By Sahar Elkady, TECNUN, School of Engineering of the University of Navarra
If we can learn something from 2020 and 2021, is that disaster is around the corner. We cannot survive unless we collaborate. This “we” includes us as civilians and unorganized individuals on one hand and emergency responders and authorities on the other hand. To make this collaboration effective and to react to and recover from crises efficiently, we need to identify what authorities and emergency responders need from civilians to better face a crisis, and what capacities the community has to complement the authorities’ expectations. In this article, we are concerned about the first part, the authorities’ and emergency responders’ needs and expectations. And this is one of the main themes that project ENGAGE covers.
In order to identify these needs, we used two data sources. The first one is an online survey that covered participants from six European countries that have different characteristics (France, Italy, Norway, Romania, Spain, and Sweden) and Israel. We got 5817 responses across the seven countries. The responders came from diverse backgrounds, police officers, firefighters, members of health services, members of authorities, and many more. To complement the results from the survey, we used a second data source, semi-structured interviews. The interviews also covered members of emergency organizations and authorities from the seven countries. The interviews opened us up to different kinds of information than the ones provided by the survey results, as they gave the interviewee that chance to talk more freely and reflect on their experiences. We conducted around 30 interviews in the seven countries.
The survey results closely match the findings of the interviews. However, the interviews provide us with the “why” part; why authorities and emergency responders need this or that. For example, during a crisis, emergency responders believe that civilians need to follow their instructions. On one hand, this saves the lives of civilians who are not trained to face such situations, and on the other, it eliminates the chaos that could result from ill-advised interventions from untrained citizens, amplifying the number of tasks that emergency responders must manage and making the situation more challenging for them. Having this in mind, it does not negate the necessity for volunteer assistance during a crisis, and especially during the recovery and coping phases. Authorities and emergency responders appreciate the help of volunteers in the “during” phase but through organized groups, such as NGOs and the Red Cross; as they already have proper training and follow a well-established approach to coordinate with emergency organizations. In the “recovery” phase, citizens’ contribution is looked at from a different perspective. It is more about helping each other, showing social solidarity, and supporting each other emotionally. It is also helping in relief work, since authorities and emergency organizations do not have enough personnel and resources. Moreover, emergency responders expect people to be well prepared to face a crisis through two main things, information and physical resources. They need the public to be risk aware to know how to obtain all the information that helps them better handle a crisis and to have the physical resources; some food, water, and medical supplies.
Authorities, emergency responders, and community members all have responsibility for properly addressing a crisis. In short, it takes two to tango!