Red Cross as an auxiliary to the government and has been providing significant technical contributions to the Country’s Disaster Management Law, Policies, and Strategies. Basically, MRCS assists government, at all times, to support humanitarian actions. At National level, MRCS is a member of National Search & Rescue Committee and also a member in three sub committees of National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC).
There are 28 warehouses in strategic locations and reserved 21,500 packages of disaster preparedness stock. In terms of disaster preparedness and response capacity, at June 2016, at the society have 10 trained Regional Disaster Response Team (RDRT) members, 130 National Disaster Response Team (NDRT) member, 1,082 Emergency Response Team (ERT) members. MRCS reserved Emergency Management Fund (EMF) and the interest of funds is used for small scale relief activities. MRCS Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programs are targeting community members in urban, rural and coastal areas. Currently, MRCS is running 2 Recovery Operations (Communal violence and Conflict) in 2 States (Rakhine and Kachin States). Annually MRCS assists an average of 500,000 of people.
MRCS has been provided technical assistance (Disaster Management, First Aid and Psychosocial Support) to Government’s Disaster Management Training Center and other trainings in States/ Regions.
The Government Relief and Resettlement Department (RRD) established an Emergency Operation Center (EOC) at Naypyitaw and it is linked up and closely working with Myanmar Red Cross EOC in Naypyitaw and Yangon.
The country’s Disaster Management Law was enacted in July 2013. To translate the law into action, the Government (RRD) is drafting Disaster Management Rule in cooperation and coordination with DRR stakeholders including Myanmar Red Cross as a key partner. In 2014, RRD and Myanmar Red Cross jointly organized a workshop on International Disaster Law (IDL) with technical support from International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) which aimed for better coordination, cooperation for delivering humanitarian assistances at local level in times of emergencies/ disasters.
