培訓第一線救災者 全球首座學院倫敦登場
時間：2015-03-24 14:49 新聞引據：採訪、法新社 撰稿編輯：季 平
名為「人道主義領袖學院」(Humanitarian Leadership Academy)的培訓機構23日在英國倫敦成立，這所學院首開全球風氣之先，以訓練各國本地援助工作者和志工成為第一線救災人員為宗旨。
人道主義領袖學院計劃成立10座中心，對10萬名援助工作者、專業衛生人員和志工進行培訓，這些受訓人員將來自50個國家，特別是容易發生災難和衝突的國家。
挪威難民理事會(Norwegian Refugee Council)負責人、也是人道主義領袖學院理事會主席伊格蘭(Jan Egeland)表示，這項計畫將可促使人道主義領域全面改革，而投資於為最需要援助的地區培訓人道工作者，將為全球最脆弱社區帶來發展與永續性。
慈善組織「拯救兒童(Save the Children)」表示，需要更多援助工作者來處理「空前之多」的危機，其中包括有5,000萬人被迫逃離家園，這是第二次世界大戰以來最大數量的難民。
拯救兒童英國分會人道事務主任歐文(Gareth Owen)表示，接受培訓的各國本地人可以在災難發生後的關鍵頭幾天內，作出更迅速的反應。
人道主義領袖學院成立後的第一個5年需要5,000萬英鎊(約7,470萬美元)經費，目前已經獲得來自英國國際開發部(Department for International Development)的2,000萬英鎊資金。另外，挪威捐助50萬英鎊。
人道主義領袖學院將由拯救兒童組織主持運作，慈善組織--樂施會(Oxfam)、反飢餓行動(Action Against Hunger)和學術機構--英國公開大學(Open University)、曼徹斯特大學人道與衝突反應研究所(HCRI Manchester University)也都參與這項計畫。
World's first academy for humanitarian relief to be launched
Humanitarian Leadership Academy to train aid workers from over 50 countries in organising rapid responses to disasters and emergencies
The world’s first academy for humanitarian relief is to be launched, aimed at training 100,000 aid workers from over 50 countries in organising rapid responses to disasters and emergencies.
The Humanitarian Leadership Academy, launching on Monday, is a response to the growing number of humanitarian crises around the world, driven by climate change and conflict, combined with a severe and worsening shortage of people with the skills necessary to coordinate the large-scale response required in the critical first days to prevent mass casualties.
The HLA is being set up by a global consortium of aid organisations with initial £20m funding from the UK Department for International Development, out of a target of £50m. The Save the Children charity has paid the startup costing and is hosting the academy’s hub in London.
Jan Egeland, a former UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, will be the academy’s first chairman. He said the initiative “may revolutionise the entire humanitarian sector”.Further centres will open in Kenya and thePhilippines later this year, and by 2020 the plan is to have ten training centres around the world, which would offer both classroom and virtual training for the surrounding regions, in mobilising the rapid response in resources and manpower needed in the wake of a disaster.
“Investment in a new and better trained generation of humanitarian workers closer to where we find the greatest needs will bring development and sustainability to many of the world’s most fragile communities,” Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said.
Last year witnessed a record number of severe global humanitarian emergencies and the highest number of refugees the world has seen since the second world war. 50 million people were forced to flee their countries.
Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, said: “If we are to save more lives in some of the toughest places in the world we need to train and support local people themselves to become the humanitarian workers and volunteers of the future. The academy will do this by bringing together an extraordinary and unique coalition of actors to train and share best practice, transforming the humanitarian system.”
The idea behind the establishment of ten national and regional centres around the world is that each should be able to tailor responses to crises in terms of local conditions and local culture. Aid experts have said that previous attempts to increase local and regional capacity to react to large-scale emergencies have foundered because they were seen as impositions of practices developed far away.
“This is potentially one of the most transformational projects I have been involved in,” said Gareth Owen, Save the Children’s director of emergencies, who has been working on the academy project since 2007. “It is based on the recognition that many studies of humanitarian disasters and emergencies point to leadership and decision-making as the critical factor. Really by now we should have a global capacity that we can draw on that is far greater and more diverse. We haven’t invested enough in people on the ground.”The plan is for each centre to provide a common pool of knowledge, the latest technology and examples of best practice, as well as solid career structures for humanitarian workers, with internationally recognised certification for successive levels of achievement, recorded in ‘humanitarian passports’. The end result should be to expand the pool of people available in every region to manage the humanitarian response in the first 72 hours of an emergency.
Owen said that climate change was adding to the relentless annual toll of humanitarian crises: “We used to have a big natural disaster about once a decade and that has come down to one every two or three years.”
Global funding for emergency relief has largely stagnated. Owen said the $20bn (£13bn) spending on the response to humanitarian emergencies is a third of the amount the world spends on yoghurt, for example, and that there is no comparison with the $1.5tn spent on arms.
“The Humanitarian Leadership Academy will help create a faster and more effective disaster response system by empowering local people in the most vulnerable countries to be the first responders after a disaster strikes,” Justine Greening, the secretary of state for international development, said. “The high quality training and expertise delivered by this academy will mean humanitarian responses not only provide immediate, life-saving relief, but also help build a more secure and resilient world.”
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