Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T00:59:46.204Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Complex Emergencies to Terrorism — New Tools for Health-Sector Coordination in Conflict-Associated Disasters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

David A. Bradt  and
Christina M. Drummond
David A. Bradt*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; Center for International Emergency, Disaster, and Refugee Studies, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Christina M. Drummond
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Epidemiology, Monash Medical Center, Melbourne, Australia; Center for International Emergency, Disaster, and Refugee Studies, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
*
Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital, PO Box 2009, Grattan Street and Royal Parade, Parkville 3050, Victoria, Australia, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Inter-agency coordination in humanitarian assistance dates as a discipline from the 1960s. The United Nations, Red Cross, governmental, and nongovernmental agencies have evolved different mechanisms to achieve it. Present practices in field-based, inter-agency coordination of the health sector remain variable and non-standardized. International experiences in coordination of humanitarian assistance reveal numerous issues of jurisdiction, authority, capacity, and competency. New tools to help overcome these issues in the health-sector coordination include binding principles of engagement, protocols for the assumption of responsibilities, standardized minimum essential data sets, and health-sector component summaries.

Keywords

complex emergenciescomponent summarycoordinationdisasterhealth sectorminimum essential data setsterrorism
Type
Special Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 3: Terrorism-II: Special Reports , September 2003 , pp. 263 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Minear, L, Chelliah, U, Crisp, J, et al: UN coordination of the international humanitarian response to the Gulf Crisis 1990–1992. Occasional paper #13. The Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. 1992.Google Scholar
2.International Committee of the Red Cross: Wa r and Public Health. Geneva, Switzerland: International Committee of the Red Cross, 1996, pp 310–318.Google Scholar
3.International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: Disaster response programme components. In: Handbook for Delegates. Geneva, Switzerland: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 1997. p 661.Google Scholar
4.United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Emergency management. In: Handbook for Emergencies. Geneva, Switzerland: UNHCR, 2000. pp 58–65.Google Scholar
5.World Health Organization Department of Emergency and Humanitarian Action: Handbook for Emergency Field Operations. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, 1999. pp 32–36.Google Scholar
6.Medécins Sans Frontiéres: Refugee Health—An Approach to Emergency Situations. Hong Kong: Macmillan Education, 1997. pp 223–230.Google Scholar
7.The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. Geneva, Switzerland: Oxfam Publishing, 1998.Google Scholar
8.United National General Assembly: UN General Assembly Res 2816 (XXVI), 14 December 1971.Google Scholar
9.Macalister-Smith, P: International Humanitarian Assistance—Disaster Relief Actions in International Law and Organization. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1985. pp 129–147.Google Scholar
10.Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: What It Is, What It Does. New York: United Nations, undated.Google Scholar
11.Reindorp, N, Wiles, P: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Humanitarian Coordination: Lessons from Recent Field Experience. London: Overseas Development Institute, June 2001. Available from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, New York, and the Overseas Development Institute, London.Google Scholar
12.United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR Handbook for the Military on Humanitarian Operations. Geneva: UNHCR, 1995.Google Scholar
13.Burkle, FM: Complex humanitarian emergencies: Medical liaison and training. Prehosp Disast Med 1995; 10(1): 43–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14. Center of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance. Civil-Military Relations. Available at http://coe-dmha.org/civmil.htm. Accessed April 2003.Google Scholar
15.Toole, M: Health Coordination in Emergencies: Options for the Role of WHO. 1997. WHO Division of Emergency and Humanitarian Action, and the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research, Melbourne.Google Scholar
16.World Health Organization, Department of Emergency and Humanitarian Action: WHO's Core Commitments in Emergencies. June 2001. Available from WHO/EHA, Geneva.Google Scholar
17.Task Force on Quality Control of Disaster Management: Health Disaster Management: Guidelines for Evaluation and Research in the Utstein Style: Executive Summary. Prehosp Disast Med 1999; 14(2): 43–53.Google Scholar
18.Bradt, DA, Drummond, CM: Rapid epidemiological assessment of health status in displaced populations—An evolution toward standardized minimum essential data sets. Prehosp Disast Med 2002: 17(4); 178–185.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Bradt, DA: Ambon health situation report. August 2000. WHO Department of Emergency and Humanitarian Action Situation Reports for Indonesia (Maluku). Available at http://www.who.int/disasters/repo/5853.doc. Accessed May 2003.Google Scholar
20.Seiple, C: The U.S. Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions. Carlisle Barracks, Pa: Peacekeeping Institute, Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College, 1996.Google Scholar
21.Report from a Roundtable on Humanitarian-Military Sharing. Good Practices: Information Sharing in Complex Emergencies. Worldwide Civil Affairs Conference. United States Institute of Peace, 2001. Available at http://www.usip.org/virtualdiplomacy/publications/reports/11.html. Accessed April 2003.Google Scholar
22.Cuny, FC: Disasters and Development. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.Google Scholar