Engineers and Humanitarian Emergencies

How we can help

• Experience in Africa • What engineers can offer • How to work with international

organisations • What it’s like being deployed by RedR

Australia • What you can do to help • Engineering roles are in demand • Experience in other countries

Lessons learnt:

• With UNWFP in Liberia • With UNWFP in Somalia • With UNHCR in South Lebanon • In the Maldives after the tsunami • With UNHCR in Ingushetia & Chechnya

Somalia – not an easy place to manage projects

build warehousing

refurbish wharves

repair roads

repair bridges

dredge harbours

secure compounds

WFP Somalia

Special Operations Ports & Road Rehabilitation

Before

After

UNHAS

Logistics & travel

Security not only for people

Mog.warehouse basement excavation

• Define the task • Collect data needed • Locate resources • Execute the work

Liberia – a bit easier to manage projects

roads

bridges

bottlenecks

What engineers bring to humanitarian aid

NGO’s Host governments Government ministries other UN agencies other organisations

Working with other organisations

On mission with RedR Australia

My minimum equipment list: unlocked telephone GPS GPS data logger EPIRB torch camera for copying first aid emergency cash & emergency water

FOR A SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT:

• Effortless technical competence • Make good decisions from incomplete

information • Lead from behind • Compromise, as parties will have mutually

exclusive needs • Keep sight of a shifting target • Stay optimistic

Transport

Monrovia

Somalia

Maldives Somalia

Maldives

Syria

Somalia

Maldives

Somalia

Somalia

Liberia

What you can do

• Join RedR Australia • Support those helping RedR • Talk to people

Some roles needed by UN:

• Shelter • GIS • Logistics • Project management • Comms

Other aid crises

After the second Russia/Chechnya war:

security

comms

water

shelter

IDP’s

Maintain control

Hot food for 3000 IDP’s.

Stress

Food, water, shelter….privacy, security..

Plan for people and their possessions

Never underestimate people

65,000 sheets of asbestos cement roofing

Negotiation

the field

Part of a team

Maldives

Two of a thousand islands

Local supply can be problematic

No work without negotation

Coral-free housing

Beirut

Southern Lebanon

Where to start

A drop in the ocean, but every drop counts