Author: Digital Services

INSARAG IEC/R Leadership Course 2023 – The Netherlands

The INSARAG IEC/R Leadership course was held in Vooburg, the Netherlands, from 5 to 8 June 2023, hosted by the USAR NL. Team. This was the fourth course, followed by 2020 in Oman, 2014 in Abu Dhabi, and 2012 in Winchester, UK. The purpose of the course is to share an extensive knowledge of IEC/R for those who intend to take roles of leadership positions, including Team Leader and Deputy Team Leader of Classifiers, Mentors, and the INSARAG Secretariat.
The course was facilitated by INSARAG Training Working Group members with experts, and together, 19 participants attended the course from all over the world.
The four-day course focused on the Roles and Responsibilities of each leadership position, Negotiation Skills, Design of Exercise, Checklist and POE, Exercise Site Analysis, and so on by exchanging knowledge and experience of participants and facilitators.


Thank you very much to the participants, the facilitators, and especially to the USAR.NL for hosting the course.

URGENT – Notice to all USAR teams that responded to Türkiye and Syria Earthquakes – Reports of Asbestos Contamination

To all USAR Team Leaders and Representatives,

This message from the INSARAG Secretariat on behalf of NED-01 USAR.NL is to notify you of reported asbestos contamination found on the equipment of the NED-01 team.

NED-01, in their standard post-mission procedures during and after their deployment to Antakaya, Turkiye, have tested and sampled their equipment, clothing, and tents for asbestos contamination. The samples showed moderate decontamination with actinolite. On some samples, slight decontamination with chrysotile was also detected.

NED-01 will decontaminate the equipment involved under professional supervision. They will also notify the current users of their base of operations, which was handed over to Oxfam-Novib for the broader humanitarian relief effort. NED-01 was, due to the lack of raw water, not able to fully fulfil its regular decontamination procedures in the first days of its mission. Hence the contamination was able to spread further than normal.

As it cannot be ruled out that other teams have experienced the same.

The INSARAG Secretariat urges all teams to thoroughly conduct post-mission procedures and consider testing for asbestos contamination if this is not already part of your standard protocol. Decontamination should be carried out under professional supervision.

REGIONAL GROUP MEETING 2021 (PERU)

La XX Reunión del Grupo Regional de INSARAG y VIII Reunión Regional de Consulta UNDAC en las Américas se realizó del 14 al 16 de setiembre de 2021 en módulos de tres horas cada una. Se llevó a cabo de manera virtual utilizando la plataforma de teleconferencias del Instituto Nacional de Defensa Civil y el servicio de interpretación simultánea al inglés y al español con apoyo de PNUD y USAID.
Participaron 79 representantes de 15 países de la región y otras organizaciones.
La agenda incluyó informes de actividades realizadas en el año y proyecciones para el 2022 tanto para el plan de trabajo de INSARAG como de UNDAC en la región, la Coordinación Nacional USAR, los procesos de acreditación nacional (NAP/IRNAP), el sistema de coordinación INSARAG (ICMS), lecciones aprendidas de misiones UNDAC, información sobre la Reunión Global de INSARAG y la Declaración de Varsovia, y el traspaso a la Mesa Directiva Regional INSARAG para 2022.

Relatoría de la Reunión Regional / Chairman Summary

REGIONAL GROUP MEETING 2020 (COLOMBIA)

La Reunión de INSARAG Américas 2020 se organizó a lo largo de la Consulta Regional de la UNDAC como lo fue desde las últimas 7 reuniones regionales. Tuvo lugar del 27 al 30 de octubre de manera virtual en sesiones de dos horas cada día. La agenda abarcó temas estratégicos y operativos para la región en relación con INSARAG y el sistema UNDAC. Fue organizada por el Gobierno de Colombia, con el apoyo de la Oficina de Coordinación de Asuntos Humanitarios de las Naciones Unidas (OCHA).
Hubo más de 90 participantes de 15 países y 3 organizaciones subregionales de la región, además de la participación de representantes de las regiones de Africa, Europa y Medio Oriente (AEME) y Asia-Pacífico (AP) que compartieron sus balances de actividades de 2020.
Los principales temas discutidos estuvieron relacionados con la respuesta flexible, la acreditación nacional (NAP / IRNAP, NAWG), el curso de coordinación USAR, el balance de INSARAG de las Américas 2020 y el plan INSARAG de las Américas 2021, contribuciones al Plan Global de INSARAG 2021-2026 y declaración de Varsovia, las lecciones aprendidas de Beirut, otros temas. Se presentó la conformación de la Mesa Directiva Regional 2021, que va a ser presidida por Perú, la I Vicepresidencia será asumida por Honduras y la II Vicepresidencia será asumida por Argentina.

Relatoría de la Reunión Regional / Chairman Summary

SIMEX 2022 held by Swiss Government

The Swiss government was pleased to host the INSARAG Earthquake Simulation Exercise 2022 (“SIMEX22”). The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, had hosted this event in Kriens, Switzerland, from June 20-24, 2022. The specific objective of “SIMEX22” was to train and practice INSARAG methods for disaster response, which provided a unique opportunity for national and international responders to participate in a realistic exercise where disaster victims had to fight for survival under rubble. 13 USAR Teams from 14 countries participated: Armenian, Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Nederlands, Qatar, Spain, Turkey, UK, USA and Switzerland.

IRNAP Since 2017

Since 2015, the INSARAG Guidelines explicitly encourage member states to establish a national accreditation process that is developed, adapted, and framed in the member state’s own reality and recommends using the INSARAG Guidelines as reference. In fact, for several years a growing number of member states have been developing their national process using the INSARAG Guidelines as a reference. In addition, the 2020 INSARAG Guidelines encourage the member states to go even a step further by requesting the INSARAG Recognized National Accreditation Process (IRNAP), which certifies that the USAR system in the member state is completely in accordance with the INSARAG Guidelines methodology.

Annex a: IRNAP Guidance Note 2022 – Link

The member states that are recognized since 2017 are listed below:

Date Member States RG
1 June 2017 France AEME
2 November 2017 Turkey AEME
3 November 2018 Colombia Americas
4 December 2018 Guatemala Americas
5 June 2022 Chile Americas
6 June 2022 Cyprus AEME
7 October 2022 Singapore AP