Michael Meyer
Head of International Law
British Red Cross
mmeyer@redcross.org.uk
The British Red Cross continues to promote the IDRL Guidelines, as appropriate, both with Government officials and other relevant stakeholders. This work follows on from the UK case study on cross-border disaster relief facilitated by the British Red Cross in 2010.
For example, in June 2016 the British Red Cross jointly hosted a seminar with the Commonwealth Secretariat on ‘Law, Humanity and the Commonwealth’, aimed at officials from Commonwealth High Commissions in London. One of the sessions during the day focused on ‘strengthening legal frameworks for disaster response and risk reduction’, and included speakers from the International Federation’s Disaster Law Programme, the Government of Bangladesh and the Commonwealth Secretariat. As the title indicates, the session covered both legal frameworks relevant to disaster response (including IDRL matters) and those related to disaster risk reduction.
Through our support to other National Societies (and the Movement more generally), we help to fund the dissemination of the IDRL Guidelines in Mongolia, through our ‘Silent Emergencies’ programme (this is implemented by the Federation).
The British Red Cross also takes part in peer to peer exchanges on IDRL and other disaster laws issues, subject to capacity. For example, in June 2017, a BRC representative took part in a workshop on international disaster laws in Cork, Ireland, hosted by University College Cork and the Irish Red Cross.
In terms of our work with Movement partners, the British Red Cross gives support to the International Federation in the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium within Flagship 4 CBDRR, supporting the revision of the Government of Nepal’s Local Disaster Risk Management Policy. We also provide support to the Federation in the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium Flagship “concerning policy, procedures and coordination for logistics and response”.
In the UK, the British Red Cross has provided funding for a Symposium on International Law and Disaster Risk Reduction, hosted by the University of Reading from 29 June to 1 July 2017. The Symposium will bring together officials, practitioners and academics both in the UK and internationally to explore a range of international law issues relevant to DRR.
The British Red Cross is also currently in discussion with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Federation concerning the possibility of facilitating a workshop on relevant disaster laws matters for Commonwealth countries in the Pacific region. This may take place in late 2017.
The activities set out below relate to the British Red Cross’s work to support other National Societies (and the International Federation).
Domestically, the British Red Cross is a part of the UK’s civil contingencies framework, and performs certain functions in emergency preparedness and response, owing to its status as a humanitarian auxiliary to the public authorities and as part of the voluntary sector. We maintain good contacts with relevant Government counterparts, both at the national and local levels. Our domestic emergency response teams were unable at this juncture to provide more specific feedback for this mid-term report, owing to the recent series of emergencies within the UK requiring significant British Red Cross involvement.
• Public awareness and public education
- The British Red Cross supports Vulnerability to Resilience (V2R) programmes in Bangladesh, which have a school-based DRR output, which support the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) in their mandate to provide school children with information. This is a national agreement that the BDRCS has with its Government, where each child in school pays a small nominal fee which goes towards risk reduction activities.
• Assessment of risk and vulnerability
- Community-Level Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments are currently carried out through the British Red Cross’s National Society partners, for example:
Nepal - Urban assessments of risk and vulnerability to mainstream into Municipal plans. Currently all Municipalities and Village Development Councils (VDC) are by law required to spend 5% of their budget on risk reduction and preparedness. Programmes cover 6 Municipalities.
Nepal - Jhappa District Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments cover 6 VDC and over 40 villages.
Bangladesh- V2R programmes cover over 100 Villages, with Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments linked to the Local Disaster Management Authority.
Timor Leste - Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments are supported at the community level.
Myanmar - Integrated Community Based Resilience Assessment are supported in 15 villages in the Rakhine State, plus nine additional areas aimed specifically at examining risks to livelihoods in earlier programmes.
• NS response and preparedness (contingency plans, standard operating procedures, pre-disaster meetings, disaster preparedness stocks)
The British Red Cross has supported the following activities:
- Mongolia - Contingency plans, National Disaster Response Team (NDRT) training, and development of Emergency Operations Centre with the Mongolian Red Cross Society
- Nepal – pre-placement of stocks of 10,000 non-food items with Nepal Red Cross pre-earthquake in a strategic location (shipping containers), as well as training of NDRT and community-based search and rescue volunteers, as well as first aid volunteers.
- Nepal – created an emergency blood bank; during the 2015 response the central blood bank was moved to this location as the building partially collapsed.
• Preposition disaster preparedness stocks
- The British Red Cross has supported the pre-positioning of community level ‘Community Disaster Response Kits’ with Community Disaster Management Committees in Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Nepal in all DRR programmes
• Training & simulation drills
- The British Red Cross has given support to a National Simulation in Mongolia (GobiWolfe), to facilitate the participation of the Mongolian Red Cross Society,
- We have also supported simulations in Nepal and Mongolia to assess the National Societies’ capacity.
• Psychosocial support and mental health services
- The British Red Cross has supported training with volunteers in Nepal for the National Disaster Response Team’s post-earthquake programmes.
• Water and sanitation support
- The British Red Cross has given support to tube well construction across all villages involved in the V2R programmes in Bangladesh through the BDRCS, as well as to water provisions through the earthquake preparedness programme in Nepal, and the Myanmar resilience programme.
- We have also supported latrine construction in Bangladesh, soft skills and triggering in Nepal, East Timor and Myanmar
• Livelihoods support
- The British has provided urban livelihood support through the Nepal Recovery Programme in three districts; this has been done through cash grants.
- We have also provided livelihoods support through cash grants in Jhappa (Nepal) and in all Bangladesh V2R programmes (with the exception of Kurigram)
- In addition, we have supported livelihoods protection through winter shelters and training in Mongolia.
The British Red Cross is a major provider of first aid in the UK and has a range of contacts with relevant Government officials on first aid related issues, including on issues relating to the UK regulatory framework.
The British Red Cross is a major provider of first aid in the UK and has a range of contacts with relevant Government officials on first aid related issues, including on issues relating to the UK regulatory framework.