Experiences from a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 22-30, 2003

This reports delas with experiences from a visit to FK01, the Democratic Republic of Congo, 22-30 November, 2003. The objective was to develop information and presentation forms on a strategic, operative and tactical level in the event of NBC incidents, all within the framework of the project "Demo NBC Control and Demand System". Moreover, the intention was to further develop methodology regarding health and environmental risk assessments in international operations and to support FK01 when it comes to environmentally-related issues. It is concluded that the updating of environmental/health risk information via the United Nations in missions today is not adequate as far as Sweden is concerned. Also, it it obvious that the ambitions of the United Nations ot live up to its formal responsibility when it comes to supplying sufficiently high (Swedish) quality logistical service fail to correspond with reality. Thus, with a new mission approaching, the MOU Negotiation with the United Nations is extremely importans, as is access to an environmental and health care competence (EHO) within the mission. On one hand, with a new mission approaching, reconnaissance can provide valuable input to the MOU negotiation. On the other, in order to successfully perform environmental reconnaissance and medical information retrieval in unknown places, thorough planning is of necessity as well as a broad competence-base. In this situation, an evaluation might be of importance with respect to the concept of an assembled EIHH and PHC team involving doctors, veterinaries, environmental and health inspectors and, if required, NBC competence. The results from the MSI study - Modelling of a B incidence - will be elaborated and interpreted within the framework of the project "Demo NBC Control and Command System". Throughout 2004, the passages treating methodology development will be elaborated on in a methodology report in which discussions emphasized in the rpesent report will be studied further.