Key Accomplishments:
The South Asia regional delegation (SARD) continues its technical advisory support with significant progress made in strengthening the tools and mechanisms in disaster preparedness and community resilience in the region. In particular, the preparedness and resilience unit (PRU) advisors provided technical support to fine-tune and develop programme tools and resources of the South Asian National Societies that includes the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), Maldivian Red Crescent (MRC), Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS).
The regional initiatives in organizational emergency preparedness include enhancing training resources and manuals, and supporting the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) on disaster response by the National Society. Greater emphasis was put on improving health, disaster response and preparedness mechanisms, and harmonizing sectoral response, particularly through holistic contingency planning, strategies, simulation exercises on response and deployment during emergencies.
As for strengthening community resilience, required technical support has been provided to improve community-based programming. Capacity building in programme model and resources on community-based health and first aid (CBHFA), vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA) and community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) in Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka; integrated community-based risk reduction (ICBRR) in Pakistan; community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) in Bhutan; volunteer management and youth development through youth as agents of behavioural change (YABC) tool kit in South Asia have contributed to programme enhancement.
