he world is changing fast, more people are becoming vulnerable to disasters or are forced to cope with acts of violence, financial crises and growing uncertainty, often without adequate support from their governments. With new challenges to humanitarian coordination, concerns over standards and accountability, more capable states and National Societies exercising leadership over humanitarian response and presenting new opportunities to mobilize the collective resources of the IFRC in non-traditional ways, the IFRC must learn, adapt, innovate, and lead to ensure that we remain relevant and achieve greater impact with our humanitarian work. - See more at: http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/#sthash.yL6oEfQ3.dpuf

Red Cross has been responding to emergencies and providing humanitarian assistance in Australia since 1914. We are committed to strengthening and extending our emergency services to assist all Australians prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Emergency Management is represented by a range of measures which have been designed for the management of risks to communities and to the environment. It involves establishing plans, structures and arrangements to bring together the normal activities of governments with voluntary and private agencies. This liaison is done in a comprehensive and coordinated way to deal with the whole spectrum of emergency needs, including the issues of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

The concept of risk combines an understanding of the likelihood of a hazardous event occurring with an assessment of its impact, for example: Risk = Hazard x Elements at Risk x Vulnerability. Hazardous events can be either naturally occurring, such as earthquakes, tropical cyclones or coastal erosion, or they can be human-made, such as water pollution or terrorist attack. In addition, events can be sudden as in the case of an earthquake, or they can occur over time as in the case for most environmental hazards.

Emergency Relief helps people deal with their immediate financial crisis situation in a way that maintains the dignity of the individual and encourages self-reliance.