Emergencies and Humanitarian Assistance

At night, after a long day visiting refugee sites along the remote Chad-Sudan border, UNHCR team leader Yvan Sturm downloads his e-mails on his laptop through his thuraya satellite phone by lamplight. © UNHCR/H.Caux

When a new humanitarian crisis occurs, aid workers and humanitarian practitioners require rapid access to information resources that can help them prepare for emergency assignments.  This page provides access to web-based resources for current news, background country information, operational materials, codes of conduct, periodicals, and employment/volunteer listings.  It also highlights documents from FMO's digital library that discuss the nature of humanitarianism.  Finally, contact details for key emergency relief agencies are also listed.

Web Resources

For more, search in the Web Catalogue

News/Situation Reports

• Crisis watch (Fundació CIDOB) (in English, Spanish and Catalan)
• CrisisWatch (International Crisis Group)
• Emergencies (AlertNet)
• IDP news alert (Global IDP Project, Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement)
• Information on complex emergencies and natural disasters by country (ReliefWeb)
• Latest news from IRIN Africa (Integrated Regional Information Networks) (in English and French)
• Latest news from IRIN Asia (Integrated Regional Information Networks)
• Latest updates (ReliefWeb)
• News (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) (also in Czech, French, Polish, Spanish)
• UN news centre (UN) (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish)

See also: News Sources

Background Country Information

For a comprehensive listing of resources providing country of origin information, please see the Country Information Resources page.

Operational Materials

• e-Library (UNHCR, Regional Centre for Emergency Training in International Humanitarian Response)
• Humanitarian library (ReliefWeb)
• IASC key documents and materials 1992-2004 (IASC)
• Medical reference (Médecins Sans Frontières)
• Partnership guides (UNHCR)

See also:

The Sphere Project's Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, revised handbook 2004.

FMO have made most of the references and reading materials in the handbook's bibliographies accessible online (in full text). The bibliographies are structured in the same way as they are in the handbook and are divided into the following categories:

• Common Standards
• Water/Sanitation
• Food
• Shelter
• Health

Other Handbooks and Guidelines (FMO catalogued resources)

Click on the image above to launch an interactive map illustrating principle sources of forced migration in the world during 2004. Help: To view information about a specific country, place your mouse over a circle symbol. © Forced Migration Online

Codes of Conduct

• Code of conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in disaster relief (IFRC)
• Guiding principles on internal displacement (UN, 1998)
• Declaration of minimum humanitarian standards (Institute for Human Rights, 1990)
• The fundamental principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC)
• The humanitarian charter and minimum standards in disaster response (Sphere Project, 2004)
• International humanitarian law (ICRC)
• The People In Aid code of good practice in the management and support of aid personnel (2003)

Information Sharing Fora for Aid Workers

• Aid workers exchange (Aid Workers Network)
• Field exchange (ENN)
• Forced migration review (RSC)
• Humanitarian exchange magazine (HPN)

Emergency/Volunteer Registers

• Disaster assistance registration database (CIDI)
• IRC's emergency response roster (IRC)
• RedR's registers (RedR)
• Volunteer with MSF (MSF)
• WHO Emergency Roster (WHO)

Employment/Volunteer Resources

• Humanitarian vacancies (Reliefweb)
• Job/Volunteer Opportunities (InterAction)
• Jobs (AlertNet)
• Where to find your next job (Aid Workers Network)

Documents/Journal Articles

For more, search in the Digital Library

• Adviesraad Internationale Vraagstukken. 1998.  “Humanitarian aid: redefining the limits."
• Macrae, Joanna and Young, Helen, eds.  1998.  "Special issue. The emperor's new clothes: charting the erosion of humanitarian principles."  Disasters 22(4).
• Martin, Randolph.  1999.  "NGO field security."  Forced Migration Review 4: 4-7.
• Slim, Hugo.  1995.  "The continuing metamorphosis of the humanitarian practitioner: some new colours for an endangered chameleon."  Disasters 19(2): 110-126.
• Väyrynen, Raimo.  1996.  "The age of humanitarian emergencies."

Organizations

For more, search in the FMO Organizations Directory

• Action Contre la Faim (ACF)
• CARE International
• Caritas Internationalis
• European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO)
• Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN)
• InterAction
• Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE)
• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
• International Federation Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC)
• International Rescue Committee (IRC)
• Islamic Relief
• Médecins du Monde
• Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
• Medical Emergency Relief International (MERLIN)
• Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN (OCHA)
• Oxfam
• Première Urgence
• RedR International (Engineers for Disaster Relief)
• Save the Children
• Shelterproject.org
• Sphere Project
• UNHCR
• UNICEF
• Voluntary Organisations in Cooperation in Emergencies (VOICE)
• World Food Programme (WFP)
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• World Vision International