What is it about?
Preparedness is an essential aspect of the humanitarian action, and one of the core function of cluster coordination. Local actors (communities, authorities, market actors) must be prepared to the eventuality of a crisis to mitigate its negative impact. Humanitarian actors must be prepared to provide an efficient and timely response, based on experience and lesson from previous emergencies. WASH Sector Coordinators participate in the inter-sector emergency planning process, often led by OCHA and including the Red Cross Movement. They must coordinate the preparation and implementation of the WASH Emergency Response Plan (ERP) with the WASH partners. The ERP process is inextricably linked to capacity mapping and development, and many tools and approaches are the same for both process.
Coordination platform efforts during preparedness should also include the consolidation of lesson learned from recent emergencies to improve future WASH response planning on key areas, that may lead to production of technical guidance at global level.
As per the core cluster function #5, preparedness process is linked to the humanitarian WASH actors' capacity development on priority topics, so they are ready and able to implement a quality and efficient response.