Emergency and Humanitarian Action (EHA)

Areas of Work
Emergency and Humanitarian Action (EHA)
Introduction:

The World Disasters Report 2007 indicates that Asia had the highest number of natural disasters (1,384 reported events) and technological disasters (1,439 reported events) between 1997 and 2006. This constitutes 40.9% all disasters (6,806) that occurred all over the world for the same period of time. Around 79.9% (966,797) of the total number of people killed (1,209,002) in natural disasters from 1997 to 2006 were reported in the Asia region. And of this number, about 80.9% (782,576) were from Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand. The disasters can be classified as natural and human-induced disasters. Thailand is prone to natural disasters such as drought, earthquake, epidemic, flood, mudslide, wave/surge, wildfire and windstorm, due to its unique geography and geology. Recurrent natural disasters in Thailand are water-related such as flooding, urban inundation, tropical storms and drought.

Natural Disasters Flash floods Tsunamis Landslides Droughts Forest fires Human-Induced Disasters Fires Chemical leakages from factories Road traffic accidents Terrorist attacks

Major disasters in Thailand during 2004–2007:

	Natural Disaster 2007:Droughts and forest fires 2006:Flash floods with landslides in five provinces in northern Thailand 2005:Flash floods/droughts in eastern Thailand 2004:Tsunami attack in six southern provinces Human-Induced Disasters 2004–07:Series of terrorist attacks andbombings every month in fiveprovinces in southern Thailand 2006–07:Series of political demonstrations in Bangkok

Humanitarian situation in Thailand:

Displaced populations of humanitarian concerns are living in several parts of Thailand and the insurgencies in the three southernmost provinces are ongoing. An estimated 1.2 million migrants have settled in Thailand as a result of internal conflict in neighbouring countries and better economic opportunities in Thailand. Most are from Myanmar, and more than half are believed to live in the ten Thai provinces bordering that country. These provinces are also home to more than 117,000 displaced persons living in nine border camps and 93,565 registered migrant workers. A larger number of unregistered migrants experience financial, security, cultural, language and geographic barriers in obtaining health services. The mobility of the population, combined with access barriers, contributes to increased morbidity and mortality, particularly from malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and vaccine-preventable diseases. Approximately, 6,000 ethnic Hmong Laotians live in the makeshift refugee camp in Huai Nam Khao village of Phetchabun province. They started arriving there in large numbers in 2004, seeking refugee status. Most claimed to have been persecuted because of their alleged connection with Hmong rebel groups which are in an ongoing conflict with the Lao military. The Thai authorities define them as "illegal immigrants", while the Lao government has expressed doubt that they are Lao nationals. The insurgency in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand – Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat – has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people. The situation has threatened the peaceful development of Thailand as a multi-race and multi-religion nation. The unrest in the South has raised national concern about how to bring about peaceful resolution to the crisis, how to rebuild peaceful relations between the Buddhist and Muslim populations of the country and continue on the path of building civil society in Thailand. The Thai government has been trying to find solutions to the crisis in a multi-pronged manner undertaking political, security, cultural and religious initiatives: building reconciliation by peaceful means, reducing the use of military force and considering the establishment of a self-administered zone in the restive provinces. All of these are still being studied, and many of them are under debate.

WHO Thailand’s Emergency and Humanitarian Action Programme:
The mission of the WHO Thailand’s Emergency and Humanitarian Action (EHA) Programme is to increase the capacity and self-reliance of the Royal Thai Government (RTG) in the prevention of disasters, preparation for emergencies, mitigation of their health consequences, and the creation of a synergy between emergency action and sustainable development. WHO is mandated by its Constitution (Article 2d) to: "furnish appropriate technical assistance and, in emergencies, the necessary aid upon the request or acceptance of governments”. The mandate was further elaborated subsequently and WHO was asked “to support and enable national and international agencies working in the frontline of disasters and emergencies and in post-crisis rehabilitation to apply the best health practices in preparing for, assessing, implementing and evaluating the impact of humanitarian health assistance. In discharging this mission, WHO is dedicated to the fundamental principles of partnership, collaboration and coordination”. WHO has four core functions in emergencies: *Health assessment and tracking:* ensuring proper assessments are undertaken, assessing needs and priorities, surveillance and monitoring of the impact of humanitarian responses; *Coordinating health action:* convening different actors, exchanging information, ensuring coordination, agreeing strategies in response to assessments, joint and focused action; *Filling gaps:* identifying gaps in the response that have a significant impact on survival rates and levels of ill-health, and ensuring they are filled, including restoring basic public health functions; *Strengthening local capacity:* training, rehabilitating essential structures, repairing and restarting broken systems, empowering critical professionals. The WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) EHA programme in collaboration with the SEAR Member States developed 12 benchmarks as a tool to increase performance for emergency preparedness and response (EPR) in the region. Currently, Thailand is working towards increasing performance for EPR through using the WHO SEARO Benchmarks. WHO Thailand’s EHA Programme began in 2001, focusing on humanitarian issues along the Thai-Myanmar border within WHO Thailand’ Border Health (BH) programme. The BH programme aims at improving the health of the population in the Thai-Myanmar border area, with a special focus on the health and humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable population – the unregistered migrants. But in September 2007, WHO Thailand with support from SEARO established an EHA Unit with a full-time technical professional and support staff. The EHA team is closely working with the BH team in the overlapping areas between EHA and BH. The EHA programme staff are working with various officials on emergency and humanitarian issues in relevant departments, specifically, the Department of Health Service Support (DHSS) of the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). Recently, the MOPH identified the need for an appropriate structure within the ministry to address emergency and humanitarian action issues within the health sector. WHO Thailand is committed to working with various departments of the MOPH to provide the necessary support, including technical assistance in establishing an appropriate structure.