Immediate Crisis Response - Overview

Humanitarian assistance is the first step in responding to a major crisis, but how a country rebuilds itself afterwards is equally important. UNDP’s Immediate Crisis Response is designed to ensure that the agency which takes the lead in coordinating a country’s recovery from crisis to stability – UNDP – has sufficient staff and resources to carry out this crucial function.

When crisis hits, UNDP offices on the ground are also often affected. This could be as significant as loss of staff lives and destruction of UNDP buildings, or more simply interruptions in or changes to regular programme delivery. Whatever the scale of the impact, UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery provides a range of services specifically designed to help country offices get back on their feet as quickly as possible so they can focus their efforts on helping the country and its people recover from the crisis.

Within hours of a serious outbreak of civil conflict or a natural disaster, through this initiative, BCPR can help country offices to assess the scale of the crisis and the level of support required; provide detailed guidelines on what needs to be done when a crisis occurs (backed up by a specialised support team at Headquarters who are on call to provide advice and assistance); and coordinate support from nearby UNDP regional offices as well as from UNDP headquarters. In addition, BCPR maintains a roster of specially trained staff and consultants who can be deployed within 48 hours to support the country office to rapidly rebuild and refocus its work following the crisis.

In 2010, BCPR provided immediate crisis response support to over 40 countries, including Haiti, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. This included the deployment of 244 experts (both UNDP staff and external consultants) in the areas of immediate response (SURGE), early recovery coordination and crisis prevention and recovery programming.