03. Set up an FbF Programme

If not done before, a focal point for FbF should be identified (see chapter 1, step 2: Identify a focal point for FbF). Secondly, the leadership of the national society (e.g. president and secretary general) should have ownership of FbF before embarking on the planning process and setting up an FbF programme. Hence, the leadership should have a vision of how FbF fits into the national society’s disaster management strategies and how this links to its development plans. If this is not the case yet, explore some options in Chapter 1 (Step 1-3) that includes workshops, meetings and room for discussions.

While the scoping study can guide on what hazards would be viable for an FbF system and what FbF-relevant capacities the national society already has, the national society needs to decide how to set up their FbF system, e.g. how many EAPs do they want to develop in which time, what capacities need to be built and what people can set up the system. Hence, developing an FbF system requires planning and a budget as well as the ownership and interest of the national society to build such a system. The development of the first EAP usually requires time. The national society’s strategies and plans and discussions after the onboarding of the leadership should guide the development of a plan of action for setting up an FbF program. Key considerations include the number and type of hazards to be addressed, which financing mechanisms to use (e.g. DREF for imminent crises, simplified or full early action protocol), how to engage stakeholders and what capacities still need to be developed to allow early action. In many cases, the national society has a dedicated FbF project that includes a proposal and logframe. These can help to plan the process!

Review scoping study and select hazard

In case you have done a scoping study (see chapter 1), you should review the roadmap and the recommendations. This should already give you indications of:

• Priority hazards
• Operational and institutional capacity building needs
• Strategic collaborations with stakeholders
• Potential early actions
• Data availability and gaps

It is recommended to select one or two hazards to start developing an EAP. Experience shows that once the first EAP is developed, the development of additional EAPs is faster.

Develop a plan of action and a budget (if required)

Depending on how your FbF system development is funded, you are required to develop a logframe and budgets. In any case, it is beneficial to develop a plan of action to understand milestones and timelines of the development of your FbF system. For example, you can organize your workplan around the following work packages:

• Development of EAP
  A key step is the development of the anticipatory action plan or EAP itself. A detailed outline of what is needed can be found in the EAP template and quality criteria (see chapter 4). For example, it includes the definition of the trigger, the selection of actions, but also a budget. Here and in the toolbox below, you find a template with the different milestones to develop an EAP
• Set-up, testing and integration of EAP in national society structures
  To ensure that the EAP is not only a document but operational, we recommend you test the EAP in simulations and integrate triggers in the operations centre or early warning mechanisms of the national society. Furthermore, it is important that all agreements–with IFRC but also with other partners that play an active role in the EAP–are signed.
• Capacity and process strengthening of national society staff and partners for anticipatory action planning and implementation
  Effective capacities, e.g. staff, procedures, volunteer management, logistics, procurement, prepositioning/warehousing and processes need to be in place to ensure the development of new EAPs, the implementation and updating of existing EAPs and to be ready for an activation. Hence, national society staff from the branch to the national level, as well as from partner organizations, such as the national disaster management authority or the ministry of agriculture needs to be trained on anticipatory action in general as well as on the implementation of existing EAPs. The national society further needs to know how to update existing EAPs after activation and perhaps develop additional EAPs. Hence, in order for a national society to have the capacity to successfully develop, implement, and sustain an FbF program, the program will need to be integrated into/with existing tools and processes.
• Policy and advocacy around anticipatory action
  It is important that regional and national organisations and government institutions understand the key elements of anticipatory action so that an enabling policy environment can be established. Hence, raising awareness through meetings, advocacy material, and invitations to regional or the global dialogue platform can be considered. See chapter 2 for additional ideas on how to engage stakeholders.

Design different work packages depending on your budget and the structures that already exist in-country. Please find examples of logframes for FbF projects below

• Model logframe for FbF project logframe for national societies with a partner
• FbF logframe (empty)
• FbF lograme example (filled)

Who should be involved in the planning and implementation?

• All relevant departments from national society that will set up and develop and implement FbF including technical sectors such as health, WASH, logistics and support services such as finances.
• Experience shows that it is useful to have a FbF coordinator within the national society, who is responsible for all work related to FbF set-up and EAP development and implementation.
• In case the FbF project is implemented in collaboration with a partner national society, the partner should also be involved in the planning, as they can often share examples and experiences from other countries.

Job descriptions
You can find various job descriptions for the above-named positions here and in the toolbox below. If you have other job descriptions to share from your work, please reach out to us.

Train the FbF team

Once you have your team identified, you need to ensure that they are well trained on anticipatory action, FbF and also the workplan or logframe. In contrast to high-level stakeholders discussed below, the core team will need to have an in-depth understanding of how to develop the EAP and meet validation criteria.

During the EAP development phase, you will collect all kinds of information: primary data from interviews and focus groups, secondary data from reports and websites, forecasts and risk datasets. In many cases, you will work with people on your EAP who come from different agencies and organisations. Information management is crucial as after an activation the EAP needs to be resubmitted and ideally the FbF coordinator will still be able to access the information that was used for the development of the EAP. Hence, you might find MS Teams or Google Drive useful or any other system that is recommended from your national society or a partner that is working with you.

National society staff

Again, it is critical to ensure national society ownership of the FbF approach and program. Not only will national society leadership have to sign and validate the EAP before it is submitted to the DREF (see chapter 12) and authorize activities for activation, they will need to allocate staff and financial resources to sustain the EAP in the future. For this reason, they need to understand anticipatory action, know what the EAP contains and entails, and understand overall processes. Aside from the leadership, the following departments might need to be involved in the EAP development process as they will have a crucial role to play in the development, implementation, and maintenance of the EAP:

• Disaster risk management
• PMER
• Operational units, such as surge, communications and logistics
• Administrative and finance units
• Information Management/Knowledge Management
• MEAL
• Thematic units, such as health/WASH, shelter, cash, DRR

Staff and volunteers in the national society and other actors at local level

Red Cross Red Crescent branches (or chapters) and volunteers, sub-national DRM authorities and civil society should have an understanding of FbF, and most importantly their role in executing early actions during activation once these are developed. At this point, you can invite some representatives to introductory activities.

One way to sensitize National Society staff and partners is through induction workshop in which you introduce key concepts, present project plans, and confirm next steps in a participatory format. The box below proposes some possible agendas for induction workshops.

Red Cross Red Crescent branches (or chapters) and volunteers, sub-national DRM authorities and civil society should have an understanding of FbF, and most importantly their role in executing early actions during activation once these are developed. At this point, you can invite some representatives to introductory activities.

Government authorities & external stakeholders

As the national society is an auxiliary to the government, it is important that FbF aligns with national and sub-national level DRM strategies and plans. Government focal points and other external stakeholders should be sensitized about FbF and involved in the process from the beginning to foster alliances. See chapter 2 for information on how and when to engage these stakeholders.

FbF builds upon the existing experience of the national society in disaster risk reduction, early warning systems and response. Understanding how and where FbF fits into and adds value to the existing preparedness, contingency and response strategies, is essential for sustainable FbF implementation. The capacities needed to respond effectively to a disaster are often the same capacities needed for the activation of EAPs. Throughout the FbF and EAP development process you will work on strengthening capacities and institutional preparedness for FbF. Both EAP templates include a section on the capacity of the national society. For example, the full EAP asks you to do the following:

• Describe how the National Society has operative and administrative capacity to implement the EAPs.
• Describe the National Society’s experience in the implementation of the selected early actions (Livelihoods, including Cash and Voucher Assistance; WASH: Food Security; Shelter, etc.).
• If the NS does not have experience in these areas, indicate the steps taken to improve its capacity in the respective sector to implement the EAP effectively and efficiently.

There are different ways to assess existing capacities, strategies and plans and it depends on the national society which of the options they would like to choose. It is recommended to build on a tool that your National Society already uses. An overview of the manifold assessment tools (OCAC, BOCA, SAF, CHS) the Movement offers may be found here.

• Scoping study: Those national societies that have conducted a scoping study might already have an overview of operational and institutional capacities that enable FbF and EAP implementation.
• Preparedness for effective response (PER process): Using PER can also show where FbF can contribute to improving the overall capacity of your National Society and provide a baseline capacity assessment against which to measure capacity strengthening down the line even if you do not conduct a full PER assessment. More complete guidance on the various ways to integrate PER and FbF planning is available here. PER processes (including all types of assessments: self-assessment, simulations, operational or post-operational) offer a step-by-step approach to identifying and prioritising areas that require attention and resources to ensure that the National Society is effective, efficient and timely. A number of National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies are at various stages of the PER cycle. For an overview of the national societies and their status, visit the GO Platform. For more information on building capacities from the beginning and throughout the process see Chapter 11 .
• Internal review: If you either have already a good overview of your capacities, you can also decide to use that or do a lighter internal review process through workshops and working sessions.