The World Federation of Societies of Anesthesioologists (WFSA) is a federation of some 76 anesthesia societies throughout the world. Our role in the management of disasters is very minimal; in fact, we have no specific service role. It does have a role to play in education and research aspects of acute medicine. The World Federation's aims are those of education of anesthesiologists of our member societies. This educational role is fulfilled by the staging of meetings, by the foundation of training centers in anesthesiology, by the production of special manuals and by meeting some of the expenses of visiting educational teams that travel to various parts of the world as visiting professors. These are all educational functions. Included in this function, of course, would be education in emergency medicine and disaster medicine.