Purpose: The following guidelines seek to provide practical guidance for Humanitarian Country Teams, composed of UN Agencies and other International Organizations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGO representatives, who are involved in providing international assistance and protection to those affected by emergencies, especially working with an inter-agency contingency planning in order to increase their level of preparedness and enhance their ability to respond to emergencies.

Overview: This guidance seeks to outline how the international humanitarian community can organize itself to support and complement national action. These guidelines also provide recommendations on how to establish and implement an inter-agency contingency planning process, how to develop integrated plans and monitor ongoing preparedness actions. Main contents include:

• Understanding of the key concepts such as contingency planning, level of contingency planning, roles of inter-agency contingency planning, their benefits; why when and what to plan.
• The planning process: prepare, analysis, response, implementing preparedness.
• The plan details: offers some practical advice with annexes on how to develop, circulate, and maintain a contingency plan.

Usage: Guidance for project implementation

Audience: Technical staff, Volunteers