TASW Newsletter: July 2012
Towards a Safer World is a multi-stakeholder network of practitioners, led by the UN System Influenza Coordination office and World Food Programme. Its purpose is to identify, disseminate and support implementation of lessons, good practices and innovations that emerged from the enormous amount of work undertaken by civil society, governments and the private sector over recent years to prepare for influenza pandemic – and to demonstrate the relevance of those practices to wider preparedness.
New Inter Agency Standing Committee Simulation Exercise Materials
Simulation exercises have gained increasing prominence in humanitarian preparedness over the past several years, particularly by the organisations comprising the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). Simulations serve to test plans, rehearse procedures, identify gaps, solve problems, increase confidence and generally add to the overall capacity of organisations and individuals to react to emergencies in an effective, timely and reliable manner. In any life-saving profession--pilots, fire-fighters, para-medics—drills and practice are required to achieve the best results.
Collating examples of Institutions, Policies and Stakeholders involved in the Management of Zoonoses
The attached document, website and database are intended to advise the agenda of the new DFID Zoonoses in Emergent Livestock Systems programme (ZELS).
In the attached report, the chapter on "Management of zoonotic diseases emergencies" may be of particular interest to Towards a Safer World network members. It calls for emergency prevention, preparedness, response and recovery to align with - and be included into - the Hyogo Framework for Action and the ISDR agenda.
The chapter on ‘’System strengthening’’ calls for a multi-sector approach to risk management.
ISO publishes new standard for business continuity management
ISO has published an International Standard addressing business continuity management to contribute making organizations in both public and private sectors more resilient.
ISO 22301:2012, Societal security – Business continuity management systems – Requirements, will help organizations, regardless of their size, location or activity, to be better prepared and more confident to handle disruption of any type.
Pandemic Readiness and Response Exercise Southern Africa
From May 21 to May 24, WFP, in collaboration with AFRICOM and OCHA, conducted a Pandemic Readiness and Response Exercise in Johannesburg with representatives of 6 Southern African National Disaster Management Organisations with support from private sector, academia and military colleagues. The first day of the exercise was designated a 'Towards a Safer World' day, wherein regional experts presented, shared and debated best practices in disaster risk reduction for pandemics and comparable threats.
Towards a Safer World Newsletter - May 2012
The Central Fund for Influenza Action: Lessons Learned Exercise
The Central Fund for Influenza Action (CFIA) is a multi-donor trust fund established in 2006 to finance urgent under-funded priority actions of the UN System Consolidated Action Plan for Avian and Human Influenza (UNCAPAHI) strategic framework.
TASW Conference
The first phase of Towards A Safer World was a data collection exercise from October 2010 to June 2011. Teams representing different disciplines documented the primary achievements and lessons of pandemic preparedness efforts of the past five years under 11 thematic headings. These teams developed documents that presented key achievements, lessons learned and recommendations for how to move forward. Discussion and presentation of the collected data took place at a conference hosted by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome on September 15‐16, 2011.