What is the SHA and its expert groups?

The Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) is the operational part of Swiss humanitarian aid abroad. The SHA currently has around 700 members on standby for field missions abroad.

For the most part, the members of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit are deployed in direct operations abroad. The SHA also works increasingly with international organisations involved in humanitarian activities such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

There are currently around one hundred SHA members working on field missions in over 30 different countries. Im most cases, project managers and high-level personel manage the projects in cooperation with local staff. Globally, the projects employ several hundred local co-workers.

Expert Groups
All corps members are divided up into one or several SHA expert groups to match their professional activities. At present there are 9 such groups, and approximately ten percent of SHA members are women.
These experts ensure that every mission is managed efficiently and in line with the specific needs of each situation and in the four main areas where Swiss humanitarian aid is active: Prevention, emergency assistance, reconstruction and advocacy. There are currently 9 expert groups.

Special Tasks expert group
Professional experience needed in management, coordination, logistics (transportation and warehouse management), financial and staff administration. Alternatively also international experience in Protection and Child Protection.
Tasks: The Special Tasks group covers a wide range of functions and field missions. Members are placed in charge of international or Swiss humanitarian aid programmes to logistics coordination tasks, such as procurement, transport, warehousing and distribution of aid materials during and after conflicts and natural disasters. Moreover, Protection and Child Protection experts are committed to helping victims and displaced persons, especially within the framework of UN organizations.

Construction expert group
Professional experience needed in architecture, civil engineering, including road building, building supervision, regional planning.
Tasks: planning, advising and carrying out reconstruction measures in collaboration with national firms (apartment blocks, schools, hospitals). In the initial survival stage the focus is on temporary emergency shelter such as tents. Another assignment consists of training national personnel in such fields as the construction of buildings able to withstand earthquakes.
Drinking water and community hygiene expert group
Professional experience needed in civil engineering, hydrology and chemistry.
Tasks: finding and securing groundwater sources; building or renovating water treatment, storage and distribution facilities; water analysis and distribution; sewage disposal; training national personnel.
Prevention and preparedness expert group
Professional experience needed in geology, seismology, volcanology; leading members of Swiss crisis staffs.
Prevention tasks: early warning (volcano monitoring); planning measures (mapping in flood- and earthquake-prone areas; construction measures (structures capable of withstanding earthquakes. Preparedness tasks: Development of infrastructures for the efficient management of catastrophe measures (alarm systems), training of national specialists and the public.
Medical expert group
Professional experience needed in medicine (epidemiology, war surgery, catastrophe medicine, public health), microbiology, nutrition.
Tasks: emergency assignments during catastrophes and epidemics; instruction and training of national hospital staff, prevention of epidemics.
Environment/ABC expert group
Professional experience needed in biology, physics and environment.
Tasks: measurement and confirmation, situation assessments and emergency measures as well as technical advise to the authorities and organizations in case of environmental or technological disasters.
Information expert group
Professional experience needed in journalism, video and photo journalism, photography.
Tasks: media spokesperson/information officer in the field or at head office, photo and video production.
Telecom expert group
Professional experience needed in electrical engineering, informatics.
Tasks: guaranteeing communications in actions by the Rescue Chain and during emergency operations. Emergency team Lynx: short-term installation of telecommunications during catastrophes.
Rescue expert group
Members of the Swiss Army Rescue Troop.
Tasks: rescue operations for people buried in rubble particularly after earthquakes; search and rescue, advising foreign governments on the development of response capacities, training of USAR teams (Urban Search and Rescue).

Additional Information and Documents

IWTC - International Women's Tribune Center
http://iwtc.org/
Centre d’étude sur l’Evaluation de la Protection dans le domaine Nucléaire (CEPN)
http://www.cepn.asso.fr/
Professionals for the SHA
Gesuchte Expertenprofile SKH