RedR

RedR (pronounced 'Red R') is an international NGO that provides recruitment, training and support services for humanitarian professionals across the world. RedR International is a federation of RedR organisations worldwide.

Mission and Vision

The vision of RedR is 'a world in which sufficient competent and committed personnel are available and responding to humanitarian needs.'

The mission of RedR is to relieve suffering caused by disasters by selecting, training and providing competent and committed personnel to humanitarian programmes world-wide.It does this under three main headings:
*To provide sufficient competent and effective relief personnel to front-line humanitarian agencies.
*To improve the competence of relief personnel.
*To work with other agencies to improve the availability and effectiveness of relief personnel.'

ervices

RedR organisations accredited by RedR International (formed 1993) run training courses for humanitarian personnel around the world, ranging from introductory courses such as "So, you think you want to be relief worker" to "Personal security in emergencies". RedR trains technical and non-technical personnel for some of the world's largest aid agencies.

RedR provides recruitment services for aid organisations, including Merlin, Oxfam, VSO and others, and provided difficult to find personnel for short-term secondments with organisations in times of disaster. It exclusively recruits from its membership so that the quality of the candidate recruited from RedR is the best in the humanitarian sector. RedR recruitment services recruits in three main areas:

*Engineering
*Logistics
*Health (incorporated from IHE in 2003)

RedR provides a Technical Support Service, allowing humanitarian workers in the field to address technical queries to experts around the world.

RedR publishes the International Health Exchange Magazine.

History

Originally called Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief, it was founded in the UK 1980 by Peter Guthrie, following a secondment working in Malaysia in refugee camps for the Vietnamese, where he noticed the great difficulties that aid-agencies had in recruiting skilled personnel. The organisation was founded to provide a register of qualified engineers and technical personnel to work for up to three months with front-line agencies in disasters, and hence meet the needs of disaster victims.

During the 1980s, RedR expanded its services in order to provide training for humanitarian personnel, drawing on the experience of the members of its register.

Accredited RedR organisations exist in the following locations:

*RedR UK (1980)
*RedR Australia (1992)
*RedR New Zealand (1994)
*RedR Canada (2001)
*RedR India
*RedR Southern Africa
*RedR Malaysia

RedR UK is a founding member of the working group for the "People in Aid" project which, in 1997, produced the Code of Best Practice in the Management and Support of Aid Personnel. The Code is used by many of the agencies and major donors now frequently ask agencies applying for emergency funding whether they follow the Code.

RedR UK and International Health Exchange merged in 2003.

In 2007 RedR UK is working with UNICEF and UNOCHA to develop training and guidelines in the field of water and sanitation, following the outcomes of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Review in 2005. [Cite web |url=http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2005/ocha-gen-02sep.pdf |title=Humanitarian Response Review |accessdate=2008-06-12 |date=August 2005 |publisher=United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs]

References

External links

* [http://www.redr.org RedR Homepage]
* [http://www.peopleinaid.org/ People in Aid website]
* [http://www.ingenia.org.uk/ingenia/articles.aspx?index=490 "Ingenia" article on the work of RedR] - June 2008