set up with the Red Cross to boost the market presence of the whole range of training courses on offer.
- Complete overhaul of training courses to make them more attractive: some shorter courses, new learning approaches, etc.
• The IFRC International first aid and resuscitation guidelines and specifications set by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Swiss Resuscitation Council (SRC) are incorporated in the courses and internal teaching materials.
• As a member of the Swiss Rescue Association (IVR-IAS), the SSB has a seat on both the organisation’s First Aid Commission and its Medical-Technical Commission.
• The SSB also has a service level agreement with the Coordinated Medical Services of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) and implements the DDPS’s measures and recommendations on disaster management.
Typical example of an activity at the level of a municipality in the first aid organization the fire-fighters in Murten in the canton of Freiburg: all members are instructed in cardio-pulmonary reanimation. That includes the use of a defibrillator. They organized and bought this instruction themselves with the budget they became from the public authorities. Normally they don’t use existing guidance such as the International Federation’s International First Aid and Resuscitation Guidelines.