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The SHA and its specialized 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.

The SHA members...
... are, for the most part, 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), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Approximately 15% of SHA members are women.

...are employed worldwide. They support the affected population during and after conflicts and natural disasters. 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.

The specialized groups of the SHA...
.... 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. Each SHA member is divided up into one or several SHA specialized groups to match his professional experience. There are currently 10 specialized groups.

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Specialized group Coordination and Administration
Professional experience needed in management, coordination, financial and staff administration. Alternatively also international experience in Protection and Child Protection.
Tasks: The expert 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.
logistik.jpg Specialized group Support/ Logistics
Professional experience needed in logistics (transportation and warehouse management)
Tasks: logistics coordination tasks, such as procurement, transport, warehousing and distribution of aid materials during and after conflicts and natural disasters.
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Specialized group Construction
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.
WES Specialized group WES (Water and Environmental Sanitation) 
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.
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Specialized group Environment and DRR
Professional experience needed in biology, physics and environment in geology, seismology, volcanology; leading members of Swiss crisis staffs.
Prevention 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.
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.
Medizin Specialized group Medical 
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.
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Specialized group Information
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.
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Specialized group Telecom
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.
 
Rettung Specialized group Rescue
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).
Sicherheit Specialized group Security 
Professional experience as a policeman, as a member of the DDPS with several years of experience and training in security-relevant themes, a security officer with an international organization (United Nations, NGOs, etc), or a security expert active, for instance, within the frame of a private security firm.
Tasks: Security advisers are required for various kinds of missions: short-term deployments within the scope of Rapid Response Teams in the event of natural disasters or complex emergencies to support the management in security issues; long-term deployments by secondment to UN organizations; temporary deployment to provide support to SDC security officers in conducting their routine missions at the SDC Cooperation Offices in the field (situation analysis, risk assessments, security training), as well as for temporary reinforcement at Headquarters.

Additional Information and Documents