To further enhance the quality of its services, the Assistance Division develops and helps shape institutional assistance policies, guidelines and strategy. In 2008, it worked inter alia to reinforce the Health Unit’s approaches and priorities, examined nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical weapon issues and launched a steering group to draw up environmental management guidelines.

The Division also played an active role in discussions within the Movement and the wider humanitarian community, and with academic institutions, professional associations and other bodies involved in analysing and developing professional standards relevant to its fields of activity.

In 2008, most ICRC delegations and offices around the world carried out health, economic security and water and habitat programmes. The most extensive programmes were in Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Chad, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Israel and the occupied and autonomous Palestinian territories, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda. All programmes received appropriate routine and proactive support from the Division for programme design, monitoring, evaluation and reporting, with a view to maintaining and where necessary improving programme performance and quality. During the emergencies in Kenya, Myanmar, Georgia and Pakistan, headquarters staff were dispatched to the field with the rapid deployment team to provide emergency assistance support. In addition, the Division’s forensic experts were kept extremely busy answering the rising number of requests from field delegations for help with tracing activities or with the management of dead bodies during emergencies.

The various tools needed to sustain activities – Geographical Information Systems (GIS), specific technical databases, reference manuals and handbooks – were constantly amplified. To increase accountability, internally and externally, result-based management tools were developed and key personnel trained.

The Health Unit addresses the needs of people in armed conflicts or other situations of violence according to defined minimum packages of health care. Curative and preventive health action remains at the heart of the Unit’s projects. Saving lives and alleviating suffering is the central objective of health assistance. In 2008, ICRC health activities were reaffirmed in five core areas, based on the ICRC assistance policy, as follows: first aid, war surgery, health care delivery in conflict situations (access to basic health care and essential hospital activities), physical rehabilitation and health in detention.

Considerable time was dedicated to developing specific tools and operational guidelines. In support of field activities, the unit produced guidelines on the following subjects: ICRC health interventions for civilian populations, accompanying families of missing persons, family needs assessments, baseline health assessments, teaching nursing care, war surgery, and HIV interventions in the field. The latter three were being prepared for publication.

Workshops for ICRC staff were held on hospital administration, nursing, laboratory activities, primary health care and health in detention. Courses and workshops for non-ICRC health practitioners were also organized on topics such as first aid, basic health care, emergency surgery in war-torn areas and hospital management. Presentations were given in external conferences on torture, medical ethics and public health issues in detention, and an Internet course for prison doctors was finalized.

Lastly, the unit set up a working group on protection of the medical mission and adopted a methodology to record events prejudicial to the mission.

ICRC water and habitat programmes provide basic services to groups of people affected by armed conflict or other situations of violence, ensuring they have access to water supplies, decent conditions of sanitation and adequate shelter. When necessary, health facilities are renovated or built from scratch to improve access to health care. The services are provided throughout the different phases of a crisis, from the acute stage to the post-crisis period.

The Water and Habitat Unit checked, supplemented and validated about 300 project proposals worth a total of about CHF 30 million. It produced more than 400 GIS maps for ICRC operations, including during emergencies.

The Unit regularly does research and development work. It explored the possibility of using pre-engineered structures in ICRC operations (health structures and premises) as an interesting alternative to classical constructions in contexts lacking local capacities and/or stability (e.g. the project for a new operating theatre in Keysaney, Somalia). The Unit’s engineers tested and used technology to reduce environmental impact and successfully implemented projects ranging from biogas digestion of solid waste to solar-powered pumping systems.

The ICRC’s approach to economic security aims to ensure that households and communities can cover their essential needs and maintain or restore sustainable livelihoods. This involves initiatives ranging from emergency distributions of food and essential household items to sustainable food production programmes and micro-economic initiatives.

In order to support field operations and have accurate guidelines, internal thematic meetings were organized in 2008 on issues such as land tenure or micro-economic initiatives. In addition, the nutrition manual for humanitarian action was translated into English and published, a handbook was produced for economic security coordinators, a leaflet on economic security was issued for junior staff and external target groups, and a brochure of case studies, Farming Through Conflict, was printed.

An operational partnership agreement for work with National Societies was finalized and is currently being tested in the field. With a view to implementing ICRC policies and guidelines on women and war, feminine hygiene items were systematically included in essential household kits.

The Economic Security Unit also analysed the global food and economic crisis in order to advise field operations on the changes inherent in the new situation. In order to strengthen its working methods, it developed a monitoring tool for field teams and three training modules to enhance reporting, monitoring and evaluation capacities. More than 1,000 staff and National Society mem­bers received instruction from a network of field-based trainers.

In 2008, as in previous years, the Assistance Division worked tirelessly to improve the quality and scope of training for its health, economic security, and water and habitat personnel. It allocated substantial resources to training and contributed its expertise to on-site courses for health care personnel working in places of detention and to war-surgery seminars held around the world. It conducted two courses on weapon contamination, on top of the support it gave in this field to colleagues from other departments.

In addition, six Health Emergencies in Large Populations (H.E.L.P.) courses were organized, in three languages, in Geneva (Switzerland), Baltimore and Honolulu (United States of America), Pretoria (South Africa), Ouidah (Benin), and Fukuoka (Japan). A total of 151 students from 45 different countries attended, including 19 from within the Movement (6 from the ICRC and 13 from National Societies) and 45 from the health sector (26 doctors and 19 nurses).

The Water and Habitat Unit reinforced its GIS expertise, recruiting and establishing a network of competent national officers. It continued to run the professional water treatment education pro­gramme, “From Emergency towards Development”, jointly with professional training institutes.

The ICRC’s expertise in specialized areas such as the rehabilitation of amputees, water and habitat engineering, war surgery, and health and medical ethics in prisons was frequently solicited in international conferences, fora and workshops. Throughout the year, the Assistance Division participated in various events attended by key humanitarian organizations such as specialized UN agencies, notably WFP, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, WHO, UNICEF, the United Nations Mine Action Service, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, UNDP and UNHCR, and NGOs such as Action Contre la Faim, Handicap International, MSF, Oxfam and Physicians for Human Rights. These meetings were opportunities to share experiences and expertise, acquire a better understanding of the approaches and working methods used by others and bring them together whenever possible. In the same spirit, the Division also maintained and developed a network of contacts with professional associations and academic institutions.