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The ECB Simulations Guide for facilitators, capacity building and preparedness practitioners. © The ECB Project and agencies.

Published on 6 October 2011

Since October 2009, the ECB Bangladesh Consortium, comprising CARE, Concern, CRS, Plan, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision, has been working to improve the speed, quality, and effectiveness of emergency response.

The inter-agency team developed a Consortium Engagement Plan (CEP) focusing on collaborative activities that bring together each agency’s expertise, save resources and enable them to share learning and best practices.

The agencies agreed:

• To apply the Good Enough Approach to ensure staff take initial, practical steps towards accountability to disaster-affected people
• On joint assessment, learning and advocacy, including the launch of Aila Advocacy to promote the rights of the Aila affected people in the coastal region, as well as working with the government to support the enactment of the Disaster Management Act in Bangladesh.

To formalize their collaboration in these areas, the agencies drafted a Protocol for Emergency Response Engagement to provide a framework for collaboration during disaster response.
This protocol describes provisions for engagement at the different stages of a response. Engagement provision describes ECB activities for each of these stages and corresponding roles and responsibilities of key personnel.

Priorities, focus and resource availability for individual agencies varies considerably. So the protocol refers to different options to allow varied levels of collaboration. The differential is accountability relating to sourcing, obligation to the donor, and the resulting management responsibilities.

At the onset of a crisis, the agencies therefore discuss and agree on the level of collaboration. A key issue is how the individual agencies intend to seek funds and use them.

• Informed response: Consortium members plan, implement and manage the response individually and share specified information through the Consortium Manager. Agencies seek funding individually and share information applying the "good enough" approach.
• Coordinated response: Consortium members review progress of implementation collectively, and adjust coverage, targeting and duration of the response to minimize gaps and improve resource management. They seek funding individually but commit to adjust fund utilisation mutually to minimise gaps and overlaps. Participation in ECB response does not restrict an agency from planning and implementing separate response activities.

Testing the protocols - an emergency Simulation

The first draft of the protocols included the following two additional criteria. However after testing the protocols during an emergency Simulation in September 2011, it was decided to remove them from the final protocol.

• Shared response: Consortium members plan collectively through a multi-agency team and implement individually specified elements of the plan;
• Joint response: Consortium members plan collectively through a lead agency and implement through a lead agency.

During the simulation de-brief session the participants agreed to simplify the Protocols and focus the remit of ECB agencies during an emergency to informed and coordinated response models.

Participants agreed that to position the ECB in Bangladesh as an operational and response consortium was setting unrealistic expectations and potentially duplicating or confusing efforts in an already heavy coordination environment in Bangladesh. This was a key moment during the Simulation.

Instead the multi-agency group identified ECB agencies' niche as leading on the improvement and coordination of areas including:

• Joint needs assessments
  
• Humanitarian advocacy
• Improving accountability in emergencies
• Capturing and sharing learning

The ECB Bangladesh Emergency Response Protocols will be reviewed and revised to take this and the other lessons from the Simulation into account.

Challenges

There are several challenges in promoting and applying this protocol. In making the protocol operational these include:

• Approval by the Heads of the ECB agencies
• Incorporating the protocol in the individual agencies’ emergency preparedness & response programs
• Briefing staff on the protocol at every level of the individual agencies
• Developing guidelines referred to in the protocol, such as for Joint Needs Assessments, Joint Advocacy and Joint Learning and Evaluation.

There are also challenges associated with agreeing on standards. ECB agencies apply global standards such as SPHERE, HAP, the Good Enough Guide, Code of Conduct, and Child Protection Policies. It is important that they work towards agreeing on the common interpretation of these standards and have compatible support packages, beneficiary selection procedures, support delivery systems, and complimentary accountability practises.

Finally, the agencies need to develop and agree on an accountability structure and procedure for arbitration in the event of disagreement or overlap in the activity of consortium agencies.

ECB emergency response engagement creates huge opportunity for consortium members. It not only improves the quality of humanitarian assistance but also provides a bigger platform for advocacy. Moreover, it significantly enhances the agencies’ ability to work with donors. However, to make the ECB response effective, it requires the agencies acknowledging the value of their differences and, simultaneously, working towards a wider and long-term vision.

For further information, contact us.

Written by Kazi Shahidur Rahman & Zahid Hussain (Bangladesh)

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