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Humanitarian Coordination and Collaboration in Bangladesh (13 October 2020)

Pays
Bangladesh
+ 1
Sources
UN RC Bangladesh
Date de publication

ABOUT THE HANDBOOK

This handbook presents collaboration and cooperation tools developed and honed over the last five years by the humanitarian community together with the Government of Bangladesh. These tools are in line with the humanitarian principles, Bangladesh’s 2019 Standing Orders on Disaster (SOD) and promote the New Way of Working. International best practice on disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response were tailored to the Bangladesh context using the Strategic Preparedness for Response and Resilience to Disaster (SPEED) approach.

What is this Handbook For?

Recognizing the great advancements made by Bangladesh on disaster risk management (DRM), this handbook is for any organization willing to support Bangladesh’s authorities and communities to prepare for, to respond to and to bounce back from shocks. It provides practical avenues of engagement respective of the Standing Orders on Disaster (SOD) and recommendations for increased partnerships between national authorities and the international community along mutually reinforcing components of the SPEED Approach.

Structure of the Handbook

The handbook consists of five sequential chapters;

Chapter 1: New Way of Working: The new way of working has three objectives a. Reinforce—do not replace—national and local systems, b. Transcend the humanitarian-development divide and c. Anticipate—do not wait for—crises. To operationalize the new ways of working, the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office (UNRCO) uses the Strategic Preparedness for Response and Resilience to Disaster (SPEED) Approach in Bangladesh” aims to respond to the challenges of Bangladesh in a structured and collaborative way. The approach is easily scalable according to specific operational settings. The SPEED approach consists in four key components based on the objectives of the new ways of working - 1. Impact Analysis, 2. Priority Actions, 3. Institutional Capacity, and 4. Action Plan. Planning and policy decisions are never made in isolation from the wider context of events, societies and institutions. A continuous analysis of the context and situation will signal when interventions should adapt to the evolving context.

Chapter 2: National Coordination Mechanism: The National Disaster Management Council (NDMC) is the highest-level decision-making body for disaster management in Bangladesh. The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is responsible for coordinating national disaster management efforts across all ministries and departments. MoDMR is also the “Secretariat” of the (NDMC). The 2012 Disaster Management Act and associated Standing Orders on Disaster provide the basis of the national disaster management system and the strategies for risk management. Disaster management approach for both governmental and non-governmental agencies applies risk reduction model based on Sendai Framework for Action. This risk reduction model has large elements for residual risk management. Therefore, risk assessment and preparedness for response have become crucial for their strategies.

Chapter 3: Partnership with Stakeholders: According to the Sendai Framework for Action, states have the overall responsibility for reducing disaster risk, it is a shared responsibility between Governments and relevant stakeholders. In particular, non-state stakeholders play an important role as enablers in providing support to states, in accordance with national policies, laws and regulations, in the implementation of the present Framework at local, national, regional and global levels. Collective action is needed for effective Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for resilience. To reduce the risk of countries relapsing into humanitarian crises, United Nations is working with partners to develop new approaches and coordination models that link principled humanitarian assistance. Many different actors have important roles to play, including local and national government, civil society organisations, the private sector, community groups or associations and international funding agencies. The major stakeholders are Non-government organisations, United Nations, Development Partners, Red Cross and Red Crescent Society.

Chapter 4: Humanitarian Coordination Mechanism: The first responders in any emergency are crisis-affected people, their community-based and local organizations and their Government. While national legal systems are the main regulatory frameworks for protecting disaster-affected people, provision of international humanitarian assistance is guided by the UN General Assembly resolution 46/182 (1991) “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian emergency assistance of the United Nations”. The Humanitarian cluster system (small c) in Bangladesh was established in 2012 following a consultative process to review disaster preparedness and response arrangements considering the UN General Assembly resolution 46/182 (1991) “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian emergency assistance of the United Nations”. HCTT’s support to and coordination of inter-agency humanitarian activities (policy and advocacy, coordination and localisation, anticipation and information management, preparedness and response efforts) in collaboration with national authorities. The 2019 Standing Order on Disaster (SOD) of Bangladesh recognized the present cluster coordination through the Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT) as a tool for effective coordination with international community.

Chapter 5: Coordination Tools and Services: This section describes some of the most important tools and services available for disaster response to complement Government efforts. The Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT) is using three types of tools for improving coordination, collaboration and complementary. The three types of tools are a. emergency response preparedness, b. situation and needs analysis and c. monitoring and learning. Emergency response preparedness is based on the IASC guidance on Emergency Response Preparedness (ERP) which has three elements of risk analysis and monitoring, minimum preparedness action and advance preparedness action. The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator (UNRCO), clusters and Needs Assessment Working Group (NAWG) with the support of OCHA regional Office Asia and Pacific (ROAP) provides dedicated information management and needs assessment services in Bangladesh where there is an ongoing coordinated humanitarian need for complementary support to Government. The monitoring and learning of the response is performed in four stage: progress monitoring, quality and accountability monitoring, cash monitoring and localization monitoring to improve speed, volume and quality of the response.