Being better prepared (Preparedness)
Preparedness may be defined as the knowledge, capabilities and actions of governments, organizations, community groups, and individuals ‘‘to effectively anticipate, respond to, and recover from, the impacts of likely, imminent or current hazard events or conditions’’[22] Humanitarians have begun to heed to the lessons learnt from previous disasters and realize that they have to work hard not only during disasters but also between disasters. They are beginning to think more in terms of optimizing their performance by being better prepared.
Logistical activities have to be planned, since adequate preparations are essential to a smooth operation. It is indispensable to renounce the commonly held notion that transport and other arrangements can be improvised, depending on circumstances “in the field” when disaster strikes. Planning is both necessary and practical, since it is generally possible to foresee the types of disasters that may affect a given location and the needs that such disasters will be likely to engender. In fact, logistics should be an active component of any national emergency response plan, as well as of the individual plans of disaster response organizations and key institutions such as schools and health establishments. Logistics must be closely linked to all other operational activities in the context of responding to a given emergency[8].
There is no question that being better prepared leads to a better response and the key to being better prepared, and perhaps the greatest stumbling block in humanitarian sector, is that logistics has to be recognized and understood as an intrinsic element of any relief operation. This has to happen before the functions can be designed and preparedness improved through effective disaster management.
The plan must be based, first of all, on a good working knowledge of the geographical, social, political and physical characteristics of the area where the operations are to take place. Such a plan must not only be well thought out in advance, so that it can run smoothly—it must, above all, be clearly understood and accepted by all stakeholders in any future relief operation.