Contingency Planning

Contingency planning is a management tool that helps the humanitarian community develop common strategies in response to potential disasters and emergencies.

In practice, contingency planning begins with a risk and vulnerability assessment that includes identifying and prioritizing potential threats that may occur locally or regionally; analyzing their humanitarian impact; devising appropriate plans and clear goals; and identifying the processes and resources for achieving them.  Contingency planning also involves working ahead of a crisis situation to establish relationships between the relevant players on the ground and relevant actors at headquarters. These plans form the basis for coordination in the event of an emergency, and are reviewed periodically and updated as conditions change.

In order to provide guidance to UN country teams and their partners on developing common planning approaches, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Contingency Planning developed a set of tools and recommendations that combine different approaches, field experience and lessons learned for responding to potential emergencies. These Inter-Agency Contingency Planning Guidelines were formally approved by the IASC in November 2001 and can be found on the IASC website (http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/publications.asp).