A household is sustained by a husband and his wife. One day, while the husband had gone to work, his 12 relatives suddenly arrived at their house. How will the wife respond to such a situation?”

The question was posed to the participants from the Northeast, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal regional forum and Partner organizations attending capacity-building training on Contingency Plan and Emergency Response Protocol on 13th and 14th September 2022 at Don Bosco Institute Guwahati.

The Participants were asked what the household’s response would be if a flood suddenly hit the household at night. The aim was to link the situation with the importance of contingency planning which is required at all levels, including organizations that work for the marginalized.

The objective of the training was to familiarize Caritas India Partners with Emergency Response SoP and Contingency Plan, as they are intended to provide a practical set of resources for use in an emergency response. Participants were trained on Caritas India’s Emergency Response Standard Operating Procedures and Contingency Plan as an example to develop at their organisation level. 24 participants including Senior Forum and senior coordinators from the disaster affected/vulnerable areas under Empower Asia program.

Mr. Anjan (Thematic Lead – HA DRR ) and Mr. Thangsha Sebastian ( Asst Thematic Lead HA DRR) were the resource persons for the training organised under the Caritas Institute of Development, Action and Learning (CIDAL).

Why an organization requires contingency planning?

Participants were asked to identify the reason why their organizations require contingency planning. The participants were then gathered to view and discuss each of the responses provided by different states. The following four key points were drawn from the discussions on contingency planning:

1. Timelinessis important to save a life. The emergency is to respond on time and hence contingency planning shall ensure and value time as every second after a hazard can be disastrous.
2. Effectiveness of the response by an organization is also important. Hence, activities shall be designed to gain the trust of the communities affected.
3. Efficiency is important in any plan. We should make the best use of available resources and time to respond to any situation from a humanitarian aid perspective.
4. Policies and procedures are essential in any organization within the framework in which we work.

Rationale of Contingency Planning

Each state studied three aspects-

1. Understanding geographical vulnerabilities of their states through Google Earth,
2. Study the history of disasters in their respective states,

• Review the SDMPs and DDMPs prepared by government authorities of respective states,

1. State-wise situations of the Disaster response of the Organization as well as the state Government.

SWOT Analysis

Strength and Weaknesses are from within the Organizations, and Opportunities and Threats are from outside of the Organizations, the state wise presentation was shared by the participants which include their strengths, weakness, opportunities and threads. In this session, all participants from different were able to understand the current situation of their organizations and they could be able to identify the areas which need to be improved

In the dynamic of the Organization session, participants have divided into two groups. The first group comprising West Bengal and Odisha, and the second group having Bihar and Assam were given 1 hour to discuss and execute their work. The resource person asked the teams to “Design an Organogram for Emergency Response”. Each group presented their organogram uniquely and creatively with a specific name assigned

Preparation of Contingency plan 

State-wise contingency plan preparation task was given to the team which include the Pre-disaster period, during the disaster and the Post-disaster period. The assignment was to arrange the response chronologically in a sticky note with detailed tasks, person charge and the specified time. The groups then carried out the exercise earnestly and each group shared their presentation the sticky notes were placed over the chat paper.

The program was concluded with the evaluation of two days of activities. The participants shared their experiences and were happy and thankful for the training received.