In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

A new policy brief, “Before Disaster Strikes: Rate and Raise Public Preparedness Now,” recommends the new National Security Council Resilience Directorate “task the Department of Homeland Security to work with federal and non-federal stakeholders and independent experts to develop agreed measures of public preparedness, and develop and execute cost-effective, innovative approaches for ensuring timely progress in preparedness.”

The thoughtful and well-timed (as the Obama Administration begins developing its public preparedness approach) seven-page brief is written in the form of a memo to top Administration officials. The author is Debra K. Decker from the International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center. The Resilience Directorate at the White House is a new creation which was recently announced by President Obama.

Decker brief makes two overall recommendations:

1. Task DHS to work with stakeholders to develop well-considered measures of public preparedness and then to be responsible with those stakeholders for establishing and achieving target levels of preparedness, with regular reporting to the public and to the new Security Council Resilience Directorate (Preparedness), which should monitor outcomes. 2. Make public preparedness a high-priority measure for selected agencies in the new federal performance system.

She suggests the next steps should be:

“The new White House Preparedness Directorate should direct DHS to lead this effort and other federal stakeholders to participate and should monitor progress, including by ensuring that public preparedness is part of target agencies’ and departments’ performance evaluation. DHS should designate an individual/office responsible for the public preparedness effort and its outcomes.”

The individual/office would: Establish an initial process plan to effect the effort; Coordinate the development of agreed measures of levels of public preparedness, with attention given to the different needs of populations and of regions at different times, and to the desirability of the approaches; Develop, evaluate, and execute agreed approaches for ensuring timely progress in these measures, with agreed milestones for different stakeholders’ contributions and for public preparedness target outcomes based on community requirements; Monitor progress, review program needs, and report back to the Security Council and the public.

Though Dicker outlines a robust commitment to public preparedness, she concludes her memo with this truism: “This need not be an overly complex effort. Establishing initial basic measures and targeting some simple gains may greatly reduce risks.” As I have discussed frequently on the blog, increasing citizen readiness and engagement is as much a matter of focus and commitment as anything else. Thanks to Molly Duggan for bringing this piece to my attention.