Support to UNDAC operations and trainings

• UNDAC is responding to a rising number of disasters worldwide and depends on participating countries’ contributions
• UNDAC plays a vital role in assessment, coordination and information management after sudden onset disasters
• Switzerland has a long history of supporting UNDAC, which was historically managed by the section H-Multilateral and aims to maintain this relationship
• There is potential to intensify the relationship with UNDAC and the 6 Swiss UNDAC members worldwide by assigning it to H-Operations

• New UNDAC members from member states in Europe and Africa who participate in swiss-sponsored UNDAC induction courses and acquire the skills to be deployed
• Persons affected by crisis worldwide will benefit from UNDAC coordination and assessment missions

• Switzerland and UNDAC set joint accents with the placement of induction courses abroad in favour of the surrounding member states, contributing to regionally based responses
• Switzerland contributes to the international response and coordination by swiftly assigning its UNDAC members to sudden onset crisis worldwide

Expected results:  

• Provide timely-equitable and safe emergency response to affected countries and contribute to information management, assessments and coordination
• The Swiss UNDAC roster is trained, swiftly deployable and contributes to emergency missions as needed
• UNDAC induction trainings are implemented annually with the financial support of SDC’s humanitarian aid

Results from previous phases:  

• Three of Switzerland’s UNDAC members in Asia and Latin America contributed substantially to the emergency responses after the Afghanistan earthquake 2022, the Haiti earthquake 2021 and the ETA / IOTA hurricanes in Central America 2020 in recent years
• The UNDAC induction courses in Switzerland, Kenya and Senegal for new members could be carried out successfully thanks to the annual Swiss contribution, thereby solidifying the global UNDAC network and enabling new members to be readily deployable

7F-10060: OCHA contribution managed by Multilateral-H section. The UNDAC contribution used to be part of this credit proposal (2018-2023) that includes the annual core contribution to OCHA amounting to CHF 3.5 Million.

Further synergies concern our close cooperation with INSARAG where SDC’s Humanitarian Aid has been holding the global chairmanship and actively steering the initiative in various working groups and through mentorship and classifier missions.