IASC Interim Guidance on COVID-19: Emergency Response Preparedness Approach

Developed by the Preparedness, Early Action and Readiness Sub-Group, IASC Results Group 1 on Operational Response

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The interim Emergency Response Preparedness (ERP) guidance is designed to be a short technical step-by-step guide aimed at non-Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) countries to support the development, or strengthening, of preparedness measures to ensure that country teams are operationally ready to implement activities to address the potential non-health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its compound effect on existing risks. The interim guidance is based on, and supersedes, the IASC 2015 ERP Guidance.

Note on the 2015 ERP Guidance

The IASC Task Team on Preparedness and Resilience has developed the ‘Emergency Response Preparedness’ (ERP) approach to enable the international humanitarian system to apply a proactive approach to emergency preparedness. The ERP guidance builds on the importance placed by the IASC Transformative Agenda on preparedness on both the programmatic and financial side and, in particular, for HCT and IASC organizations to act on specific early warning indicators to engage in inter‐agency contingency planning and other coordinated preparedness actions to improve collective response readiness.

The ERP approach can be complementary to development action, e.g. through an UNDAF, that seeks to build national and local resilience, including preparedness capacity – especially where international and national capacity can be closely coordinated. The ERP replaces the ‘Inter-Agency Contingency Planning Guidelines for Humanitarian Assistance’ as developed in 2001 and updated in 2007.