IASC, Challenges and Suggestions for Enhancing Inter-Agency Contingency Planning, 2007

Preparedness and contingency planning are two of the most critical elements of emergency management as they involve efforts to preserve people’s lives, well-beings and rights. The report seeks to document the discussions of the global consultation of contingency planners in humanitarian agencies, both as a record for participants but also as a reference. It also seeks to highlight some areas of emerging consensus on which actions can be taken to improve preparedness and contingency planning so that appropriate and timely humanitarian assistance and protection can be provided to those in need. Listed below are key suggestions offered by participants for strengthening preparedness and contingency planning:

1) The right goals and focus in contingency planning
2) Improving the consistency of preparedness and contingency planning
3) Improving contingency planning processes
4) Facilitation and support of contingency planning
5) Qualifications for humanitarian contingency planners
6) Form and content of contingency plans
7) Linkage between planning and emergency response
8) Linkages with national governments
9) Humanitarian reform and the cluster approach
10) Revision of the IASC contingency planning guidelines
11) Potential new tools of relevance to early warning preparedness and contingency planning

The report consists of two parts:
1) The first part will give an introductory overview of the context and the opening presentations
2) The second part will present the synthesis of the discussions, such as goals and focus, form, content and consistency of preparedness in contingency planning, improving the planning processes, qualifications for humanitarian contingency planners, the linkage between planning, emergency response and national governments, humanitarian reform and the cluster approach, revision of the IASC contingency planning guidelines, and potential new tools related to early warning, preparedness and contingency planning