USAR teams were put to the test when Turkey faced its worst earthquake to date in Izmit, in 1999. The initial response to the disaster was criticized as being chaotic, resulting in unacceptable delays. In an interview for The Paris Globalist, UN Humanitarian Affairs Officer Jesper Lund3 commented on his experience. He noted : “We grossly underestimated the international response. We had no idea what was coming. We had estimated 500 USAR personnel from 20 country teams and 2700 arrived from 96 teams and organizations. There is a need for much broader communication between the disaster affected area and resource providers.”
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Working at the Epicentre of Devastation : The United Nations’ Response to Natural Disasters When natural disaster strikes, Search and Rescue Teams from around the world dispatch to assist. The task of coordinating these efforts falls on OCHA, the UN’s worldly recognized humanitarian coordination body.
D
uring an official visit to the US in December 1988, Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev was informed that Armenia – then part of the Soviet Union – had suffered a devastating earthquake, resulting in the deaths of thousands. He shocked the world when requesting international assistance, an act unprecedented in its era. Amateurs and professionals alike poured in to offer assistance, unprepared and without any understanding of the quake’s impact. The polarization of Cold War politics added to the mission’s complexity, limiting the effective interaction between local authorities and relief
efforts. This, in addition to the lack of cooperation amongst a multitude of governmental and non-governmental actors, resulted in the mission’s failure. The unanticipated intervention exposed, however, the need for formal coordination. Three years later, in 1991, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 46/182, giving birth to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)1. Designed to strengthen the UN’s emergency response, OCHA coordinates a new generation of emergency services and
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delay depends on the extent of the damage, the country’s political will and the communication between the disaster site and government officials. Following Indonesia’s earthquake4, the UNDAC team was deployed in less than 24 hours. In the case of Burma, when cyclone Nargis affected 2.4 million people, the regime refused international assistance entry for three weeks : the longest delay in recent history. Moreover, guidelines and specialized training reduce, but can never remove the challenge of the unforeseeable nature inherent to all Search and Rescue missions. There are still populations in remote areas that remain out of reach. One month after the quake in West Sumatra, OCHA confirmed that assistance had still not arrived in the most remote areas, due to massive landslides that had buried entire villages.
During Autumn 2009, the Philippines were victim to four back-to-back typhoons. For the first time, a UNDAC team was preemptively deployed to the region. This early arrival tactic aims to circumvent the period of obstructed access to a disaster site and expedite the delivery of emergency assistance. Following this experience, INSARAG created the On-Site The government worked in collaboration with agencies in Operations Coordination Centre (OSOCC) and the Virtual order to implement a number of preventative measures before OSOCC (a web-platform for the arrival of the typhoon, tracked As the recognized Search and Rescue by satellite. In preparation for the emergency response teams). They assist local authorities with disaster coordination body, the UNDAC team storm a total of 23,101 families management and coordinate inwere evacuated to 251 centers, works closely with overwhelmed ternational USAR teams from and relief supplies were delivered government authorities affected arrival to mission assignment and to 10 provinces where the typhoon departure. Through the Virtual was expected to hit. Yet, many by the catastrophe OSOCC, teams are able to share areas are still today facing the critical information such as team size and available resources devastation and aid workers continue to stream in and out of in real time, prior to their arrival. To know in advance when, the country, in an effort to revive the under-funded on-site to where, and in what capacity teams can be tasked, has revo- operations. lutionized disaster response operations over the past decade. When dealing with natural disasters, international cooperation The initial mobilization period of 48 hours is critical to a faces challenges of coordination, rapidity and effectiveness. mission’s success. In the immediate aftermath of a crisis, Through OCHA, the United Nations plays an essential role specialized disaster management professionals from in managing international response efforts and ensuring the governments, relief organizations and UN agencies, deploy effective delivery of emergency services to populations in from a stand-by roster, in order to be among the first to arrive need. on-site. As the recognized Search and Rescue coordination body, the UNDAC team works closely with overwhelmed government authorities affected by the catastrophe. Their goal is to coordinate operations and then facilitate the transition from the relief to recovery phase. Despite improvements in information dissemination and shortened decision-making process, a great number of challenges lie ahead. The initiation of operations still hinges on the bureaucratized and heavily politicized decision by the affected government to request international assistance. This
Katelyn Potter 5th year student Master in International Affairs Former intern to Surge Capacity Section, OCHA
The OCHA is part of the UN Secretariat and coordinates humanitarian response : www.ochaonline.un.org. Under the UN umbrella, INSARAG is a global network of more than 80 countries and organizations. 3 Jesper Lund is a Humanitarian Affairs Officer to the UN Field Coordination Support Section, based in Geneva, OCHA. He was the team leader to the emergency response conducted following the earthquake in Izmit, Turkey, 17th August, 1999. 4 The earthquake in September 2009 of 7.8 magnitude affecting West Sumatra claimed the lives of 739 victims, displaced 8,000 and left an estimated 750 000 in need of assistance. 1
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mechanisms. One such mechanism is the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG)2, created to enhance the coordination and cooperation for international and national responders to earthquakes. The INSARAG Secretariat drafted the guidelines, which would later become the recognized standards for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams, also addressing the roles and responsibilities of the respective sending and receiving governments.