RedR Australia
The ASEAN region, being prone to a range of natural disasters, aims to be a step ahead in delivering response to such disasters when they strike. To achieve this, well-trained and prepared human capital is required, with strong teams developed through relevant and up-to-date seminars and workshops. Through the recent formalisation of a long-standing working partnership between RedR Australia and the AHA Centre, both parties aim to mutually promote, develop, and strengthen their cooperation in disaster management to further improve response for the ASEAN region’s communities.
RedR Australia is a non-governmental, international humanitarian agency that provides disaster management training across the world. One of their key objectives is to help rebuild and support communities to recover immediately after disaster strikes, by both delivering and equipping key actors with appropriate and efficient humanitarian skills. Adelina Kamal, the Executive Director of AHA Centre, and Kirsten Sayers, the Chief Executive Officer of RedR Australia, recently signed and formalised a partnership through a Memorandum of Intent, on the side lines of the 8th Meeting of the Governing Board of the AHA Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 27th of June 2018.
The partnership is channelled through the “Australia Assists – Technical Assistance in Disaster Risk Management” programme, managed and co-designed by RedR Australia and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The programme aims to develop and increase the capacity of deployable civilian resources that meet humanitarian policy and procedure requirements and standards. The formation of collaboration between RedR Australia and AHA Centre will not only strengthen disaster response, but also develop stronger disaster management capacity within the region. The platform of the partnership has been undertaken with the intention of providing the highest quality disaster response and management practices within a constantly changing environment and context, and more importantly, to build resilience and improve the quality of humanitarian action to alleviate suffering and save lives.
This MoI stands as a bilateral recognition of the value that both parties’ ongoing engagement has created, and to expand on this, the formalised partnership will allow both parties to engage on a wider level. It aims to provide the ASEAN region with access to a deeper pool of deployable expertise, efficient roster management practices, effective monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) processes, appropriate and effective risk management, and more opportunities to develop disaster-related activities with RedR Australia.
Since 2016, RedR Australia’s expertise has also been integrated within the AHA Centre’s existing training programmes, such as the AHA Centre Executive (ACE) Programme, in which they have provided specific training modules on project management elements. Such engagement has been an integral part of the ACE Programme, which focuses specifically towards developing ASEAN leaders from all 10 Member States, who hold the capacity and skills to lead the region in response and operations when a disaster strikes. Alongside the new overall MoI, RedR Australia and the AHA Centre have also agreed to continue and strengthen their partnership through the ACE Programme, developing stronger, more specific training materials and engagements as part of ACE Programme Phase 2, being implemented from 2018-2020.
Written by : Valerie Bayhon | Photo : RedR Australia, AHA Centre
