TorqAid Consultancy

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This blog highlights the various humanitarian-related consultancy services offered by TorqAid.  These are primarily offered by the CEO, Chris Piper, but he can draw on extra expertise from other members of the company, as well as the TorqAid Advisory Team  (TAT).  The link below is to a one page bio for Chris, and this can be supplemented by a longer CV as required/requested.

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DRM Diagrammatic Framework.  Over the past 15 years, TorqAid has developed four key diagrams which illustrate the key aspects of a disaster or humanitarian situation.  These are the Disaster Risk Management Cycle (DRMC); the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) diagram; the DRM Planning diagram; and the Project Management Cycle (PMC).  These four are incorporated with three other illustrations (the risk matrix; the ISO 31000 risk management process; and the Core Humanitarian Standard {CHS) diagram) in the article linked below:

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DRM memberships.  Chris is a member of the Australian Civilian Corps (ACC), as a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) specialist, and from 2014-16 was a member of the Post Disaster Recovery Team (PDRT).  He is also a Member of the Australian Institute of Emergency Services (MAIES), as well as a member of the International Association of Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP).

Chris has worked across Australia, and throughout the Asian-Pacific, Eastern/Southern African, and European regions in the roles outlined below.  The scenarios involved have been a combination of natural disaster and conflict-related situations.

Strategic planning such as :

  • Working as the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Adviser for the Kingdom of Tonga’s National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO). This work focused on developing Government-led coordination Clusters, as well as responding to an off-shore volcanic eruption
  • Working as DRM Adviser for the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM) in Vanuatu.  Principal roles here involved developing a strategy for dealing with future tropical cyclones (TCs) and droughts
  • Working as an humanitarian consultant on an Australian government mission to Cambodia, planning out resettlement and reintegration of refugees/returnees from Thailand
  • Enclosed below are links to the Cluster framework carried out in Tonga:

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Emergency Response such as:

  • Working as Crisis Centre Adviser in Tirana, for Albanian churches, at the height of the refugee exodus from Kosovo
  • Planning and management of emergency airlifts to Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Jordan from the UK and Australia

Recovery Initiatives such as:

  • Working with an Australian NGO to develop a Cyclone Nargis recovery strategy for national partners in Myanmar
  • Working with a British NGO helping develop a recovery program for partners in both Aceh and Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami
  • As an ACFID/AusAID-contracted consultant, working with the Government of PNG to develop a a comprehensive recovery strategy following the Aitape tsunami
  • Management of inter-church community level recovery initiatives in Victoria following the 2009 bushfires and 2011 floods

Training/Capacity Building such as:

  • Facilitation of over 110 accredited DRM and Participatory Project Management (PPM) workshops both across Australia and overseas
  • Development of an online accredited DRM program for humanitarian and development practitioners
  • Highlighted below are the links both to the online DRM, as well as to the overall training options offered by TorqAid

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Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) such as:

  • Development of a CBDRM-focused program in Laos for an Australian NGO
  • Development of a CBDRM field manual.  Enclosed below is a link to this CBDRM manual

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Humanitarian Evaluation such as:

  • Team leader for a British NGO’s evaluation of its humanitarian work in Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro
  • Evaluation for an international NGO’s conflict-related humanitarian response in Afghanistan
  • Team leader for an Australian NGO’s CBDRM evaluation work in PNG, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

 Working with Diaspora Communities such as:

  • Co-Founder and Co-Convenor of the Melbourne based Syrian Community (SC)/Humanitarian Community (HC) Forum

Preparation of  Submissions, reports etc such as:

  • Preparation of multiple proposal, reports, evaluations and other documents such as the Project Design Document (PDD)
  • An example of a DRM/CBDRM PDD for an NGO working in Myanmar is enclosed in the link below:
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Networking & Publications, such as:

  • Co-founder of the Melbourne Development Circle
  • Founder and Editor of the Australian Aid Resource and Training Guide (AARTG) over a 15 year period
  • Development of the TorqAid Toolkit, the link to which is given below.

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Mentoring such as:

  • Personal support for humanitarian/development practitioners working in both Afghanistan and Niger

 

 

 

 

Pips war

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Chris & Phil Piper are researching and writing about their father’s (Flt Lt ‘Pip’ Piper) wartime experience flying Spitfire Mk VIII’s with 273 Squadron in India and Burma over the period July 1944-August 1945.  They are basing their research on a number of sources, these including Pip’s logbook; some memoires written by him in the 1980’s; the Operational Record Books (ORBs) of the squadron from May 1944-August 1945; and, perhaps most unusual of all, an 89 page ‘Squadron Secret Diary (SSD)’ which was covertly written up by squadron members.

273 was an RAF squadron, but included many nationalities – as well as British pilots, there were also those from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, and Burma.  The squadron operated out of a number of airstrips across British India (Chittagong, Cox’s Bazaar), and well as Burma itself (Maunghnama, Ramree Island, and then Mingaladon, just outside of Rangoon).  The squadron’s main role was supporting elements of the British XIV Army as it battled down the coastal Arakan region.  The title of the book is ‘Pip’s War & the Forgotten Squadron’.

The squadron was disbanded in 1946, but in order to preserve its memory, a 50 year campaign commenced, waged primarily by Jane Pelling, one of the pilot’s sister, to have the squadron shield or crest officially recognised.  Squadron members had submitted their own design to the Air Ministry at the end of the 1944, this being based around a black widow spider, superimposed on a Burmese fylfot.  The latter bears a strong resemblance to  a swastika, and the suggested design, perhaps understandably, was rejected by the powers to be.  In 1996, this decision was eventually reversed after it had been debated in the House of Lords. The shield now proudly is embedded next to No. 1 squadron’s crest in the floor at St Clement Danes Church in the Strand.  The black widow spider remains, but the fylfot is absent ….

Enclosed below are the links to a number of key documents:

An overview of 273 squadron’s wartime campaign.

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A summary of Pip’s logbook over the period May 1944-August 1945

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A summary of the key pilots names and other squadron characters mentioned in the ORBs & SSD

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A summary of squadron characters; other RAF and Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) squadrons, as well as Allied and Japanese aircraft, mentioned

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The squadron crest (including the fylfot !)

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