People Survive Crises

Conflict, instability, poor governance and climate change have created an unprecedented level of humanitarian need.
Often spanning multiple geographies, crises are becoming increasingly complex and protracted, with affected
communities needing additional support for longer periods of time.

Saving lives and alleviating human suffering

AWEC’s Emergency Response function focuses on saving lives and alleviating human suffering. This response often involves prioritising needs such as food, water, shelter, cash and other non-food items. It also sees AWEC reduce morbidity and mortality through the delivery of targeted health responses, including: emergency sanitation, hygiene promotion, disease surveillance, immunisation campaigns, outbreak response, curative nutrition programmes and primary healthcare services.

Such initiatives may then transition to more sustained and long-term programming, where the focus shifts to the rehabilitation of health, water, sanitation, food and other market systems.

How will AWEC achieve this?

AWEC is strengthening its existing response capabilities and working with a range of partners to ensure a more effective response to slow-onset and acute emergencies. We plan to achieve this by:

Providing rapid response to sudden onset emergencies in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
Ensuring access to life-saving assistance, including food, health, nutrition and WASH assistance through multiple modalities, prioritising Cash and Voucher Assistance.
Strengthening organisational capacity to track and respond to humanitarian crises in high-risk countries.

Strengthening the capacity of national disaster risk management agencies, communities, and partners for anticipatory and early action.
Empowering and supporting local partners to deliver emergency responses that are timely and needs appropriate.
Forming strategic partnerships with government agencies, civil society organisations, and private sector businesses in complementary thematic and sectoral areas; shelter, protection, technology, and communications.
Increasing AWEC’s engagement with strategic alliances and networks focused on emergency response.