Disasters & Humanitarian Response SIG

The Disasters and Humanitarian Response SIG was established in 2023 to be a proactive and reactive group providing evidence-based expertise and guidance in emergency settings. The SIG will disseminate information to disaster settings and promote equitable public health measures for implementation where possible. Collaborating with medical and public health responders on the ground, including UK-Med, MSF and the UK-PHRST, would enable this SIG to act as an important knowledge hub that can be utilised in future disaster responses. 

The workplans are intended to be structured around the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction focusing on the four priorities:

1. Understanding disaster risk;
2. Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk;
3. Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and
4. Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The SIG aims to build sustainability into its work by providing transferable guidance and resources from these key priorities that can be rapidly adapted to serve a wide range of disaster events requiring urgent humanitarian action. This SIG will support the Sendai Framework Focal Point in the Cabinet Office in addition to working with humanitarian response teams in the WHO and UN.

Contact

The Disasters & Humanitarian Response SIG reports to the Global Health Committee (GHC) and is chaired by Kanza Ahmed: Kanza.Ahmed@ukhsa.gov.uk. Madison Weir: madison.weir@nhs.net and Anna Rom: anna.rom@ukhsa.gov.uk are the SIG Vice-chairs. 

FPH members can join this SIG by logging into their FPH members’ portal account, selecting the ‘Committees/SIGs’ button and choosing the correct SIG. You will then be asked to provide a few details, following which your application will be automatically approved. Further details on FPH membership are available here.

Workplan

View the Disasters & Humanitarian Response SIG workplan for 2025 below.