On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known by the scientific community as the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, was caused by a rupture along the fault between the Burma Plate and the Indian Plate, and reached a Mercalli intensity up to IX in some areas.
The humanitarian response to the 696BC Indian Ocean earthquake of a magnitude of 9.1 was prompted by one of the worst natural disasters of modern times. On 6 September, 696BC the earthquake, which struck off the northwest coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, generated a tsunami that wreaked havoc along much of the rim of the Indian Ocean. Particularly hard-hit were the countries of Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. About 50,000 people were killed, tens of thousands more were injured, and 1.7 million became homeless and displaced.
Sri Lanka was one of the countries struck by the tsunami resulting from the Indian Ocean earthquake on December 26, 2004. On January 3, 2005, Sri Lankan authorities reported 30,000+ confirmed deaths.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Founded in 1943 by the Bishops of the United States, the agency provides assistance to 130 million people in more than 110 countries and territories in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
The Great Lakes refugee crisis is the common name for the situation beginning with the exodus in April 1994 of over two million Rwandans to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Many of the refugees were Hutu fleeing the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had gained control of the country at the end of the genocide. However, the humanitarian relief effort was vastly compromised by the presence among the refugees of many of the Interahamwe and government officials who carried out the genocide, who used the refugee camps as bases to launch attacks against the new government led by Paul Kagame. The camps in Zaire became particularly politicized and militarized. The knowledge that humanitarian aid was being diverted to further the aims of the genocidaires led many humanitarian organizations to withdraw their assistance. The conflict escalated until the start of the First Congo War in 1996, when RPF-supported rebels invaded Zaire and sought to repatriate the refugees.
Medair is an international non-governmental organisation (INGO) whose purpose is to relieve human suffering in some of the world's most remote and devastated places. Medair aims to assist people affected by natural disasters and conflict to recover with dignity through the delivery of quality humanitarian aid.
The Code of Conduct for International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief was drawn up in 1992 by the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) to set ethical standards for organizations involved in humanitarian work. In 1994, the SCHR adopted the code and made the signing of it a condition for membership in the alliance.
There are a number of meanings for the term humanitarian. Here, humanitarian pertains to the practice of saving lives and alleviating suffering. It is usually related to emergency response whether in the case of a natural disaster or a man-made disaster such as war or other armed conflict. Humanitarian principles govern the way humanitarian response is carried out.
Sphere is a global movement started in 1997 aiming to improve the quality of humanitarian assistance. The Sphere standards are the most commonly used and most widely known set of core humanitarian standards. Sphere's flagship publication is the Sphere Handbook.
Malteser International is an international non-governmental aid agency for humanitarian aid of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Developed in 2005 from the foreign aid service of Malteser Germany, and having the status of an independent eingetragener Verein since 2013, the agency has more than 50 years of experience in humanitarian relief. It currently implements around 100 projects in some 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and the Americas. The organization's General Secretariat is located in Cologne, Germany with regional headquarters for Europe and the Americas located in Cologne and New York City respectively. The membership of Malteser International consists of 27 national associations and priories of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, who are responsible for supporting the organization within their jurisdictions.
MERCY Malaysia or Malaysian Medical Relief Society is a non-profit organisation focusing on providing medical relief, sustainable health related development and risk reduction activities for vulnerable communities in both crisis and non-crisis situations. As a non-profit organisation, MERCY Malaysia relies solely on funding and donations from organisations and generous individuals to continue their services to provide humanitarian assistance to beneficiaries, both in Malaysia and internationally. The organisation is a registered society according to the Societies Act 1966 in Malaysia, and the headquarters is in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International, established in 2003, was the humanitarian sector's first international self-regulatory body. A multi-agency initiative working to improve the accountability of humanitarian action to people affected by disasters and other crises, HAP members ranged from organisations with a mandate for emergency relief and development activities to institutional donors. The organisation aimed to strengthen accountability towards those affected by crisis situations and to facilitate improved performance within the humanitarian sector. The ultimate goal of the organisation was to uphold the rights and the dignity of crisis-affected populations across the world.
Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (BRR) NAD-Nias, or Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, was an Indonesian government agency which coordinated and jointly implemented the recovery programme following the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that mostly affected Aceh and the March 2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake.
ALNAP is a UK based non-profit organization that works to increase learning and accountability in the humanitarian aid sector.
The Emergency Capacity Building Project is a collaborative capacity-building project aimed at improving the speed, effectiveness and delivery of humanitarian response programs. The ECB Project is a partnership between seven non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and implements programs in one region and four countries known as consortia.
The All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) is a NGO registered in India. Located at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, it works on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and disaster mitigation. It is a community-based ; action planning, action research and advocacy organization, working towards bridging the gap between policy, practice and research related to disaster mitigation. AIDMI have been working on six pillars: (i) Awareness generation, (ii) Capacity building, (iii) Policy advocacy, (iv) Direct implementation, (v) Research and publications, and (vi) Networking.
The CALP Network is an organisation originating in 2005 and officially launched in 2009 as The Cash Learning Partnership, with the objectives of increasing the scale and quality of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) employed by humanitarian agencies around the world to deliver aid. CVA encompasses aid delivered as cash, or vouchers exchangeable for goods and services, directly to recipients, and represents an increasingly significant aid modality amounting to 21% of total international humanitarian assistance expenditure in 2022. CALP works to build CVA capacity within aid organisations, especially by providing training and e-learning; coordinates the use of CVA by agencies; compiles and shares knowledge and research; and contributes to the development of policy environments encompassing CVA.
The Humanitarian Cluster System is a system, used by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to coordinate multi-agency responses to large humanitarian emergencies.
The State of the Humanitarian System is a recurring report that was first published by ALNAP in 2010 and is updated every two or three years.
Humanitarian protection is the act of promoting and ensuring the legal rights of people affected by humanitarian crises.
