We use cookies

Please note that on our website we use cookies to enhance your experience, and for analytics purposes. To learn more about our cookies, please read our Privacy policy. By clicking “Accept Cookies” or by continuing to use our website you agree to our use of cookies.

We are a learning and development NGO

We strengthen the capacity of the humanitarian system to prepare, respond, and recover from disaster.   
Participants smiling and pose for the camera with their RedR certificates at the end of Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training in September 2024.

We’re providing the learning and development a world in crisis needs

Recognised by the Financial Times as a leading organisation helping to rebuild a broken world, we provide learning and development for the humanitarian and development sectors. We envision a world in which highly skilled professionals respond effectively, inclusively, and sustainably to disasters.

   

Working with the largest international multilateral agencies as well as local actors at the grassroots, and many other partners across the private sector, trusts and foundations, and academia, we innovate at the nexus of climate, engineering, and humanitarian response. We strengthen capacity by sharing expertise.  

 

We’re transforming disaster response, sharing capacity between humanitarian responders, engineers, climate practitioners, and affected communities. We work collaboratively with a unique range of partners to equip competent and resilient professionals, who can mitigate disaster impact.   

The same vision since 1980

RedR began with engineer Peter Guthrie’s experiences working in the 1970s Boat Crisis in Vietnam, and his vision to see engineering expertise from around the world concentrated in disaster contexts for humanitarian purpose.  

 

We’ve continued to bridge gaps between experts in a broad range of fields, to ensure that humanitarian responders are fully equipped to provide the best possible support to people affected by disasters.   

Training participants are deep in discussion and concentration sitting in a car parl which is the location for Introduction to the Sphere standards training, in the immediate aftermath of the February 2023 earthquake in Turkiye.

We’ve adapted as the disaster response landscape has changed

  • Engineer Peter Guthrie is inspired by his experience working with refugees in the Vietnam boat crisis in the late 1970s to establish the Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief, which will deploy engineers to disaster contexts around the world. He does this upon learning there is no real system to deploy engineers to humanitarian crises internationally. 

     

    On the advice of Jim Howard, Oxfam’s then chief engineer, Oxfam offers RedR a start-up fund, and RedR UK is registered as a charity. 

    The catastrophic famine in Ethiopia is the first emergency to which RedR responds. RedR engineers travel to Ethiopia and Sudan to contribute to relief efforts, working to support the nearly eight million people affected by the famine. 
    RedR launches our first international training in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Balkans War; a Security Management workshop in Tirana, Albania. 
    Responding to the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, RedR launches our first Learning Support and Capacity-Building Programme in Sri Lanka. 
    RedR UK partners with friends and colleagues in RedR India to respond to twin earthquakes in Nepal, which affect a third of the country’s population.  
    Alongside our partners at AXA XL, we launch our Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction programme in South Asia and East Africa.

     

    We’ve since expanded the programme to Southeast Asia, and thanks to partners at the Howden Foundation, we’ve also launched in-depth capacity strengthening support in Afghanistan and Somalia. 

    Two months into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we launch training for responders working to support internally displaced people in humanitarian crisis provoked by the war. 
    One in 22 people around the world are now in need of humanitarian assistance – a record high.

     

    In the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “we face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes.”

Our vision, mission, and purpose

Our vision is a world in which sufficient competent and committed personnel are available and responding to humanitarian needs. 

 

Our mission is to develop the capacity and resilience of aid workers, communities and organisations in humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding contexts. 

 

Our purpose is to mitigate the impact of crises on the most vulnerable people, primarily in low and lower middle-income countries. 

 

The following principles inform our work

Humanitarian: We believe in the provision of humanitarian assistance to people wherever it is needed to relieve suffering and sickness. 

 

Professional: Our staff, members and partners are professional people committed to providing high quality training and expertise in disaster relief and rehabilitation. 

 

Impartial: We work with people regardless of race, religion or political affiliation. 

 

Inclusive: We believe that partnerships with individuals, other organisations and communities promote creative and fruitful initiatives. 

 

Impact: We believe that people in communities and aid agencies should be empowered to develop skills for immediate and future disaster response. 

 

Respect: We believe people affected by disasters can and should be empowered to contribute to relief, rehabilitation and development efforts.