16 November 2011

Integral is pleased to announce the launch of its’ next stage of deeper collaboration in disasters. The endorsement of its’ Disaster Management Processes will enable all sixteen Integral Members to follow the agreed procedures when an emergency situation arises anywhere in the world.

After nine months of detailed consultation, drafting & redrafting work, the tools & processes are now complete. The Integral Board, made up of the CEOs/Presidents of all Members, unanimously endorsed the new procedures at their Oct 2011 meeting. They signed a Commitment pro-forma in which they agreed to develop implementation plans to ensure the procedures are internally accepted, & agreeing to be mutually accountable to other Members for carrying this out.

Laurie Cook, the Chair of the Integral Board, says: "We sincerely believe that we now have the basis for working together in a way that will bring additional resources and take collaborative relief work to a level of efficiency and creativity that will serve those in desperate need so much better than we have ever been able to do in the past."

The development of the Integral DM process has been a collaborative one, with a Project Manager and Process Developer working with the Secretariat, and receiving input from the Integral Board, Marketing and Programme groups. Laurie Cook says about this collaborative approach: “The project document in its final form is therefore an amazingly thorough one.” Integral’s DM processes will go live for any disaster after 1st April 2012.

Wayne de Jong, Director Disaster Response & Rehabilitation, Integral Member Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), echoes Cook’s sentiment about the quality of the final project document: “As I share the final DM project documents with our staff and partner organizations they, without exception, are extremely impressed with the end result. I know that we as Members contributed to that end result, but you [as Integral] pulled it all together in a clear and professional manner to define a practical process which I believe will serve us well as Members for many years to come, and enable us to – together – have a much greater impact in terms of responding to disasters around the world.”

One of the benefits of Integral’s DM process is that Integral is now uniquely placed to not just respond to the world's larger disasters, but also to the smaller more forgotten crises that may not make the news headlines.

More Information:

Integral has 16 Members who work in 88 countries & currently fund more than 850 projects:

CEDAR Fund - Hong Kong
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee – Canada & USA

Integra - Slovakia
MAP International - USA
Mission East - Denmark
Norwegian Mission Alliance - Norway

SEL France - France
Strømme Foundation - Norway
TEAR Australia - Australia

Tearfund - Belgium
Tear- Netherlands
TEAR Fund - New Zealand
Tear Fund - Switzerland
Tearfund - UK
World Relief - Canada
World Relief - USA

• Integral Members have previously collaborated in:

• 2004: Indonesia Tsunami, Sri Lanka Tsunami

• 2006: Indonesia Earthquake

• 2007: Bangladesh Floods, Zimbabwe Humanitarian Crisis

• 2008: Kenya Unrest, China Earthquake, Myanmar Cyclone, Democratic Republic of Congo, East Africa Food Crisis, India floods

• 2009: Sri Lanka (internally displaced people), Pakistan floods, Asian disasters

• 2010: Haiti earthquake, Sahel food crisis, Indonesia earthquake, Guatemala Hurricane, Pakistan floods

• 2011: Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, North Korea, South Sudan, Japan earthquake, Middle East, East Africa food crisis

See website for more info:

www.integralalliance.org

Contacts:

Fiona Boshoff, Director of Integral

f.boshoff@integralalliance.org

Sarah Fordham, Communications Officer

s.fordham@integralalliance.org