• A comprehensive baseline review of activities and tasks critical for FHA missions;
• Internationally, a clear delineation of IO/NGO roles and
responsibilities during an international crisis response;
• Nationally, a detailed mapping of authorities, resources and
capabilities for actors throughout the USG that play a lead or
supporting role in FHA missions;
• At the GCC level, a more rigorous regional assessment of
the national/international and non-governmental humanitarian
organizations which operate in their (AOR).
The key framing questions here are all quite logical: What types
of assistance are needed? How quickly can this aid be lifted into
theater? Is the host-nation willing to accept this assistance?
Who’s footing the bill? Who’s going to be on the ground to orchestrate aid delivery to those in greatest need, and are there any
unintended consequences we need to anticipate? For policymakers as well as operators, the key objective here is a clearly-defined, mutually-agreed upon division of labor among a wide
range of national, international and governmental actors, which
is aligned with their respective operational strengths.
The insights drawn from these topics could be extremely valuable in understanding how various actors operate, what assets
they bring to the FHA mission and where gaps may need to be
filled. That in turn can help inform and energize more inclusive
planning and execution processes within the DoD, given the array of DoD actors – both civilian and military – who will need
to be engaged at the strategic and operational levels.
For future FHA practitioners, the training POI should give
high visibility to coordination challenges and opportunities via
the following steps:
Mastering Coordination Complexities
Whenever urgent humanitarian needs flare-up, effective coordination is absolutely essential in mounting successful response
missions.
• Explicating coordination dynamics both at the “upstream”
(i.e., Washington, other donor countries) and “downstream”
(operating venues) levels, spanning the full range of contingencies from natural disasters to conflict-prone situations.
• Distilling and sharing insights for selected scenarios on best
practices for establishing early and effective coordination with
the US lead federal agency (i.e., USAID) and other partners;
• Expanding joint interagency coordination efforts at the
GCC level to conduct planning reviews for US responses,
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