GES Simulation Guide v3.pdf - Avian Influenza and the Pandemic ...

PREPARATION OVERVIEW | Pg 15 PREPARATION OVERVIEW | Pg 16
PREPARATION OVERVIEW
Activities covered in this section include the following:
Activity / Task
Obtain governmental support and approval through
a governmental lead person (possibly senior
minister).
Organise facilitation team.
Develop a technical working group including a
Technical Focal Point and agree on dates, scenario,
and processes. Appoint an Event Coordinator.
Event Coordinator to develop links with ministerial
bodies, regional organisations and international
groups.
Invite participants.
Adapt GES materials.
Arrange for external participants & role-playing.
Prepare GES venues, equipment, supplies.
Assign facilitator tasks.
Install e-mail messages on SAC computer.
Provide governmental lead with “last-minute”
instructions.
Weeks before GES event
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This schedule takes into account some of the key steps and possible time lines
when developing a simulation event. Some parts may take significantly longer,
such as negotiating government support and attendance. Senior Government
ministers and their deputies are likely to require at least three months advance
notification in order to adjust their schedule to be able to attend. Some ministries
may require detailed information in order to understand the relevance of
their attendance and this will take time to negotiate. Having senior level backing
and a respected signature on the simulation documentation is very worthwhile
and will avoid possible difficulties at later stages.
Preparation is most important and takes considerable time. You may, however,
find it necessary to conduct all tasks within a much shorter time as a simulation
date may be set in advance. This can be done given good organisational skills
and support. The facilitation team should be selected based on providing such
support as organising such a simulation is a significant undertaking and should
not be attempted alone.
Refer to Annex A. on Page 41 for a detailed checklist of preparation tasks.
ORGANISE
FACILITATION TEAM
COMPOSITION
Each GES event should ideally have a minimum of four facilitators with one acting
as lead facilitator. The facilitator can be a person from within the government
with appropriate facilitation skills or in some cases an external facilitation team
with experience in simulations may be engaged. However, some participants
may not feel comfortable with external facilitators and this should be examined.
This number enables the team to monitor participant assignments and to roleplay
essential actors who are not physically part of the exercise. Facilitators should
be selected on their organisational and preferably role playing skills and could
come from any department. Strive for a gender balance in facilitators: planning,
preparedness and response must be seen as the domain of both men and women.
The lead facilitator should have prior experience running moderate to large
simulations (preferably a GES event), and, ideally, the other members of the
facilitation team would have previous experience running a simulation exercise.
For some staff members their technical knowledge will be key, whether that be of
a particular location, National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) process or
humanitarian sector. By having members from emergency organisations on the
facilitation team helps to ensure that the emergency relationships can be credibly
represented during the exercise. Facilitators should have some real world
expertise in roles they are likely to play, for example, media organisations could
be represented by a person from media liaison, international agencies represented
by someone from the international or foreign affairs department. Consider also
bringing in groups external to government, such as UN agencies or media bodies.