Immediately following the onset of any crisis, the RR will appoint the members of the COCRT based on the needs of the situation at hand. Generally, the COCRT will be comprised of UNDP CO staff members from key operations and programme units. The COCRT is responsible for day-to-day support to the Resident Representative and CO senior managers in all implementation aspects of UNDP’s crisis response.
The Crisis Board is a temporary senior-level decision-making body that provides strategic direction to UNDP support for crisis response and recovery programming for all Level 2 and 3 crises and, exceptionally, for Level 1 crises. The Crisis Board executes temporary authority in all aspects of UNDP corporate response to crisis, including response objectives and key messages, response level, funding allocation decisions,5 deployments, SURGE plan endorsement, recovery programme endorsement and gender considerations.
Criteria for determining crisis complexity include: Multi-layered emergency, multiple countries affected, multitude of actors, humanitarian access or lack thereof and security risks to staff.
The Crisis Management Support Team (CMST) is a temporary, working-level forum that implements the Crisis Board decisions and provides dedicated programme, operations and advocacy support to COs responding to Level 2 and 3 crises and, exceptionally, for Level 1 crises. The CMST engages Central and Regional Bureaux personnel in HQ and the Regional Hubs, with a standing membership from each Bureau. The CMST is led by a CMST Coordinator, who is named by the Crisis Board. The CMST Coordinator manages the technical inputs of the team while coordinating cross-cutting issues.
Crisis response is broadly defined by UNDP as a response to sudden-onset and escalating protracted crises, conflict and disasters. The purpose of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Immediate Crisis Response is to provide a robust institutional and operational framework so that critical decisions and actions can be taken quickly in response to crisis situations.
The UNDP CO and/or the national government have adequate capacity to respond to the crisis but require only a one-time injection of additional support without any need for exceptional temporary measures at regional or corporate levels.
For situations that can be managed by the CO with some additional ad hoc support as needed from HQ. The CO manages all aspects of the response with the regular backstopping support arrangements from HQ.
The capacity of the UNDP CO and/or affected national government is inadequate without a significant scale-up of capacity to respond to the crisis. Any crisis that severely affects UNDP personnel or facilities will automatically be designated at least a Level 2 crisis.
For situations that require large-scale, day-to-day organizational support. The CO manages the response with expanded support from HQ in the form of a CB that directs the response, and the HQ SURGE Management Team that takes responsibility for day-to-day management of the support to the CO and reports to the CB.
The crisis significantly outstrips the capacity of the CO and/or the national government, requiring an exceptional level of corporate support, given the scale, complexity or urgency that may pose a serious reputational risk to the organization.
Media and public attention and visibility, Member States expectations, donor expectations, perception of UNDP’s role by the public, national stakeholders and partners.
The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for immediate crisis response provides a corporate institutional and operational framework so that critical decisions and actions can be taken quickly in response to crisis situations. The SOP focuses on the relatively brief period between the onset or identification of an imminent crisis and the point when a Country Office has in place the resources to implement recovery and resilience initiatives. The SOP outlines the relationships, responsibilities and communication between Country Office, Regional Hub and Headquarters, during the crisis response.