Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit – DRR & Environment Expert Group

The Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) is the operational arm of Swiss Humanitarian Aid. It consists of a corps of around 700 specialists who are on call to be deployed to implement projects of SDC or its partners. SHA specialists are organized into thematic expert groups (EG) according to their know-how and skills. Currently, there are 11 EGs.

The EG "DRR / Environment" is the SHA expert group covering disaster prevention and preparedness and environment. In DRR, its competences include supporting targeted DRR activities of SDC and its partners, as well as the mainstreaming of DRR within SDC. The EG involves around 90 DRR and environmental specialists and was formed in 2010 by the merger of the former expert groups Environment / NBC and Prevention and Preparedness (P&P). The EG DRR / Environment works closely with other expert groups such as the EG Construction.

Typology of expert group specilisations (or "functions")

​Typical profiles in the group are environmental and natural scientists, engineers, geologists, geographers, chemists, economists and other social scientists. They can be classified in three sub-groups of expertise, namely natural hazard risk, environment and livelihood, and hazardous materials (nuclear and chemical).

In recent years, members of the EG collectively completed around 30-50 missions annually. These missions range from short-term assignments within Rapid Response or Swiss Rescue teams to multi-year deployments as regional DRR advisors, DRR programme managers or seconded experts to international partners. Seven to ten missions per year have durations of more than six months. An example of a long-term deployment is the multi-year deployment of an expert to Bangkok to support DRR mainstreaming in SDC programmes in South-East Asia. Additionally, eight new members of the EG were deployed under the "programme vert" scheme, SHA's young professionals' programme (usually 6-12 months), between 2013 and 2016.

Legend: Field excursion of SHA Expert Group "DRR and Environment", 2016, Thun, Switzerland

​Contact for further information: Ali Neumann, Head of Expert Group DRR / Environment 

ali.neumann@eda.admin.ch