Are you available at short notice? 

The aim of the Rapid Response Corps is to provide skilled and experienced personnel in response to urgent requests for specific expertise from humanitarian partners. The target response timeframe between request and deployment is 72 hours, although the response can take longer depending on the destination country and the nature of the emergency.

I doubt my manager will agree to release me at such short notice for up to three months

If you are already in employment then we will need to see confirmation that your employer understands the nature of the commitment and agrees to you being on the register. This is a matter between employer and employee. Irish Aid will provide all shortlisted candidates with the necessary Employer Agreement Form which includes an introduction to the initiative. 
Please note that you are not required to be available all year round. You would therefore be able to plan ahead with your employer and inform us of periods when you are unavailable.

What skills are required?

Please see the job profiles on this website to see if your skills match the profiles that we are recruiting for in this recruitment round.  These are the needs in standby capacity that our UN partners have prioritised.

How fit and healthy do I have to be?

All Rapid Response Corps members are required to undergo a medical check by appointed medical practitioners expert in the field of travel health, and must be deemed medically fit for duty before they will be considered for a deployment.

In addition, Irish Aid has agreed with those medical practitioners that all Corps members are medically prepared, as far as it is possible to do so, for deployments anywhere in the world.

Medical costs associated with your pre-departure preparation will be covered by Irish Aid, as will a check up with a tropical medical clinic on your return.
Each successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring that all their appropriate vaccinations are up to date and recorded in a vaccinations record card.

Is there a lower or an upper age limit?

There is no stated minimum age, however criteria do state a minimum of five years relevant professional experience in addition to any necessary qualifications.  There is no upper age limit. The fitness and health requirements will, however, be strictly applied in all cases. 

How will members of the Rapid Response Corps be selected for deployment?

The field mission of the individual UN partner agency is responsible for identifying their own staffing requirements. The head office of the agency concerned checks the requests, and first looks to meet agreed shortfalls with existing internal staff. 

Requirements that cannot be met internally are then communicated to standby partners. A shortlist of available standby personnel is prepared and sent to the field mission, where the final selection is made. This shortlist will include standby personnel from the registers of other countries.

I really want to help, but I don’t have the type of qualifications or experience that you are asking for.  What can I do?

For the current recruitment round, Irish Aid is targeting the range of expertise to specific gaps in human resource capacity identified by our partners. Other predictable needs for expertise in humanitarian response have not been prioritised in this recruitment round because they are for the moment already well covered by the UN and other humanitarian agencies, e.g. mobile health clinic staff and search and rescue teams. 

If you want to do something to help those affected by a disaster in a developing country, we would recommend that you read the Dochas guide to “Assisting the poor in times of disaster”

(Dóchas is the umbrella organisation of Irish Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) involved in development and relief overseas and/or in the provision of development education)

For further information on the work of the Irish Red Cross and Irish NGOs active in humanitarian relief, see our Links page. 

If you are interested in exploring other volunteering options or are interested in a career in aid and development in general, keep an eye on the website of the new Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre. Meanwhile opportunities for volunteering are outlined at Volunteering Options.