Author: admin

The INSARAG Steering Group unanimously endorsed the new INSARAG Guidelines 2020.
They consist of three volumes:

VOLUME 1: POLICY
VOLUME II: PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE

IEC/Rs taking place after 1^st January 2021 will be based on the IEC/R Checklist 2020 (Link) found in Volume II, Manual C – IEC/R Process.
Please also find guidance on how to conduct an IER within the EU MODEX Field Exercise platform here: EU MODEX Platform Link.

For further information, please contact the INSARAG Secretariat at [email protected].

Once a USAR team and its sponsoring organisation have agreed to undergo the IEC, it is required to submit an application to the INSARAG Secretariat making use of the IEC Application Phase 1 Form (Annex E of the IEC/IER Guidelines).

The requirements for this application are as follows:

The country’s INSARAG Focal Point is required to submit a written application to the INSARAG Secretariat stating that the USAR team would voluntarily like to undergo an IEC;
This application must be submitted to the INSARAG Secretariat a minimum of two years prior to the planned date.However it is important to note that due to the demand for IECs, it is more likely that the team will have to wait longer than two years before it can be scheduled;
This application must be completed in English where possible. Where this is not possible, a covering letter in English must accompany any non-English documents briefly explaining its contents;
Regardless of whether a USAR team is an official government team, a non-governmental team or combination thereof, it requires the formal support of the country’s INSARAG Focal Point in order to be eligible to undergo an IEC;
The application form includes the requirements for the abbreviated Portfolio of Evidence (PoE).

Upon receipt of the written application and the abbreviated PoE, the INSARAG Secretariat will evaluate whether the USAR team in questionis likely to attain the standards required for the IEC within the available timeline. If the INSARAG Secretariat is satisfied with the initial substantiation of the team’s capability, it will:

Inform that country’s INSARAG Focal Point in writing that the team has been successful in its application;
Allocate a provisional IEC exercise date;
Enter the IEC into the schedule of upcoming IECs which is available on the Virtual OSOCC.

On the issue of prioritising teams on the IEC queue, a decision given by the INSARAG Steering Group in 2010 says that for the new teams requesting for an IEC, the relevant INSARAG Regional Group during their annual regional meeting will discuss and present recommendations in the next INSARAG Steering Group meeting on the geographical spread of the IEC and recommend the priority of teams to be classified in their region.

If the INSARAG Secretariat is not satisfied with the initial substantiation of the team’s capabilities, it will inform that country’s INSARAG Focal Point in writing indentifying the areas of concern.

Over the past decade disasters around the world, affecting urban areas of high density populations living and working in concrete and reinforced concrete single and multi story dwellings, has increased the need for sophisticated USAR capabilities. While deployment of international USAR teams has been of great benefit to trapped victims and the affected country, lessons learned have revealed the need for responding USAR teams to be integrated within a well coordinated system to ensure the most appropriate use of available USAR resources. Therefore, INSARAG saw a need to classify international USAR teams according to their operational capabilities in order to ensure that only qualified and appropriate international USAR resources are deployed to an emergency.

The INSARAG community acknowledges the importance of providing rapid professional USAR support during disasters which result in structural collapse. In an effort to achieve this objective and the need to ensure that only qualified and appropriate international USAR resources are deployed to an emergency, the INSARAG community has developed a voluntary, independent, peer review process, the INSARAG External Classification (IEC).

To ensure that a USAR team’s international response capability remains current and continues to subscribe to the INSARAG methodology, the INSARAG External Reclassification (IER) process has also been endorsed. Taken together these two processes form the INSARAG Classification System.

Being established in 2005, this system is designed to ensure that assisting countries send a team with the required capabilities. It also plays a major role in ensuring that the appropriate resources are assigned to the appropriate sites as soon as possible. The INSARAG USAR team classification system has identified three levels of classification. These are Light, Medium and Heavy USAR teams. Details of the requirements that teams need to achieve in order to be classified, application to the IEC and all other relevant details are listed in the IEC/IER Guidelines.

Key Documents

How INSARAG responds to emergencies: LINK

——————————————————————————————————————–
Link to USAR Directory
——————————————————————————————————————–
This INSARAG USAR directory provides details on all INSARAG member countries and their USAR teams. The intention of this USAR directory is to provide an overview of the different teams currently available for international deployment. This directory includes both INSARAG Externally Classified (IEC) teams as well as those teams that are not IEC classified.

This directory is open to all governmental or non-governmental/volunteer organisations involved in providing or potentially receiving international USAR assistance or USAR capacity building. Inclusion in the USAR directory does not represent any accreditation of the USAR team by INSARAG . All requests for inclusion into or editing of this database should be submitted through the INSARAG country national focal point or the attached form should be sent directly to the INSARAG secretariat at: [email protected] .

The INSARAG country national focal point is considered the central point of contact between the INSARAG secretariat and all organizations in that country involved in the INSARAG. For countries that are likely to provide or receive international USAR assistance, INSARAG advises the designation of an INSARAG operational focal point. This operational focal point is expected to act as a counter part to the INSARAG Secretariat in the event of any actual USAR team deployments.

INSARAG IS IN THE WORLD HUMANITARIAN SUMMIT !

The UN Secretary-General will hold the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) on 23-24 May in Istanbul, Turkey on 23 and 24 May. The Summit will be held at the highest level and will bring the global community together to reaffirm our solidarity with people affected by crises, and our collective commitment to humanity. As a recommendation from the INSARAG Global Meeting in 2015 and the Steering Group meeting in 2016, the INSARAG Secretariat in OCHA Geneva along with a strong push from our global chair, Ambassador Manuel Bessler, we are pleased to inform you that INSARAG has been chosen to run a side event in the Summit.

I believe that you or representatives from your Governments will be in Istanbul participating in the WHS, and would like to warmly welcome all to participate and support this event. We will update you again on the details of the event once this is confirmed closer to the date.

Should you have any questions related to administrative issues or registration, please contact me or Mr. Winston Chang at[email protected].

World Humanitarian Summit

INSARAG STEERING GROUP MEETING 2016

On 3 February 2016, the INSARAG Steering Group meeting was opened by Ambassador Manuel Bessler, Global Chairman of INSARAG and Mr. Rudolf Müller, Director a.i. of OCHA Geneva. The Global Chair summarised the key achievements of INSARAG in 2015, outlined the upcoming highlights for 2016 and reflected on issues to be further discussed in the upcoming sessions.

The meeting was attended by 156 participants from 66 Member States and Organizations (see Annex B), including Regional Chairs and Vice-Chairs, Working Group Chairs, National Focal Points and representatives from classified teams, and participants from the Humanitarian Networks and Partnership Week (HNPW). Representatives from OCHA’s Regional Offices and OCHA’s Emergency Services Branch (ESB) also attended. The meeting was facilitated by OCHA’s Field Coordination Support Section in its capacity as INSARAG Secretariat.
Chairman’s Summary with Annex A – Agenda
Annex B – Participant list
Annex C1 – Concept Note – Capacity Building
Annex C2 – Concept Note – IER System
Annex C3 – Concept Note – International Light Teams
Annex C4 – Concept Note – Beyond the Rubble
Annex C5 – Concept Note – National USAR Team Accreditation_ENG
Annex C5 – Concept Note – National USAR Team Accreditation _SPA
Humanitarian Networks Partnerships Week 2016
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2

(open with Google Chrome) Capture2

Capture

END OF THE YEAR’S NEWSLETTER

Message from Jesper Lund, Chief of FCSS and INSARAG Secretary

Dear Colleagues,
As 2015 is coming to an end, I have been reflecting on our experiences this past year. We had twelve UNDAC missions, including floods in Malawi and Myanmar, a cyclone in Vanuatu and the earthquake in Nepal. Two years of consultations culminated in the launch of the INSARAG Guidelines, and along with the new OSOCC Operations course and Emergency Response Methodology training, reflect our efforts to put the right tools in the right hands. It was also a year of building connections with the three organizations taking part in the Professional Dialogue meeting in Cyprus and the second INSARAG Global Meeting in Abu Dhabi. Our operational partners who provide technical support during deployments grew with the signing of a Letter of Intent with the Fuel Relief Fund. Read more…
INSARAG Year End Report 2015

FCSS_2015_Dec_-_

INSARAG GLOBAL MEETING 2015

Message from Jesper Holmer Lund
Secretary of INSARAG
and Chief FCSS, OCHA Geneva

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The international and national urban search and rescue (USAR) community gathered for the second INSARAG global meeting and 25th anniversary of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), from 18 to 19 October 2015, back-to-back with the three Working Groups Meetings, USAR Team Leaders Meeting and three Regional Groups Meetings on 20 October – the largest INSARAG gathering in history !

313 participants from 94 countries and organisations and more than 200 participants from the Abu Dhabi Police attended the meeting, leading to the ‘INSARAG Abu Dhabi declaration’, INSARAG’s input to the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016.

As the UN Secretary-General said in his message on this occasion, ” As INSARAG celebrates 25 years, you should all be proud of the success this community has achieved…The ability of the network to span continents and cultures is a testament to the commitment of its members and a model of best practice for the humanitarian community”

In the past week, I have received nothing but positive comments. As such, there is no doubt that we fully met our objectives for the series of INSARAG meetings. This astounding success surpassed all expectations, and I thank each and every one of you who contributed time, effort and commitment to making the week of INSARAG meetings in Abu Dhabi a historic and memorable event. Allow me to salute and thank again, all of you who made it possible.

By coming together, we have shown the humanitarian community that INSARAG remains a highly relevant network and can be called upon to deliver value added life-saving assistance based on agreed standards and will continue to improve our response to be “Fit for the Future”.

Finally, we are very grateful to the UAE, the Ministry of Interior of the UAE, for hosting this event, UN and international/regional organizations and other entities that contributed.
Please find the session presentations in the links below for the Team Leaders and Global Meetings.
Best regards,
Jesper

Global Meeting Chariman’s Summary
Global Meeting presentations
Abu Dhabi Declaration in English
Abu Dhabi Declaration in French
Abu Dhabi Declaration in Spanish
Abu Dhabi Declaration in Chinese
Abu Dhabi Declaration in Arabic
Group photos

Team Leaders Meeting

Global_Meeting_2015_Group_Pic

ARTICLE “THE GUARDIAN” REGARDING THE INSARAG SIMEX IN CHILE.

Article “The Guardian” regarding the INSARAG Simex in Chile ” How did Chile manage to survive its recent earthquake virtually unscathed? The article also in PDF attached .

ARMENIA BECAME A MEMBER OF THE UN INSARAG

On September 4, Armenia became a member of the UN International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) after the Armenian Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team successfully underwent a three-day external classification exercise held on 1-4 September and was classified as a Medium USAR Team. – See more in this link or you can download the document here .

NEPAL EARTHQUAKE – INSARAG MINI-SURVEY

Following the recent Earthquake in Nepal, the OCHA Field Coordination Support Section as INSARAG Secretariat commenced a technical evaluation of the Urban Search and Rescue response with a focus on on deployment considerations, virtual and operational support provided by OCHA, implementation of the 2015 INSARAG Guidelines and work conducted by the USAR teams beyond the initial Search and Rescue phase.

Thoughts and comments were collected through an online survey and we are grateful to those who contributed.

This comments and feedback received through this evaluation will contribute to the Nepal Lessons Learned at the Global INSARAG Meeting in October as well as a system-wide evaluation of the Nepal response to which all USAR teams will be invited to contribute.
Thank you again for your continued support and dedication to INSARAG.
The results of the survey are summarized in the attached REPORT .

INSARAG REGIONAL EQ EX REVIEW WORKSHOP IN GENEVA

The INSARAG Earthquake Response Exercise Redesign Workshop, 15-17 April 2015, was taken place in Geneva. The participants are revising and strengthening the INSARAG Earthquake Response Exercise, by implementing the revised INSARAG Guidelines 2015 and the OSOCC Guidelines 2014. The workshop was officially opened by the Deputy Director OCHA Geneva and Chief of the Emergency Services Branch, Rudolf Müller, and is attended by 44 participants from partners such as the World Health Organization, MapAction, ACAPS, and OCHA Regional Offices. The outcome of the workshop is a generic INSARAG Earthquake Response Exercise Package that for the first time will be used in the upcoming INSARAG exercise in Mongolia.

20150415_090757

20150415_120645

20150416_135429

TRAINING WORKING GROUP MEETING IN GENEVA

The INSARAG Training Working Group (TWG) met on 13-14 April 2015 in Geneva. The TWG is an engaged team of global urban search and rescue experts, who meet three times a year to develop training standards and content for the INSARAG community. The TWG supports the INSARAG Earthquake Response Exercise Redesign Workshop, which currently is taking place (15-17 April). They will provide their unique expertise, and propose a strategy for the revised generic INSARAG Earthquake Response Exercise Package.

20150413_0929430

SAVE THE DATE: GLOBAL MEETING 2015

INSARAG Global Meeting 2015 in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates
Join Member States, UN Agencies, the IFRC, and OCHA for the 2nd INSARAG Global Meeting in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, from 18 to 20 October 2015.

Highlights:

Celebrate 25 years of INSARAG’s standards setting and contributions to strengthening the effectiveness and coordination of international urban search and rescue (USAR) assistance based on UN GA 57/150.
Special testimony from rescued survivors of major earthquakes.
Help chart INSARAG’s value add and role in the changing humanitarian landscape through the theme for the meeting: “Fit for the Future”.
The Annual INSARAG USAR Team Leaders Meeting (16-17 October) and 3 Regional Meetings (20 October) meets back-to-back.

Save this date, and see you in Abu Dhabi this October!

Please find attached the Official Second Announcement .

For more information, write to the INSARAG Secretariat at [email protected]

for_webpage

ENDORSEMENT OF INSARAG GUIDELINES

INSARAG Guidelines 2015:
The ISG unanimously endorsed the new INSARAG Guidelines 2015, and its implementation plan, including the extension of GRG’s activity through the implementation phase. The new Guidelines put into effect as of 11 February 2015. Regarding the IEC/R Checklist, the IEC/Rs in March (Japan and New Zealand) will use the existing Checklist while using the 2015 Checklist as “trial”, but all the IEC/Rs after 1 April 2015 are required to use the Checklist 2015.

The Guidelines will consist of three volumes: Volume I: Policy, Volume II: Preparedness and Response (Manual A: Capacity Building, Manual B: Operations, and Manual C: IEC/Rs Guide), and Volume III: Operational Field Guide.

Member states welcomed the new Guidelines, and will take full Ownership. They expressed their interest to translate the Guidelines into other languages such as Arabic (UAE), Chinese (China), French (France), German (Germany), Hebrew (Israel), Japanese (Japan), Russian (Russia and Belarus), Spanish (Peru), and Turkish (Turkey).

Please find the new guidelines in the link below:
https://owncloud.unog.ch/public.php?service=files&t=b435decb1305980fd1db4c4ef44e4ae9

The INSARAG Secretariat can hold ad-hoc events, for example to discuss the lessons learnt from major earthquake responses. These events are open to INSARAG members.

2023: After-Action Review of the INSARAG USAR response to the Türkiye and Syria Earthquakes

INSARAG AAR Agenda

Short – Analysis & Recommendations for INSARAG

Analysis & Recommendations for INSARAG

INSARAG AAR Presentation

2010: Haiti Earthquake After Action Review Meeting:

Below are the recommendations report of this meeting and a book regarding the Haiti earthquake international urban search and rescue response and Haiti Earthquake After Action Review Meeting.
Haiti Earthquake Response (Book)
Haiti Earthquake AAR Meeting Recommendations Report -English
Haiti Earthquake AAR Meeting Recommendations Report -Spanish

2004: Iran/Bam and Morocco Earthquakes Lessons Learned Meeting:

Below is the Chairman Summary of the meeting organised to discuss international urban search and rescue response lessons learned from Iran/Bam (2003) and Morocco (2004) earthquakes.
Iran/Morocco Lessons Learned Meeting

2003: Algerian Earthquake Lessons Learned Meeting:

Below is the Chairman Summary of the meeting organised to discuss international urban search and rescue response lessons learned from the 2003 Algerian earthquake.
Algeria Lessons Learned Meeting

1999: Turkey and Taipei Earthquakes Lessons Learned Meeting:

Below is the report from the Meeting of international USAR Team Leaders on Lessons Learned and follow up to the 1999 Turkey and Taipei Earthquakes.
Turkey and Taipei Earthquakes Lessons Learned Meeting

Three INSARAG Regional Groups meet annually to plan regional activities and to keep abreast of USAR related issues. With the recommendations of INSARAG Regional Meetings and the endorsement of the INSARAG Steering Group, the INSARAG community felt that there was a need for greater interaction between three INSARAG Regional Groups and therefore decided to hold a global INSARAG meeting every 5 years. This global event is a unique opportunity designed to bring all member countries together from across all INSARAG regions.

The INSARAG Guidelines Review Group (GRG) met in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on 14-15 October 2015. The list of participants can be found in Annex A.

Chair of TWG, Mr. David Sochor

{tabulizer:include style[gr.alterora.elemental_2_grey.css] id[tab_F6yW0U1VnR]}

Name	Country	Region	Position
David Sochor	Switzerland	AEME	A/Chair on behalf of Manuel Bessler
John Denny	Australia	Asia-Pacific	Member
Sebastian Mocarquer	Chile	Americas	Member
Peter Wolff	Germany	AEME	Member
Arjan Stam	Netherlands	AEME	Member
Paul Burns	New Zealand	Asia-Pacific	Member
Dewey Perks	USA	Americas	Member
Marwan Bader Alsmeiat	Jordan	AEME	Member
Ling Young Ern	Singapore	Asia-Pacific	Member
Tsukasa Katsube	Japan	Asia-Pacific	Member

This meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Interior of the Government of the United Arab Emirates and co-organised by the INSARAG Secretariat.

The meeting was opened by Mr. Winston Chang, Humanitarian Affairs Officer, FCSS-OCHA and Mr. David Sochor, Chief of Rapid Response Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Chief of Staff to the Chairman GRG, Ambassador Manuel Bessler.
Guidelines Review Group Meeting Chairman’s Summary
Presentation

Following lessons identified from the urban search and rescue response to the Padang earthquake (2009) and the Haiti earthquake (2010), INSARAG has discussed to establish a technical working group looking into operational sides of coordinating urban search and rescue. In the INSARAG Steering Group Meeting, June 2010 , it was decided that an INSARAG working group should be established to further develop these aspects based on the recommendations from the INSARAG Haiti Earthquake After Action Review Meeting of June 2010 and INSARAG Team Leaders Meeting of March 2010. Therefore, the INSARAG Operations Working Group (OWG) was established in 2011 with the endorsement of INSARAG Steering Group.

This newly established working group is a project-based temporary inter-regional working group with specific targets and timelines as described at itsTerms of Reference . The inputs from the INSARAG regional groups are received through its participants in the working group. The groups is composed of a chair, two representatives from each INSARAG regional group and a representative of INSARAG. The group meets two to three times a year. The reports of this working group’s meetings can be found below.

Chair of OWG:

Mr. David Norlin

Email: [email protected]

2013

FIRST MEETING, 1-9 MARCH 2013, LUZERN, SWITZERLAND.
The first meeting of the INSARAG OWG in 2013 took place from March 1st – 9th 2013 in Luzern, Switzerland. Please find theChairman Summary of this meeting.

SECOND MEETING, 16-18 SEPTEMBER 2013, THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS
The second meeting of the INSARAG OWG in 2013 took place from September 16 – 18 2013 in The Hague, Netherlands. Please find the Chairman Summary of this meeting.

2012

FIRST MEETING, 17-25 MARCH 2012, AUSTRALIA
The first meeting of the INSARAG OWG in 2012 took place from 17-19 and 23-25 March 2012 in Australia back to back with the INSARAG Team Leaders Meeting. Please find the Chairman Summary of this meeting. Please note that the outcomes of the working groups are not official INSARAG documents until they are endorsed by the INSARAG Steering Group.

SECOND MEETING, 27 MAY – 3 JUNE 2012, PADANG, INDONESIA
The second meeting of the INSARAG OWG took place from 27 May -3 June 2012 in Padang, Indonesia . Please find below theChairman Summary of this meeting. Please note that the outcomes of the working groups are not official INSARAG documents until they are endorsed by the INSARAG Steering Group.

THIRD MEETING, 5-9 NOVEMBER 2012, LOS ANGELES, USA
The third and last meeting of the INSARAG OWG in 2012 took place from 5-9 November 2012 in Los Angeles, USA. You may find the Chairman Summary of this meeting here. Please note that the outcomes of this working group are not official INSARAG documents until they are endorsed by the INSARAG Steering Group.

2011

FIRST MEETING, 30 MARCH-03 APRIL 2011, COSTA RICA
The first meeting of the INSARAG OWG took place from 30 March–03 April 2011 in Costa Rica back to back with the INSARAG Team Leaders Meeting. Below is the Chairman Summary of this meeting. Please note that the outcomes of this working group are not official INSARAG documents until they are endorsed by the INSARAG Steering Group.
Chairman’s Summary

SECOND MEETING, 8 JULY-12 JULY 2011, TURKEY
The second meeting of the INSARAG OWG took place from 8-12 July 2011 in Turkey back to back with the INSARAG External Classification (IEC) of Turkish USAR teams. Below is the Chairman Summary of this meeting. Please note that the outcomes of this working group are not official INSARAG documents until they are endorsed by the INSARAG Steering Group.
Chairman’s Summary

THIRD MEETING, 18-22 NOVEMBER 2011, SOUTH AFRICA
The third and last meeting of the INSARAG OWG in 2011 took place from 18-22 November 2011 in South Africa back to back with the INSARAG/UNDAC Awareness Training. Below is the Chairman Summary of this meeting. Please note that the outcomes of this working group are not official INSARAG documents until they are endorsed by the INSARAG Steering Group.
Chairman Summary

This is a network of experienced USAR practitioners who respond to collapsed structure incidents domestically and internationally and whose input, advice and experience serve to improve the operational capabilities of international USAR response. The INSARAG Secretariat convenes an annual USAR Team Leaders’ Meeting for all registered international USAR Team Leaders. These meetings provide a forum to discuss technical issues relating to training and best practice based on lessons learned from previous USAR operations and exercises.

Any INSARAG member countries interested in hosting the annual meeting of the international USAR Team Leaders is welcomed. The requests for this should be sent to the INSARAG Secretariat.

The reports of the INSARAG Team Leaders Meetings can be found here:
——
2024

Chairman’s Summary Brasil 2024

Please find the TL meetings Presentations here

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pK20ZUxffdXd6IV9BaSdIVYsJfVZrKW_?usp=sharing

Links YouTube Video Day 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBRTHgiuBog

Links YouTube Video Day 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnj0zblxims

Links YouTube Video Day 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbOuBB3spDI

2023:

2023 INSARAG Team Leaders (TLs) Meeting and Technical Working Group (WGs) Meeting