Flash Appeals are issued in response to new crises. It is a tool for structuring a coordinated humanitarian response for the first three to six months of a new emergency. The Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator triggers the process in consultation with major stakeholders within two days of a major disaster or in response to an ongoing or slow-onset crisis. It contains an analysis of the context and of humanitarian needs, response plans, and information on roles and responsibilities.
The guidelines consist of three parts:
2007 saw a sharp increase in the number of flash appeals compared to previous years, due in part to a greater frequency of weather-related disasters (which have climbed steadily in recent years), but also to the fact that more small-scale disasters generated flash appeals in 2007. A key related fact is that more disasters and flash appeals are happening in countries with low humanitarian capacity among the international organizations present. This paper reviews the flash appeal mechanism in light of other developments in humanitarian policy and response tools, including the Cent
