Attachments
SITUATION BEFORE
Historically, investment in preparedness for response to disasters has been ad hoc, short-term, uncoordinated, and often lacking an evidence-base or way to monitor the progress of investment1 .
The Canadian Red Cross has gained a significant body of experience and learning over the past two decades while supporting National Societies with preparedness. This has been reflected through the evolution of and learning from key tools, initiatives and guidelines including the WellPrepared National Society (WPNS) and the Disaster Response Capacity Enhancement (DRCE).
The Government of Canada’s investment through the First Responder Initiative (FRI) and Strategic Partnership were crucial to this evolution, as it was through this investment that the Canadian Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) drafted the first concept of the National Disaster Preparedness and Response Mechanism in 2011.
The mechanism provides a comprehensive framework to rethink how we view and invest in National Societies’ processes, systems, teams and individuals involved in preparing for and responding to disasters and crises. The DRCE, which was developed through the FRI, provided a method to be able to assess the mechanism in a simulated or real event in order to provide clear evidence of how a system functioned. This was done by an external evaluations team using an agreed framework of critical organizational components and criteria that needed to be in place for the organization to be able to deliver an emergency service, such as procedures, policies, coordination mechanisms, etc. This allowed for the comparison with self-assessments (WPNS) and provided a way to monitor progress and test preparedness system investments for further refinement. This process was further rolled -out across the Strategic Partnership and in other GAC-funded and major donor initiatives.
The evolution of the Preparedness for Effective Response (PER) approach built on these tools to provide a comprehensive way for the Movement to support a National Society enhance its capacity to deliver services in a crisis and/or an emergency response. It also allowed IFRC to fulfil its duty to assist National Societies in risk reduction, disaster preparedness and response actions.
The Canadian Red Cross has co-led the development alongside IFRC, gaining support and collaboration from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), donor National Societies and global technical groups. The PER is a key step forward in forging a more evidence-based, coherent, cross-sectoral approach to support long-term investment at both the local and national levels. Most importantly, it creates an organizational culture of learning, leadership and management of change, which are critical for National Societies to remain relevant, effective and efficient within their mandate as auxiliary to authorities in our rapidly changing world.