1. Emergency Response for Disaster Risk Reduction

2. Emergency Response consists of the following activities: Search and Rescue Relief Delivery Improving the Quality of Public Relief Evacuation Centre Management Mobilisation of the Less-Vulnerable Sectors

3. Search and Rescue

4. Organised communities could have a functional disaster response committee. This community may entail a community- based search and rescue team. It is essential that the search and rescue team formulates its counter disaster plan and practise rescue manoeuvres.

5. The search and rescue team will also need to have proper equipments, for example, life jackets, flashlights, batteries, ropes, megaphones, first aid kits, and rescue boats. They should be trained in undertaking proper search and rescue operations.

6. Relief Delivery

7. Establishment of a local-level relief goods warehouse and an organisational arrangement to collect, store, maintain and distribute relief could help mitigate the impact of a hazard on local people. Standard relief items could be stored in advance. Relief items purchase locally can be more appropriate culturally. And they would be cheaper due to no or low transportation costs involved.

8. Donations from individuals, schools, religious institutions, companies, and support groups could also be collected. Non-useful donations could be sold by exhibition or auction and cash earned this way could be added to relief funds.

9. Improving the Quality of Public Relief

10. Costs of relief measures in South Asia compete with sustainable development allocations. For example, money spent on plastic sheets to cover damaged roofs means less money is allocated to build new homes for the homeless.

11. Repeated relief allocation and use have not brought about regionwide improvement in the quality and standards of relief in the voluntary sectors. Poor relief means poor recovery and rehabilitation.

12. Non-development oriented relief means the continued vulnerability of the poor. Therefore it is imperative that victims and recipients conduct audits of relief delivery and let them be engaged in the design and distribution of relief after disasters. Such initiatives could help make relief more appropriate and meaningful.

13. Evacuation Centre Management

14. Some disasters cause long-term displacement. Evacuees gather from different places and often have to share a common evacuation centre. This can lead to chaotic and unhealthy conditions if no management system is put in place. People might become dependent, depressed and even violent if they have nothing to do but sit and wait for support.

15. The participation of evacuees in camp management is important, since it is people’s right to be involved in decisions that affect their lives and shape their environment. People’s involvement in evacuation centre management is a way to rebuild people’s confidence and capacities after what they have experienced during the disaster. Life in an evacuation centre is very different from the ‘normal life’ people lead before they enter the camp.

16. While being engaged in the day-to-day management of an evacuation centre, people can rebuild a community and get the energy to look ahead again. They will require an evacuation centre management committee. Other committees like the health committee, security committee, networking / public information committee, and education / training committee will support it.

17. Mobilisation of the Less-Vulnerable Sectors

18. Linking the vulnerable communities with the less-vulnerable sectors can also be very useful strategy to reduce people’s vulnerability. The less-vulnerable groups get the opportunity to participate in the development endeavours of the vulnerable sectors.

19. The less-vulnerable groups could be students, teachers, doctors, nurses, dentists, religious organisations, scientists and technical experts, drivers, companies, and media personalities. The involvement of less-vulnerable sectors in disaster response is not limited to financial and technical assistance, but covers a wide range of support: e.g., material resource generation, financial resource generation, human power and moral support.