Contingency Planning: A Practical Guide for Field Staff
The Contingency Planning Guidelines are designed to assist UNHCR field staff to plan for refugee related events at country level. These events may include a refugee influx, spontaneous unexpected repatriation, security problems in refugee camps, natural disasters affecting refugee camps, camp relocation etc. There are 4 sections and 6 Annexes in the Guidelines:
Section 1 - The Purpose: covers the "when" and "why" of contingency planning. It looks at the popular misconceptions surrounding this activity. It considers the relationship to early warning, operations planning and needs assessment and identifies indicators which will suggest when it is prudent to initiate the planning process.
Section 2 - The Process: covers the "how" of contingency planning emphasizing the importance of the process necessary to arrive at an effective plan. It describes an approach which is participatory and ongoing and suggests mechanisms which can be established in-country to update the plan and maintain the preparedness process.
Section 3 - The Partners: identifies, and considers the role of the various agencies in the planning process. It is a kind of a checklist to ensure that the appropriate actors are involved at the right stage.
Section 4 - The Plan: sets out a model format for a contingency plan. These Guidelines stress that the plan is simply a product of the process and as such is constantly changing and requiring update. Nevertheless the plan has an importance as a working tool and thus some guidance on the best approach to setting out the document is required.
Annexes
A - UNHCR's Standby Resources
D - Example Contingency Plan
B - Early Warning Indicators
E - Overhead Transparencies
C - Questionnaire for Sector Planning F - Additional Reading
How to request
Copies of the Guidelines may be requested directly from EPRS.
