 In this session you will be introduced to the principles of disaster planning and you will be introduced to the district disaster planning matrix. Why would we plan? Think about why we plan. We plan for health emergencies to get better prepared to respond to the disaster and to save lives. To know the resources needed and activities anticipated. Resources are limited and have to be used in the best possible way. Good plan should be operation that is simple to use. Written to include operational level detail on each and everything that is to be done. And are camped by standard operating procedures and checklists. Good plans are consensus based. That is written by a group. And they are developed by consensus among stakeholders. Good plans are capability based. That is based upon what we are actually capable of doing. Or should prescribe activities that lead to building capabilities. Good plan should be objective based. That is they should include measurable objectives. Good plan should be compliant. That is they should be in line with national guidelines and policies. And in addition regional guidelines and frameworks. Consensus based planning. The best plans are written by those who will actually implement the plan. They are viewed as contracts that result from the negotiation of various stakeholders. The process requires a very well organized facilitation process in order to save time and result in the product. Objectives, good management planning objectives should be smart. That is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound. Or time based. Or time referred. Good planning objectives answer five questions. What tasks do we perform during the disaster? Who will perform the tasks? How will we perform the tasks? When will we perform the tasks? Where will we perform the tasks? Plans may be made according to time. That is short time plans, intermediate time plans and long time plans. But plans may also be made according to the degree of detail. Either strategic plans or operational plans. Strategic plans are broad and general. Mainline form of protocols. They prescribe what actions are to be performed broadly. Plans on the other hand are detailed and focused and describe how actions will be performed. Who will perform them? When will they be performed with respect to the disaster? And where will these actions be performed? Strategic plans do identify the main strategy, provide overview of response and identify collaborations. They do not engage operational level health workers and stakeholders. They describe detailed actions. And they often do not provide references in form of checklists, phones and templates. This is an example of a matrix for operational planning. As you can see, it shows the strategic objective. The operational objectives within that strategy. The actions, the checklists if necessary. The responsible parties, the timing with respect to the disaster and the location with respect to the disaster. The planning cycle involves planning in which we describe the tasks. Training in which we land the tasks through meetings, consensus, building, sessions, negotiations. Exercise in which we perform the tasks and test them with respect to scenarios. Analysis in which we review performance of these tasks with respect to the exercises or disasters that have occurred. And then we plan again or improve the plan. In planning collaborate with others, prepare the plan, highlight standards and indicators, assign tasks and make relevant checklists if possible to guide the implementers on what we mean by a given operation. Train response teams, ensure that tasks are land, conduct exercises and drills and assess performance of exercises. Implement the plan, implement the pre-disaster activities, implement response activities in case of a disaster, implement the post-disaster activities after the disaster. Analysis, monitor and evaluate the plan, check on actual performance, assess what worked and what did not work, improve the plan. This is called plan maintenance. Problem issues in current disaster plans include the fact that the plans are cumbersome to use, checklists that fail or are not relevant to the disasters, focus on tasks rather than management, the naming possible hazard scenario so we try to plan for every possible hazard that is likely to hit our district and then lack of clear objectives and measures of effectiveness. How do we know that we have responded appropriately? Challenges of emergency management planning for public health emergencies. Planning must be written by consensus among all stakeholders that is planners, responders and managers. Planning should not be an ending in itself and should not be more important than the plan. It should be a way for everyone to learn the plan so that it is implemented. You shall now be introduced to the district disaster planning matrix. The SOAR matrix is used in planning for disasters. It stands for strategic objectives, operation objectives and activities. Districts are already used to planning using matrices. The strategic objectives in the matrix have already been prepared for you based on the sphere standards. The operation objectives have already been prepared for you based on the sphere standards. These were prepared by the regional disaster management training team and discussed and analyzed. These prepared strategic objectives and operation objectives are contained in a matrix that we shall issue to you and it is available on this resource. It is called the SOAR library standing for strategic operation objectives and activities. Under each operation objectives we expect several activities. Your task is to select the appropriate activities that suit each operation objective. Revised objectives if needed so as to suit your local context and situation. Some of them can be matched, some of them can be split, some of them can be rewarded. This is the planning matrix that you will use in planning for disasters for your district or agency. This shows strategic objectives, operation objectives, activities, responsible parties, timing and location and an estimate of the budget. Being operational plans they provide this level of details so that we can know who will exactly do what in a disaster situation. The SOAR library is in form of planning capabilities. You will plan based on capability areas. These are based on the sphere standards. The capabilities include response management that is minimum standards common to all disasters. The second capability is water in case of a disaster situation that needs water. Shelter in case of a disaster that needs shelter. Food in case of a disaster that needs food what will you do? Health services in case of a disaster that requires emergency health services or that results in a disruption of existing services what will you do? So you fit in activities that show what you will do for each of these areas in case they are needed in a disaster situation. When you make a plan based on these capabilities, the five capabilities mentioned, this is called capability based planning. When taken together the sum total of capabilities is what is described as capacity. These planning capabilities have been used as the basis for developing your strategic objectives and the operational objectives. They are contained in an electronic planning template called the SOAR library. In this extension activity, try and refer to the sphere manual and match the strategic and operational objectives to the response areas that are prescribed in the sphere manual. You will see that they are matched. However, they have been revised and enhanced to include issues that were left out and to make them relevant to the eastern Africa region. Half a brief exercise to check on this. Start with the capability on general response management and browse. Thereafter, look at water and sanitation and see how the strategic and operational objectives are matched to the major strategic and operational areas prescribed in the sphere standards.