{"id":86,"date":"2023-03-20T14:48:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T14:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/46.22.135.215\/?p=86"},"modified":"2025-11-11T15:11:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:11:47","slug":"disaster-preparedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/2023\/03\/20\/disaster-preparedness\/","title":{"rendered":"Disaster Preparedness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">DG ECHO Guidance Note<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Executive Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past two decades, the nature of<br>humanitarian crises has gradually become more<br>protracted, unpredictable and complex. Crises<br>are increasingly exacerbated by factors such<br>as climate change, environmental degradation,<br>rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, and<br>by the overlaps between disasters, conflict<br>and fragile situations. Faced with these new<br>challenges, the humanitarian community<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>including DG ECHO &#8211; needs to adjust its<br>practices and tools in order to provide a more<br>effective early response.<br>As the humanitarian landscape has changed,<br>international agreements such as the Sendai<br>Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction<br>(SFDRR), the Paris Agreement for Climate<br>Change, as well as the Grand Bargain have<br>been adopted. They have redefined the<br>international community\u2019s commitment<br>towards reducing disaster risk, fighting climate<br>change and improving the effectiveness<br>and efficiency of humanitarian action.<br>Concurrently, the European Commission (EC) has renewed its commitment to<br>strengthening the resilience of partner countries and to increasing the impact<br>of its external action through the Joint Communication on Resilience in 20171<br>.<br>As a result of these developments, and the changing humanitarian landscape,<br>DG ECHO decided to review and renew its work on disaster preparedness and<br>promote a risk-informed approach to humanitarian action. This Guidance Note<br>presents DG ECHO\u2019s new approach and its practical application. It is intended to<br>be a dynamic document, and will be continuously updated to address changes<br>in the operational environment. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/echo\/files\/policies\/sectoral\/dg_echo_guidance_note_-_disaster_preparedness_en.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"dg_echo_guidance_note_-_disaster_preparedness_en-1 be\u00e1gyaz\u00e1sa\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-f42c7658-419b-4601-9e28-3fe1448b8e8f\" href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/echo\/files\/policies\/sectoral\/dg_echo_guidance_note_-_disaster_preparedness_en.pdf\">dg_echo_guidance_note_-_disaster_preparedness_en-1<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/echo\/files\/policies\/sectoral\/dg_echo_guidance_note_-_disaster_preparedness_en.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-f42c7658-419b-4601-9e28-3fe1448b8e8f\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>DG ECHO views preparedness as being critically important for the quality<br>and timeliness of response operations, as well as being a way of improving<br>anticipation, thus complementing humanitarian assistance in saving lives,<br>reducing suffering and pre-empting or decreasing humanitarian needs. DG<br>ECHO recognises that disaster preparedness applies to all forms of risk, ranging<br>from natural hazards and epidemics to human-induced threats such as conflict<br>and violence. Understanding and anticipating such risks is essential in order<br>to define the needs that they might generate and to design and implement<br>effective preparedness actions and response operations. All humanitarian<br>action therefore needs to be informed by risk assessment and analysis, which<br>should consistently complement a needs-based approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In line with the above, DG ECHO promotes the mainstreaming of a preparedness<br>and risk-informed approach in all its response operations. This approach helps<br>to systematically strengthen the capacity of first responders to be prepared for<br>further problems or aftershocks while responding to a crisis. It also helps to riskproof response interventions by designing them in a way that reduces immediate<br>and imminent risks. To complement its mainstreaming efforts, DG ECHO also<br>supports targeted preparedness actions as a specific way of strengthening<br>preparedness for the early response to a hazard and\/or threat (e.g. establishment<br>of early warning systems, development of contingency plans and Standard<br>Operating Procedures, emergency prepositioning of stock, etc.).<br>Strengthening the capacity of local actors2, involving affected people in the design<br>and implementation of activities, and sensitivity to gender, age and diversity,<br>as well as conflict dynamics, are critical elements of both mainstreaming and<br>targeted preparedness actions. Similarly, the effects of climate change and<br>environmental degradation are increasingly integrated into all interventions<br>in recognition of their role as risk multipliers. Protection and respect for<br>humanitarian principles are integral to all DG ECHO funded interventions.<br>As illustrated by this Guidance Note, DG ECHO supports a very broad range of<br>single sector and multi-sector interventions. Importantly, all these interventions<br>are flexible in nature as they adjust to the context in which they are being<br>implemented and, as such, they respond to actual needs, risks and challenges<br>on the ground.<br>Humanitarian actors are DG ECHO\u2019s primary partners<br>in the implementation of both mainstreaming and<br>targeted preparedness actions. In recognition of the<br>importance of the humanitarian-development-peace<br>(HDP) nexus for achieving sustainability and promoting<br>resilience, DG ECHO will continue to work closely with<br>all European Union (EU) services aiming to promote<br>complementarity and mutual reinforcement between<br>humanitarian and development initiatives \u2013 in particular with the Directorate<br>General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) and with the Directorate General<br>for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement (DG NEAR). A nexus approach<br>needs to be the backbone of preparedness and resilience. Concurrently, DG ECHO is<br>increasingly engaging with a variety of actors, including other donors, climate and<br>environmental organisations, academic, scientific and research institutes, financial<br>institutions, private sector bodies, and civil protection mechanisms, through the<br>European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).<br>Finally, alongside its commitment to support risk-informed humanitarian action, DG<br>ECHO is equally committed to ensuring that its humanitarian action is evidencebased and generates learning, which then feeds into its humanitarian policy and<br>practice, so that they remain relevant.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DG ECHO Guidance Note 2021 Executive Summary Over the past two decades, the nature ofhumanitarian crises has gradually become moreprotracted, unpredictable and complex. Crisesare increasingly exacerbated by factors suchas climate change, environmental degradation,rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, andby the overlaps between disasters, conflictand fragile situations. Faced with these newchallenges, the humanitarian community DG ECHO views preparedness&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[27,28],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","tag-biological-threat","tag-nuclear-threat","have-post-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peers.universityofgalway.ie\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}