While disasters and other humanitarian crises can and do occur anywhere, certain areas of the world remain more vulnerable to disasters than others. We recently unveiled a Regional Response Framework focused on increasing preparedness to respond to crises in high-risk countries within six regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, North America, Sub-Saharan African, Europe, and Middle East and North Africa.
“Airlink’s regional response plans are designed to inform a timely response to humanitarian crises, and provide relief to vulnerable populations,” said Liz Bloomfield, Airlink director of humanitarian programs. “These plans are grounded in consistent engagement and a common understanding of regional challenges, partnerships, and resources.”
Each plan includes an evaluation of high-risk countries and the nature of potential emergencies, mobilization activities, contingency planning, and the financial resources required to ensure an adequate response.
More than 20 of our humanitarian partner organizations gathered in Mexico City in February and in Singapore last month to collaborate on planned responses to Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia Pacific, respectfully.
The “Logistics Preparedness for Nonprofits Responding to Humanitarian Crises” workshops, supported by the Arconic Foundation, enabled participants to share best practices and explore the importance of logistics preparedness, acting on opportunities for collaboration, and providing better support to local responders. The intended outcome of the workshops and Regional Response Framework is faster, more effective responses to communities in crisis.
“We gained an immense amount of insight into logistics management and the networking opportunities with other nonprofits have already proven invaluable,” said Jake Gillanders, executive director of Empact Northwest, a provider of rescue, medical services and training which participated in both workshops. “Serving so many diverse non-profit organizations, Airlink was uniquely positioned to provide us with the opportunity to meet and work with some key logistics players serving these regions of the world.”
Future workshops are planned for the remaining regions, with Sub-Saharan Africa — where Airlink is currently responding to Cyclone Idai — being a priority.
We continue to proactively identify air carriers, nonprofit response organizations, and corporate and institutional supporters to join as partners in the plan and eventual responses. Learn more about how Airlink is building a more planned and predictable service delivery to nonprofit and aviation partners and ultimately the people they serve.
