Emergency Response Preparedness (ERP) - Draft for Field Testing

The IASC Task Team on Preparedness and Resilience has developed the ‘Emergency Response Preparedness’ (ERP) approach to enable the international humanitarian system to apply a proactive approach to emergency preparedness. The primary aim of the ERP approach is to optimise the speed and volume of critical assistance delivered immediately after the onset of a humanitarian emergency.

This package provides practical guidance to assist resident/humanitarian coordinators and humanitarian country teams in preparing to respond to potential emergencies with appropriate humanitarian assistance and protection. These guidelines are a tool to:

• Develop a common understanding of risks and to develop a system to monitor those risks to ensure early action is taken when required.
• Establish a minimum level of multi-hazard preparedness.
• Take additional action, including the development of contingency plans for specific risks that can be used as the basis for initial planning reflected in Flash Appeal to meet the differentiated needs of an affected population in the first 3-4 weeks of a humanitarian emergency.

The ERP focuses on situations in which the scale of the potential emergency requires the concerted action of a number of agencies/organizations. These guidelines are premised on the understanding that governments hold the primary responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance to women, girls, boys and men and sub-groups of the population in need. The ERP outlines how the international humanitarian community can organize itself to support and complement national action. The ERP enables the humanitarian community to state its capacity and the value it can add to national response.