Download our guidelines on shelter, preparing for an emergency, good practice, needs assessments, livelihoods and health.
Games on inclusion of age, disability and gender in preparedness and humanitarian response
Games are a great way to help people learn. All the games here have been designed to support staff and volunteers in the humanitarian sector to work more inclusively and leave no one behind. Download the facilitation tips here.
The games cover a range of topics, some linking directly to the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards (HIS), and they use a variety of methods.
Age and disability inclusion
The Minimum standards for age and disability inclusion in humanitarian action inform the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian programmes across all sectors and phases of response, and in all emergency contexts, ensuring older people and people with disabilities are not excluded.
Targeting practitioners involved in humanitarian response at local, national, and international level, this document includes a set of key standards as well as sector-specific standards, accompanied by suggested actions for humanitarian agencies to take.
Minimum standards for age and disability inclusion
Minimum standards for age and disability inclusion (plain black-and-white version)
Minimum standards for age and disability inclusion (plain blue-and-yellow version)
In French (plain back and white version, plain blue and yellow version) and Arabic (plain black and white version, plain blue and yellow version).
Nutrition interventions
General guidance for the implementation of emergency nutrition activities ensuring the inclusion of older people and addressing their specific needs.
This is primarily targeted at humanitarian actors working in the field – no specific knowledge of nutrition is assumed. While the guidance recognises the connection between nutritional wellbeing, food security and health care it does not provide guidance on programming in these areas. These can be found in other HelpAge documentation.
At both global and field level, this guidance can also be used to highlight and advocate for the nutrition needs of older people in humanitarian crisis.
Nutrition interventions for older people in emergencies
Protection interventions
The challenges and protection issues that older people face in humanitarian crises can be delineated on two levels.
The first are pre-existing conditions and positions which are exacerbated by a crisis. The second are those issues and risks created by the emergency itself. In both cases, as we shall see, examples can be found at the individual, community and structural levels.
HelpAge recommends five action points for addressing the protection needs of older people in emergencies. The action points are not exhaustive; they provide guidance for essential minimum standards in protection programming.
Protection interventions for older people in emergencies
Older people in emergencies
This document systematically reviews the main risks (defined as potential adverse consequences of a crisis) to which older people are exposed in emergency situations.
It is intended for humanitarian practitioners and emergency managers involved in the design and implementation of emergency programmes.
For each risk, under “key actions” the document lists simple measures that can be taken within the standard programming and funding parameters of humanitarian organisations to reduce risks for older people in emergencies.
At the end, the document points to essential resources for further reading.
Older people in emergencies: Identifying and reducing risks
Needs assessments
This manual produced with funding from the European Community’s Humanitarian Office (ECHO) provides guidance for the implementation of three key action points to formulate an initial emergency needs assessment that includes older people.
The aim of this guidance is therefore to ensure that the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of older people in emergencies are fully taken into account as part of a thorough gender and age analysis of humanitarian needs.
It can be utilised whether agencies are engaged in coordinated assessments through the Multi-cluster Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) methodology or whether they carry out individual assessments applying any of the different existing methodologies within their organisations.
Ensuring inclusion of older people in initial emergency needs assessments
Other documents:
Livelihoods
This manual produced with funding from the European Community’s Humanitarian Office (ECHO) provides guidance for the implementation of four key action points to ensure the delivery of food security and livelihoods’ interventions which meet the needs of older people and other vulnerable groups in emergencies.
This document aims to provide general guidance on implementing food security and livelihoods programmes for older people and other vulnerable groups in emergency situations. Its primary target is humanitarian workers in the field, specifically in the design and implementation of food security and livelihoods programmes. At both global and field level, it can also be used in advocacy to highlight the livelihood needs of older people in humanitarian crises.
Food security and livelihoods interventions for older people in emergencies
Also available in French.
Health
This manual produced with funding from the European Community’s Humanitarian Office (ECHO) provides guidance for the implementation of five key action points to address the health needs of older people in emergencies.
The primary target of this document is humanitarian workers working in the field. No specific knowledge of health is assumed. At both global and field level, this guidance can also be used to highlight and advocate for the health needs of older people in humanitarian crises.
Health interventions for older people in emergencies
Also available in French.
Good practice
When communities are struck by conflict or natural disaster, older people are among the most vulnerable people affected.
However, humanitarian programmes often fail to recognise the challenges and vulnerabilities faced by older people – either because they do not meet their programming criteria or because their needs are not fully understood.
This briefing highlights the need for agencies to better understand and address older people’s needs.
Protecting older people in emergencies: good practice guide
It is also available in Spanish and French.
Shelter
Shelter is a basic human right for people of all ages, but for older people the sense of security and comfort that a home provides is particularly important. Losing their home in a disaster or conflict therefore has a profound psychological impact, particularly on the “oldest old” (people above 80 years).
These guidelines recommend five key action points for including older people in shelter programmes.
These action points are not exhaustive but provide a framework for the different phases of a shelter programme: temporary, transitional and permanent.
Guidance on including older people in emergency shelter programmes (a summary)
Cash transfers
This document provides a practical step by step guide to planning, determining beneficiaries and managing the cash grant in emergencies.
This guide is not exhaustive, nor does it cover all of the complexities of cash transfers.
The methodologies presented in this guide are based on the experiences of several organisations and agencies.
They are also based on the Humanitarian Charter and Sphere Minimum Standards in Disaster Response.
Cash transfers in emergencies: A practical field guide
Preparing for an emergency
How to prepare for an emergency poster
This poster shows how to prepare for an emergency, including community mapping, communications, preparing an evacuation bag, and general preparedness.