Challenges for the Disaster and Crisis Management – Identification of dimensions for the cooperation of governmental and non governmental organisations

1. Challenges for the Disaster and Crisis Management – identification of dimensions for the cooperation of governmental and non-governmental organisations Dipl.-Oec. Jennifer Bredtmann - University of Wuppertal Dipl. Wirt.-Ing. Tim Stadie - Aalen University International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC – Davos 02.06.2010

2. Agenda 1. Conditions 2. Challenges for Emergency Response 3. CriticalSuccessFactors 4. Obstacles to efficient Emergency Management 5. Effective Network Structure 6. Conclusion bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 2/18

3. 1. Conditions Increase of extreme events and disasters in almost every area in the world Diversity of reasons (e.g. extreme weather events, terrorist threads) Emergency management becomes more complex and more specialized bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 3/18

5. 2. Challenges for Emergency Response Emergency response demands a broad range of agencies (e.g. fire and rescue services, police, health facilities ) Depending on the circumstances other services like federal and state agencies, private companies, non-profit organizations and volunteers are required These organizations differ regarding their skills and specializations bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 5/18

6. 2. Challenges for Emergency Response 2.1 Situational Conditions Diversity:Emergency response missions vary widely (e.g. local, regional or trans-border) - the required skills and the forms of cooperation are interrelated Interdependency: Teams partly depend on each other to perform their tasks (e.g. sequential vs. parallel activities) Dynamic: Rapid changing conditions, importance of improvisations, adaptability and creativity Uncertainty: A lack of information can lead to ambiguous assessments and wrong decisions. => sharing of information is essential bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 6/18

7. 2. Challenges for Emergency Response 2.2 Duties and Responsibilities Organizational challenges in the search and rescue phase: Goal Setting: The assessment of the situation, the derived mobilization of resources (based on an accurate estimation of need) Problem Solving: Emergency managers have to innovate, adapt and improvise because plans and procedures often don´t fit the circumstances Anticipation: Effective emergency management captures the need to anticipate future problems, creating their solution before they occur bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 7/18

10. Communication of current status allows leaders and teams to make informed decisionsorchester-santa-maria.ch http://www.kidstalk.ch/uploaded/Image/Kommunikation.gif bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 8/18

11. 4.Obstacles to efficient Emergency Management Barriers to coordination bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 9/18

12. 4.Obstacles to efficient Emergency Management Barriers to communication bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 10/18

14. 5.Effective Network Structure Advantages of a network structure: + Common actions synergies + Inter-organisational learning + Mutual knowledge about processes and methods => new input + Organisations complement their competencies with other organizations in the network + Networks offer the possibility to identify trends and new developments in disaster management But...networks can only work efficiently by common exchange of knowledge familien-plus.de bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 12/18

17. Are all requirements taken in to consideration? familien-plus.de bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 13/18

19. Internal dimensions deal with the knowledge, methods and experience of the different organisations within the network. Immaterial resources are know-how, knowledge, methods, and the experience of the employees. The assignment of tasks for the network participants is important for the success of the tasks. This means that the network material and immaterial resources are criteria concerning the assignment of tasks. familien-plus.de bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 14/18

20. 5.Effective Network Structure Approach to build a network structure and a possible assignment method for disaster management tasks: 1. Creating awareness of the need to cooperate in a network 2. Presenting the possibilities and options of the network 3. Describing the organisations, their resources and requirements 4. Start the network exchange, first locally (then regional,...) 5. Examination of effective functioning of the network by exercise 6. Creating trends and future scenarios, analysis of the situations, and development of action plans in the network 7. Continuous cooperation in the network familien-plus.de bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 15/18

22. Governmental organisations generate and develop plans as well.

23. A network of all involved parties and organisations creates the possibility to develop strategies and plans mutually for future prevention actions.

24. Knowledge and experience of individual participants get a new usability by being connected and linked in a network.

25. And this new usability is greater than the sum of its individual parts. bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 16/18

26. Conclusion ! We have described the conditions and main problems for emergency management ! We havedescribed the idea of a inter-organizational Network as astandard in crisis- and disaster management We have purposed the first steps to build a network ? Scenario thinking within the network and its members Realisation andconcretesteps bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 17/18

27. Thank You For Your Attention! ! Contact: Jennifer Bredtmann: bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de Tim Stadie: tim.stadie@htw-aalen.de ? bredtmann@uni-wuppertal.de 18/18