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UN and Deutsche Post DHL sign new 3-year agreement for disaster resilience

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New York -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the international courier company Deutsche Post DHL, met yesterday at the UNDP headquarters to reaffirm their commitment to their public-private partnership in support of disaster preparedness and response.

The tripartite partnership, which includes the Get Airports Ready for Disaster (GARD) programme and Disaster Response Teams (DRTs), has been boosting the capacity of airports and national partners to better coordinate and distribute aid and relief when humanitarian disasters strike. The new agreement will see support continue for a further three years.

“Whether it's after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines or the recent outbreak of violence in the Central African Republic, airports often become vital hubs where terrified people seek a passage out and where incoming aid is coordinated and distributed,” said Marta Ruedas, Deputy Director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, UNDP. “Often however, airports are overburdened in disaster and conflict situations and can experience bottlenecks that slow down the provision of vital aid.”

To combat this, UNDP and DHL’s GARD programme supports airports in disaster preparedness, ensuring systems and contingency plans are in place to handle a surge in relief goods and personnel when needed. At the same time, OCHA and DHL have been setting up Disaster Response Teams (DRTs), who quickly respond during disaster. Together, these two programmes make for a better prepared and more resilient system.

Through DHL's world-wide expertise in rapid and effective transportation and logistics, the partnership helps UNDP and UNOCHA better respond to the immediate needs of the population, while sending relief goods and deploying experts to the scene of the disaster.

After training more than 430 people in Armenia, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nepal, Panama, Peru, the Philippines and Turkey, UNDP and DHL will now help to prepare airports in three countries per year through the new agreement. Plans are currently underway for training of airport staff in Jordan, to begin in September 2014.

Contact Information Carl Mercer: carl.mercer@undp.org