Open Access

Joachim Gardemann

• In a complex humanitarian emergency, a catastrophic breakdown of political, economic, and social systems, often accompanied by violence, contributes to long-lasting dependency of the affected communities on external service. Relief systems such as the Emergency Response Units of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have served as a sound foundation of field work in humanitarian emergencies. The experiences gained in 1994 and 1999 in the Rwanda and Kosovo emergencies clearly point to the need for individual adjustments of therapeutic standards to preexisting morbidity and health care levels within the affected population. In complex emergencies, public health activities have been shown to promote peace, prevent violence, and reconcile former enemies. In all public health training for domestic or foreign service, a truly democratic and multiprofessional approach will serve as good pattern for field work. Beyond the technical and scientific skills required in the profession, however, political, ethical, and communicative competences are critical in humanitarian assistance. Because of the manifold imperatives of further public health education for emergency assistance, a humanitarian assistance competence training center is proposed. By definition, competence training centers focus on the core competences required to meet future needs, are client-oriented, connect regional and international networks, rely on their own system of quality control and maintain a cooperative management of knowledge. Public health focusing on complex humanitarian emergencies will have to act in prevention not only of diseases and impairments but of political tension and hatred as well.