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Home Concept States Partners Resources View Share Maps Contact Us     CONCEPT Contingency Planning - Needs   Contingency planning is a priority identified by the Oxfam International as essential for assuring high quality humanitarian response and increased co-ordination. In line with this mandate Oxfam hired the professional services of RedR, India to facilitate and coordinate a contingency planning process in South India along with Oxfam. Oxfam recognizes the need to build capacities at various levels to undertake contingency planning and create resources to undertake contingency planning to lead humanitarian emergency responses and do constant assessments of readiness to respond. The process of undertaking contingency planning is crucial to attain its purpose. Identification of vulnerabilities, delegation of responsibilities and agreement for coordinated actions are important steps towards organized response. The workshop approach adapted in the previous occasions is a strong strategy to produce a participatory and coherent contingency plan. The planning has to be a tool that identifies possible scenarios of humanitarian crises and need, and establishes priorities and identifies resources within the framework of the Regional Strategic Plans. These plans should also spell out operational strategies to be adopted or put in place in the respective lead areas, which, essentially means that the planning has to be done at various levels using both a common approach and more importantly an individual organizational analysis. With this background the expertise and experience of RedR, India was solicited to facilitate the process of emergency contingency planning for Oxfam and their partners in south India with the purpose of identifying organizational preparedness needs of Oxfam staff and it’s partner NGOs in responding to the disasters. It was a process that would involve dialogue with 35 partners across five states of Southern India. OXFAM America as the main focal agency supported and monitored the entire process. The core objective behind the CP process is “Achieving Readiness to respond”. Essential Aims of CP : Ø Reduce the Time gap between disaster event and OI Response Ø Ensure adherence to committed minimum standards in response-as far as possible! Ø Contribute to and benefit from existing preparedness efforts of Oxfam, UN, Government and Non Government agencies. Ø Ensure coordination among the various players & stakeholders In this way the National level Oxfam plan must provide links to field readiness and response information by Ø Taking stock of the capacities, identify capacity needs and make commitment for addressing gaps Ø Identify Lead persons from each region (not lead agencies)- focal points, who will do need analysis, vulnerability context analysis, identify key actors, analyse OI strengths and gaps, update & compare information we have and don’t have, etc. Contingency planning is crucial to reducing the time gap between the event of disaster and the response that follows. Oxfam identified contingency plan as a crucial step towards maximizing its global intervention capacity and the ground level energy of its partners for an effective response in emergency situations. Oxfam desires that the contingency plans should serve as a working document-and a dynamic decision support instrument for effective emergency response. It also emphasizes on the importance of joint ownership of the document the need to give adequate attention to the process implicating all concerned parties in the right way. In this sense the process of the contingency plan is as important as the final product”. Suggested readings on CP Approach to Contingency Plans Discussion Note_Contingency Planning GOI_DM_act2005 Partner Apraisal Format wfp_contingency_guidelinesPlease go to the Resource Webpage for an Exhaustive List of Documents, Presentations and Videos on Contingency Planning and related areas     Process This Contingency Plan is an outcome of a participatory and consultative process, through a series of workshops, with NGOs and CBOs. Various functionaries from different types of organizations, such as, NGO heads, administration and grassroots workers as well as in some places, community members came together to collate information on disasters and response history and then prepare a response plan based on contextual analysis. Representatives of Oxfam also participated in various consultations. A nine member team of RedR facilitated the process. It has been a long and complex process with a series of meeting and workshops as described below. o Partners Meetings: One day meeting of the partners of various Oxfam affiliates was organised in each state to discuss the importance of developing CP and the process adopted by Oxfam and RedR. Chief functionaries of various Oxfam affiliates, representatives from the various partner organizations and RedR team members participated in these meetings. o Partners’ Workshops: After partners’ meetings, Red R team visited a total of 17 partner organisations in 20 districts of Andhra Pradesh in a span of four months. A four-day workshop was organized for the staff members of each partner organization to facilitate the information collation and formulation of organisational preparedness plan. The interactive process of the workshop led to formation of a comprehensive contingency plan for their respective operational areas. Some of these partner organisations are operating as resource organisations with local NGO partners. Meetings with these partners were also carried out in order to get more ground level details. Red R team has systematically documented each workshop process leading to the Contingency Plan (CP). o State Planning: Individual CP documents are compiled, analyzed and consolidated to form a State Contingency Plan (SCP). Macro level information, such as state relief code, is collected from government documents, other referencing sources and internet sites. A series of consultative meetings with Oxfam representatives facilitated the state planning process. A contingency is a measure or preparation for an event that may occur but is not certain. Contingency planning is undertaken for such potential events/eventualities. A definition of contingency planning could be,” Contingency planning (CP) is a forward planning process, in a state of uncertainty, in which scenarios and objectives are agreed, managerial and technical actions defined, and potential response systems put in place in order to prevent, or better respond to, an emergency or critical situation.”

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