Emergency Response Units (ERUs) were created to respond rapidly to emergencies in a standardized way and with quality. The approach is to fill gaps created by an emergency as a result of temporary overload of existing systems o the absence of such systems. ERUs are there to provide essential services while adjusting according to the standards in the recipient country.

From an initial idea to provide emergency blankets, the ERU concept has developed into nine different types of highly specialized units, all using standardized equipment and pre-trained personnel. They provide health and water and sanitation services and support major disaster operations with logistics, IT and telecommunications and relief. The units are self-sufficient for one month and can stay up to four months in the country.

The Emergency Response Units soon demostrated their worth. They speeded up disaster response and enabled the International Federation Secretariat in Geneva to better coordinate combined National Society operations. More recent disasters, such as the 26 December 2004 tsunami and Pakistan earthquake, with many pockets of scattered populations in urgent need of assistance again proved the life saving capacities of the ERUs. At the same time these disasters as well as the 2006 Kenya floods helped the ERUs to further adapt their standardised equipment. ERUs have been and are again a vital part of the organisation’s operations in Mozambique, Madagascar and Pakistan in 2007.

ERUs are now firmly established as a crucial part of the International Federation’s disaster response, providing an operational platform, which can work independently, self contained or in combination, flexible enough to meet basic needs in any type of disaster, like earthquakes, floods, epidemics, famine, refugees/IDPs anywhere in the world.