Knowledge Hub
Evidence-based learning, evaluations, research, guidance, manuals, tools and programme updates.
Emergencies
Why emergencies? Many of the countries in which we work are highly vulnerable to emergencies and shocks as a result of conflict and natural disasters. These vulnerabilities are unfortunately likely to increase in coming years as the effects of climate change worsen.
Our goal is to respond rapidly to save lives and reduce suffering and this is exactly what we do. In an emergency situation, we act quickly to save lives. Once the immediate crisis has passed, we remain on the ground helping to rebuild livelihoods and infrastructure so that communities are better prepared for future crises. Additionally, we advocate for changes in the way the world responds to emergency situations.
Thousands of people are taking shelter in metro stations in Ukraine due to the conflict.
Concern Worldwide team responding to flooding in Sitteb Village, Sudan Photo: Ibrahim Adam Osman / Concern Worldwide
Fire fighters clear debris from a fire station in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Concern staff member Amani Sahmarani distributes emergency supplies in Lebanon. Photo: Concern Worldwide.
People look at a house that was destroyed by the earthquake in Haiti.
Concern staff bringing water to family in Somaliland. Photo: Concern Worldwide
A closer look at our emergency programmes
We aim to contribute to lasting improvements in the lives of the extreme poor through the implementation of rapid responding, risk reduction and community resilient programmes. Here we spotlight three of our approaches.
Rapid emergency response
One of the main objectives of our emergency programme is to respond rapidly to emergencies in order to save lives and reduce suffering. For example, by March 2017 drought and conflict had left nearly 23 million people in South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. We expanded our emergency response in these countries to directly assist 1.5 million people in the most vulnerable communities.
In Bangladesh, our rapid scale-up during the influx of an estimated 671,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing conflict in Myanmar demonstrated the flexibility and agility of our systems in coping with the sudden arrival of an unprecedented number of refugees. In Cox’s Bazar district, we screened over 61,000 children under five years old for malnutrition, and provided therapeutic feeding for around 2,700 severely malnourished children. We also provided health, nutrition and counselling services to over 13,000 women.
Disaster risk reduction
Community resilience
Organisations who fund us
Publications on the theme of Emergencies
Research and insights from our emergency programmes in action.
Related reading
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