This report covers the period 1 July to 31 December 2010.
In brief
Programme purpose: The aim of the International Federation is to coordinate and support efforts at country and regional level to assist South Asian National Societies to scale up their work to improve the lives of vulnerable people.
Programme summary: The regional disaster management (DM) programme focused on meeting challenges arising from vulnerabilities and risks of re-occurring disasters in South Asia. It continued to scale up DM/disaster risk reduction (DRR) approaches to improve quality of the National Societies' community based preparedness and mitigation programming methodologies, materials and tools, including issues on recovery, emergency health and climate change under the "building safer communities" umbrella. Regional capacities of disaster response teams at the regional, national and branch levels were improved to respond effectively and function as response networks during emergencies. Through the Disaster Management Working Group (DMWG) of National Societies, the eighth meeting of which was held in November, a regional DM/DRR framework was advocated for taking up effective DRR programming in South Asia.
The regional health programme continued to scale up community-based health and first aid (CBHFA) activities and roll out the global CBHFA in action across the region, besides working towards diversifying the programme and supporting the National Societies and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) country offices in the region to mobilise resources. World First Aid day was observed on 11 September. The new regional health coordinator took up the position in mid-November.