•   Monitoring
•   Forecasting
•   Action & Mitigation
•   ICT & Organisation

INFORMATION & SELF SUFFICIENCY

The aim of this project is to promote the self-help skills of the public so that they are in a better position to get themselves and others to safety.

The government policy is to promote ‘self-sufficient citizens’. Advertising campaigns and survival packages are currently in place as support for this policy. The idea is that citizens who can manage for themselves can then help others in their vicinity. After decades of ‘caring government’, the public cannot be expected to simply tackle incidents actively and without guidance. In addition, it is open to debate whether self-sufficiency can be used as a concept that means that the public must always look after itself. The conditions may mean that there are limits to self-sufficiency.

However, it is possible to boost self-sufficiency. So the general public should be helped to develop autonomous competences for the enhancement of self-sufficiency. More self-sufficient citizens can (and may) make their own assessments about whether to take steps to prepare for possible crises and they will be helped by government, who will provide information about the threat, possible action and consequences. During a crisis situation, the assumption is that self-sufficient citizens will be more able to safeguard their own interests and help others. The expectation is also that the public will then take steps that contribute more to their own safety.

Crisis communications have three basic objectives

• Information delivery: about the situation, how it is progressing and about steps that have been taken;
• damage limitation: to warn about threats, but also to limit damage/adverse publicity;
• interpretation: to interpret a crisis situation and to place the events in a broader perspective

Crisis communications must match the way people think and how people operate in groups (‘community resilience’). When an emergency threatens, the general public want information that is relevant for them personally so that they can make good decisions and coordinate them with people with whom they are associated. Crisis communications with the aim of delivering information are a government responsibility. The central issue is how crisis communications should be structured to get the public to move themselves and others to safety in order to minimise damage and casualties