How the new corps will work
• Will comprise a register of highly skilled volunteers, 50 initially, for emergency aid work in "challenging situations" overseas;
• Register to be launched in second half of this year with volunteers being deployed at 72 hours' notice to disaster areas for periods of up to three months;
• Corps members to fill "critical gaps" in the work of three United Nations agencies: UN High Commissioner for Refugees; World Food Programme; and Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs;
• Experts in the following areas, among others, are required: humanitarian relief; logistics; information technology; engineering and transport; communications, public health;
• Travel costs and minimal expenses met by Irish Aid;
• The southeast Asia tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake are typical situations where members of the corps would work.
