Emergency Response

Emergency Preparedness and Response

UNHCR is often faced with a sudden emergency requiring an immediate response - an eruption of fighting causing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, perhaps, or a massive earthquake displacing hundreds of thousands. That means the agency must be able to rush aid and experts to the affected zone without delay. Providing fleeing civilians with emergency help is often the first step towards their long-term protection and rehabilitation.

To prepare for and respond to an emergency, UNHCR has assembled teams of people with a wide range of key skills who are ready for deployment anywhere in the world at a moment's notice. The agency has also created emergency stockpiles of non-food aid items in Copenhagen and Dubai to supplement local aid supplies in areas of need. We have established long-standing agreements with freight forwarders and logistics companies, and developed a global network of suppliers, specialist agencies and partners.

This means that at any given time, UNHCR has the capacity to respond to a new emergency impacting up to 500,000 people. We can also mobilize more than 300 trained personnel within 72 hours. These experts come from its Emergency Response Team (ERT) roster. UNHCR has also developed mechanisms for the immediate mobilization of financial resources to help meet the response to an emergency without delay.