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Other International Organizations The International Red Cross Today, the IFRC includes 195 member societies, a Secretariat in Geneva, and over 60 additional delegations dispersed throughout the world. The IFRC conducts complex relief and recovery operations in the aftermath of disasters throughout the world. Their four areas of focus include promoting humanitarian values, disaster response, disaster preparedness, and health and community-care. Through their work, they seek to ‘improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity,” as stated in their mission. These people include those who are victims of natural and man-made disasters and post-conflict scenarios.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) The US agency tasked with providing development aid to other countries, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has also been tasked with the coordination of the US response to international disasters. USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is divided into four distinct sub-units: Disaster Response Division (DRD), Prevention, Mitigation, Preparedness and Planning (PMPP), Operations Support (OS), and Program Support (PS). DRD handles the US assistance provided to foreign disasters. PMPP assists foreign nations with assistance to develop their ability to mitigate and prepare for disasters. OS division handles the technical and logistical support of all OFDA projects, and PS division works with the OFDA financial and accounting systems.

The United States Military The assistance of the military is normally requested by USAID/OFDA through the Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Political/Military Affairs (PM). The US Military is heavily involved in the response to international disasters through organized operations termed Foreign Humanitarian Assistance (FHA) or Humanitarian Assistance Operations (HAO). FHAs are authorized by DOD Office of Political/Military Affairs (DODPM) at the request of OFDA (the President, as Commander in Chief, gives final authorization for any support operation). Assistance may be provided in the form of physical or technical support, such as logistics, transportation, communications, relief distribution, security and emergency medicine. In emergencies of natural or man-made origin that do not involve conflict, the role of the military is to provide support, rather than leadership, to the national government and the overall relief community.