Josef Riener DRR Expert

Josef Riener Josef Riener disaster relief, humanitarian aid and emergency management

Josef brings more than twenty-five years of expertise in disaster relief, humanitarian aid and emergency management in a range of operational and strategic functions. Prior assignments include heading missions in international deployments, coordinating projects in Civil Protection and senior functions for preparedness projects.

Primarily working with international active NGO's, his expertise includes in depth-knowledge of response mechanisms of the UCPM, the UN system, and other Civil Protection Systems and various NGOs.

As a consultant, he is specialised in supporting projects to emergency, disaster, and crisis management, sheltering and medical response. He covered various positions within the EU Civil Protection Mechanism as evaluator, instructor, and project coordinator in EU co-financed projects. In missions, his task was head of mission and team leader of various ERT (emergency response teams) in NGO's with experience in rapid onset disaster operations in international environments including: earthquakes, tsunami, and complex emergencies.

Josef has experience of International operations, functional command and major projects/capacity building. He has undertaken a number of international missions and projects in senior functions, working for NGOs and Red Cross:

  • 2005 Sri Lanka: team leader of an medical emergency response team, assessment,
  • 2006 Sri Lanka: project manager of a rehabilitation project, reconstructing 360 family houses, rehabilitation of medical facilities,
  • 2010 Haiti: head of mission of the emergency response, and project manager rehabilitation project of wells, latrines and dispensaries
  • 2014 Austria/Italy: exercise director: preparation and coordination to conduct a multinational civil protection field exercise,
  • 2015 Nepal: team leader of medical assistance, for rehabilitation project,
  • 2016 Nepal: team leader of the training and relief mission for the rehabilitation project,
  • 2017 EU MOLDEX (PPRD East 2): evaluator at the field exercise in Moldova,
  • 2019, 2020 Austrian Red Cross: project manager of IRONORE2019, a full scale exercise,
  • 2020 Austrian Red Cross: member of federal staff, S3 at Covid-19 response coordination,
  • 2021 INDIMA: coordinator of a EU funded project, project management and communication.

With high intercultural competence, negotiation experience and communication skills gained through his experience as team leader in several international missions, Josef contributes to any team, meeting and working with people from different backgrounds and cultures - particularly preparing for and responding to emergencies as well as any project situation.


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