This report covers the period 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012
Overview The Asia Pacific zone of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) comprises the zone office in Kuala Lumpur, four regional offices in Suva (Pacific), Bangkok (Southeast Asia), Delhi (South Asia) and Beijing (East Asia) and 15 country offices. Through this decentralized management structure and a “best-positioned” strategy, the Asia Pacific zone office works with the regional and country offices to support the 37 National Societies in the zone, according to their needs.
Business Line 1: “To raise humanitarian standards” Three National Societies have completed the Organisational Capacity Assessment and Certification (OCAC) process, with three others delayed till the first half of 2013. There has been a surge in the registrations for online courses offered by the Learning Platform after dissemination messages were sent out to all National Societies, PNSs and ICRC personnel across the AP zone in February and May, 50% of which also came from Australian RC who adopted the Learning Platform as the key human resource platform. Australian RC materials are being used with other National Societies to promote the same approach, which has led to three new National Societies (China, Vietnam and Japan) expressing interest to adopt the platform in this way in early 2013. Meanwhile, the implementation of the global databank has been delayed, with a new outsourced IT platform management company being contracted.
Business Line 2: “To grow Red Cross Red Crescent services for vulnerable people” In 2012, pre disaster meetings were undertaken in South Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. Contingency planning training guidelines have been developed to support National Societies to utilise and implement the updated global contingency planning guideline. Global recovery guidance was piloted along with a multi-sectoral needs assessment training in partnership with Assessment Capabilities Project (ACAPS) and Phase 2 of the Resource Management System (RMS) was finalised. National Societies have also been assisted increasingly in emergency health preparedness: an epidemic control for volunteers’ (ECV) toolkit has been adapted to local context; contingency plans for dengue have been developed; and health scenarios have been incorporated into disaster exercises and response manuals. Water and sanitation (WatSan) disaster response and preparedness has further been strengthened in the region with development and pre-positioning of new equipment at country level, adaptation of various hygiene promotion kits and regional trainings.