The definition of a complex emergency is - “a humanitarian crisis in a country, region or society where there is total or considerable breakdown of authority resulting from internal or external conflict and which requires an international response that goes beyond the mandate or capacity of any single agency and/ or the ongoing United Nations country program.” (IASC, December 1994).
Such “complex emergencies” are typically characterized by:
Extensive violence and loss of life; massive displacements of people; widespread damage to societies and economies;
The need for large-scale, multi-faceted humanitarian assistance;
The hindrance or prevention of humanitarian assistance by political and military constraints;
Significant security risks for humanitarian relief workers in some areas.
From the perspective of an IMO, complex emergencies are especially challenging as they tend to last for multiple years, resulting in increasing number of vulnerabilities and people in need of humanitarian assistance. Moreover, in many contexts, smaller-scale emergencies are frequently occurring within the larger complex emergency. For example, Afghanistan has seen frequent floods, landslides, earthquakes and food insecurity crises on the top of the conflict ongoing since 2001. Thus, a natural disaster occurring in within the complex emergency settings can result in an emergency response within an emergency response. In such a situation, collecting, organizing, and disseminating data and information on the "small" emergency can be complicated and challenging.
Process
When a disaster strikes within complex emergency settings, there are several key questions to consider:
Is a new instance of HR.info needed?
Will there be new actors coming into the country?
Will the existing humanitarian architecture (clusters) be able to handle the new response?
How are the IM activities going to be coordinated and communicated? Is the existing IMWG going to be expanded?
Will a new response document be needed or will it be incorporated into the existing documents?
Outputs/Resources
Text should include: Essential Reading, Additional Readings, Templates. Examples, Tutorials