Emergency preparedness and response

Sudden emergency situations can threaten the lives, livelihoods and long-term well-being of affected populations. Georgia is characterized by the frequency and high risk of disasters that pose a significant threat to different sectors of the economy and to human development.

UNFPA works to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in crisis settings. Humanitarian crises increase women’s vulnerability to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and HIV, hazardous pregnancies and sexual violence and exploitation. UNFPA seeks to make motherhood as safe as possible during emergency situations and help those who want to delay or avoid pregnancy and provide care before, during and after delivery. These essential services are a vital component of basic health care, with the consequences of poor reproductive health often exacerbated in emergency settings.

The Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health is a priority set of life-saving activities to be implemented at the onset of a humanitarian crisis. The programme, supported by UNFPA, is designed to address the reproductive health needs of populations in the earliest phases of emergencies in order to: prevent and respond to sexual violence; prevent excess newborn and mother illness and death; reduce HIV transmission; and plan for comprehensive reproductive health services.

UNFPA Georgia is advocating and providing technical support for integration of the Minimum Initial Service Package for reproductive health and response to gender-based violence in crisis situations into National Emergency Response Plan. In order to strengthen collective preparedness for emergencies, UNFPA Georgia, in partnership with Government of Georgia, UN Agencies and Red Cross developed Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) Emergency Preparedness/Contingency Action Plan, with defined priorities and recommendations for its integration into the MoLHSA’s Sectorial Response Plan to Disaster and Emergency Situations and consequently, into the National Emergency Response Plan.

UNFPA chairs the Gender-based Violence sub-cluster established under the UN Disaster Management Country Team and supports coordination among the state and non-state humanitarian partners with the aim to ensure adequate response to the challenges, including sexual exploitation, violence and tension to which young people and women are faced during emergencies and in humanitarian settings, build trust and willingness of those people to ask for assistance and then shape the modality to address their needs.