Guidelines for developing epidemic contingency plans

A contingency plan is an operational document that helps prepare for a potential crisis by outlining how a country will respond to it. It is based on a risk analysis and the implementation of scenarios in order to establish the roles and responsibilities of all actors involved in responding to the crisis according to their capabilities. It describes the operational response plan, the communication plan, the chain of command, etc. 

It can be implemented at different levels: national, regional, departmental, or community. It can be either single-risk (e.g., epidemic, flood) or multi-risk. In principle, it should involve the authorities and all state actors working in disaster risk management (e.g., civil protection, Ministry of Risk Prevention, Ministry of Health), as well as the Host National Society (HNS) and all other humanitarian actors present on the ground (NGOs, United Nations system, etc.).

As part of the RIPOSTE program, the aim is to make recommendations to CRCR Movement partners on the development of contingency plans for epidemics or epidemic contexts. These recommendations are based on tests of the IFRC guide and toolkit carried out in Mauritius, Guinea, and the DRC during the process of developing epidemic or multi-risk contingency plans involving the HNS.