Topic 1

Topic 1: What is a complex emergency?

Overview

This Topic introduces you to the concept of ‘complex emergency’ and provides a summary of the challenges facing complex emergency practitioners. You will examine definitions of the key terms emergency, disaster and complex emergency.  Bear in mind that the scope of this subject also encompasses natural disasters which do not have the additional complication of civil conflict, as do complex emergencies.

The perceived causes of complex emergencies determine the reasons why organisations help, their particular missions in affected countries, the scope of their responsibilities, the nature of services they will provide and the job descriptions and expectations from individuals who will be working in these situations.

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Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this Topic, students should be able to:

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Forum Activity Icon


Forum Activity 1.1

I would like you to use the subject's online forum to brieflyintroduce yourself. This only needs to be something short. For example, where you are from, what you do, your link with emergency management and perhaps one thing that you hope to learn from your involvement in this subject.

I would also like you to take this opportunity to organise your subject forum so that you receive email notifications of the forum message postings. You do this by clicking on the "email" tag at the top of the forum's page. This will bring up a list of all the forums that you have access to and you can then click on the little box next to each forum that you wish to receive email notification about. This not only allows you to receive forum postings by email, but you can also reply to postings from your email program as you would normal emails.

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