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| RedR | |
|---|---|
| Name | RedR |
| Formation | 1991 |
| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Status | Charity |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Region served | Global |
| Purpose | Humanitarian humanitarian personnel deployment and training |
| Leader title | Chief Executive |
RedR
RedR is a humanitarian recruitment and training charity founded in 1991 to provide skilled personnel and capacity building for international disaster response. It operates from headquarters in London with national and regional offices, deploying technicians, logisticians, engineers, health specialists, and coordinators to crises worldwide. The organization works alongside humanitarian agencies, United Nations bodies, national governments, and non-governmental organizations to strengthen emergency preparedness and operational effectiveness.
The organization emerged after the Gulf War and a series of humanitarian crises in the early 1990s, drawing on lessons from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, International Committee of the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and Save the Children operations. Founders included former personnel from British Red Cross, CARE International, Samaritan's Purse, and academic networks linked to King's College London and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Early deployments supported responses to conflicts such as the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, and the Rwandan genocide, and later operations expanded to natural disasters like the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Over time, the charity established formal relationships with multilateral actors including United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, and regional bodies like the African Union.
The charity’s mission centers on rapid deployment of technical specialists and strengthening humanitarian capacity for crises such as armed conflict, epidemics, and natural disasters. Core activities include recruiting professionals from sectors represented by Royal College of Surgeons, Institution of Civil Engineers, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and Royal Society of Medicine for temporary deployments to partners including International Rescue Committee, Action Against Hunger, Norwegian Refugee Council, and Mercy Corps. It supports emergency logistics, water and sanitation, shelter, health services, information management, and coordination roles that interface with agencies like United Nations Development Programme, World Food Programme, and International Organization for Migration.
Training programs are developed in collaboration with professional bodies such as Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Institute of Risk Management, and academic partners like University College London and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Courses cover humanitarian principles, safety, logistics, needs assessment, cluster coordination, and technical specializations aligned with standards set by Sphere Project and Inter-Agency Standing Committee guidance. The organization delivers face-to-face workshops, online modules, and competency assessments for staff destined for missions with Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross societies, International Medical Corps, and government emergency agencies including UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and United States Agency for International Development.
Deployments have been carried out in response to crises across regions including the Horn of Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Field personnel have been seconded to operations in locations such as Darfur, Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Nepal, Philippines, Pakistan floods 2010, and Yemen crisis. Roles often support coordination mechanisms led by United Nations Office for Project Services, Cluster approach (humanitarian response), and national disaster management authorities like Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Disaster Management Authority (India). Rapid response rosters and standby arrangements with bodies such as EU Civil Protection Mechanism and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are part of operational readiness.
The charity is governed by a board comprised of professionals from academia, humanitarian NGOs, and corporate sectors including alumni of Lancaster University, Trinity College Dublin, and executive leaders with experience at Save the Children UK, Oxfam GB, and UNICEF. Funding sources include grants from institutional donors such as European Commission, Department for International Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and contracts with agencies like World Bank and Asian Development Bank, alongside philanthropic contributions from foundations tied to families like Bill Gates and corporate partners in logistics and engineering.
Strategic partnerships exist with UN agencies, international NGOs, professional associations, and academic institutions. Collaborative arrangements include secondment agreements with International Rescue Committee, training accreditation with Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, joint research with London School of Economics and University of Oxford, and emergency agreements with governmental bodies such as Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Global Affairs Canada. The organization also participates in sector coordination forums including Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance and Humanitarian Innovation Fund projects.
Supporters cite contributions to improved field capacity, faster response times, and professionalized technical deployments that augmented missions by World Health Organization, UNICEF, and WFP. Independent evaluations reference deployments to Haiti earthquake 2010 and 2014-16 West Africa Ebola epidemic as instances where specialist input influenced logistics, water and sanitation, and health coordination. Critics have raised concerns about dependency on international experts versus local capacity, overlap with national emergency services like National Disaster Management Authority (Pakistan), and sustainability of short-term secondees compared with long-term development goals pursued by organizations such as United Nations Development Programme and World Bank.