The Danish Refugee Council Standby Roster is a collection of rosters with over 1000 international experts ready to deploy to United Nations humanitarian operations to support and strengthen their capacity to deliver timely, effective, and accountable humanitarian response to people of concern.
About us
The objective of the DRC Standby Roster is to strengthen the response capacity of the UN
When a crisis hits, all humanitarian actors need to respond quickly by having the right human resources on the ground quickly.
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) Standby Roster works to enhance and improve the United Nations’ (UN) emergency response to humanitarian displacement crises, and as such enables faster and more effective support to people in need. This is achieved through both capacity-building and the deployment of high-quality experts and specialists to UN’s humanitarian relief operations all over the world.
The DRC Standby Roster is an instrument to support and boost UN agencies through the allocation of specialized professionals to their humanitarian operations for a limited time, thereby allowing time for the UN agencies to build their own staff capacity. The DRC deployments are not a substitute for regular staffing arrangements within the UN, rather it is a short-term means to support and augment existing resources when necessary.
In 2024 (as of September), the DRC Standby Roster supported UN partners and DRC operations with 98 deployments in 41 countries. This total includes 34 deployments from the Resettlement Roster, 49 from the Humanitarian Response Roster, 9 from the Registration Roster and 6 from the Gender Based Violence/Child Protection Deployment Scheme. The countries with the highest number of deployments were Egypt (9), Chad (9), and Jordan (6).
Protection at the Core
The DRC Standby Roster operates on the basis of DRC’s protection mandate and prioritizes deployments that have the largest potential for improving protective outcomes for people in need.
This means that every time the DRC Standby Roster deploys an expert to the UN agency to improve their response capacity, the aim is to increase the protection of people affected by conflicts and disasters.
Profiles matching the DRC core sectors are furthermore prioritized while support is also given to global coordination by deploying members to cluster coordination positions, or other key coordination roles both in the field and at headquarter level, and by strengthening the members’ capacity to engage in cluster coordination.
Human resource development is a cornerstone of the DRC Standby Roster’s operations, with a strong focus on preparation, capacity building, and monitoring.
Deployees are carefully briefed and debriefed, and all members of our rosters are offered opportunities for personal and professional development through participation in various trainings and workshops.
Supporting the strategic relationship between DRC and UN
The DRC Standby Roster not only continues to strengthen the capacity of the UN to meet the needs of an increasing number of humanitarian emergencies around the world, but it also works to strengthen the strategic relationship between DRC and UN partners through the standby arrangement, through DRC country operations, and through the work of DRC specialists in various global clusters.
Hence, in addition to activities directly related to deployments of short-term expert personnel, the DRC Standby Roster also facilitates deployment with a longer-term strategic purpose to UN partners and DRC operations.
Story from the Field: “The suffering in Sudan is heartbreaking”
25 Mar 2025
Spotlight: Responding to climate change impacts in East Africa
20 Mar 2025
DRC Standby Roster manifests key role in resettlement system
16 Oct 2024
Story from the field: "The reality is that change takes time, especially when it involves shifting behaviours and perspectives."
14 Oct 2024
Story from the field: "This work is crucial for ensuring that data-driven decisions support efficient humanitarian responses".
02 Jul 2024
Story from the field: "Towards greener food systems in Mozambique"
03 Apr 2024
Story from the field: "We cannot cover all the needs, but at least we are trying to do something"
18 Dec 2023
Story from the field: "The ultimate way of being good at what you do is to be able to pass on knowledge"
18 Dec 2023
Story from the field: “We have accomplished something noteworthy starting from scratch here”
05 Dec 2023
Story from the field: Giovanni Zanelli – Senior Field Officer to UNHCR in Abeche, Chad
Contact us
"Our experts are deployed to UN agencies' operations globally, at short notice, with the purpose to strengthen UN agencies' capacity to provide durable solutions to the displacement of some of the world’s most vulnerable refugees."
