The Guide for Planning Mass Evacuations in Disasters (2024) (the MED Guide) provides practical guidance on developing mass evacuation plans for disasters, bringing together emergency planning and humanitarian considerations. It builds upon the "Comprehensive Guide for Planning Mass Evacuations in Natural Disasters (MEND) Guide", published in 2014 by the Global Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster.
The updated version of 2024 offers greater consideration to how climate change intensifies climate-related hazards and scale of disaster, relating to the need for evacuation, as well as enhanced protection considerations. In particular, this revised edition features crucial updates:
Emphasis on Climate Change: The Guide explicitly acknowledges the escalating impact of climate change on disaster risks and evacuation needs.
Community Engagement: It integrates the principles of community engagement and empowerment throughout the planning process, recognizing the importance of local knowledge and ownership.
Enhanced Protection: A new Checklist for considering protection risks in mass evacuation planning has been added, reflecting a heightened commitment to safeguarding vulnerable groups during evacuations.
Updated Structure and Resources: The Guide’s structure has been streamlined for improved usability, and new examples and links to external technical resources have been incorporated.
Refined Terminology and Revised Title: The Guide has been renamed to “Guide for Planning Mass Evacuations in Disasters” to reflect the reality that disasters are not natural events, but a direct consequence of the interaction of hazards with human vulnerability and other complex societal factors. Disasters can be triggered by natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, flooding), the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to climate change, as well as by man-made hazards (e.g., chemical, technological, violence or oil spills).
The MEND Guide has two Annexes, available also in this website.
Mass Evacuation Template: Mass Evacuation Plan Template
Checklist for considering protection risk mitigation in Mass Evacuation planning for disasters: Checklist protection risk mitigation in Mass Evacuation planning for disasters