KM Gaps Explorer

Crisis management in the recent COVID-19 pandemics has been impeded by lack of coherence between decision making in different agencies and at different levels.

Recent COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated that EU states have so far failed to endorse a solid pandemics/epidemics communication methodology, develop clear guidelines and enforce use of these guidelines in crisis situations. In addition, the communication with the public was also inadequate - on the one hand impeding the use of information provided by the public in crisis manageent and on the other hand causing confusion and even panic among the population at first and leading to erosion of trust in authorities, thus facilitating the rise of rumours, conspiracy theories, civil unrests and even riots. 

Mis- and disinformation can have adverse effects on crisis management and even cause cascading crisis (e.g. civil disobedience and even insurrections)

Recent COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated that EU states have so far failed to endorse a solid pandemics/epidemics communication methodology, develop clear guidelines and enforce use of these guidelines in crisis situations.

As a result, the communication was often haphazard, with different organizations and authorities occasionally disagreeing in their assessments of the situation and recommendations. 

Der Index zur Gefahreneinstufung ist ein wichtiger Echtzeit-Indikator für die Brandbekämpfer. Er fasst die konstanten (Kraftstoffe, Topografie) und die variablen (Wetter) Faktoren, die Auswirkungen auf den Beginn, die Verbreitung und die Schwierigkeiten der Kontrolle sowie die nachfolgenden Brandschäden der Flächenbrände in einem Gebiet haben, in einer einzigen Zahl zusammen, die einfach veranschaulicht und für Frühwarnungen verwendet werden kann.

In order to have a complete understanding of the way that the exercise manages to create an environment in which the participants reach their training objectives, it is necessary to gather their feedback.

Data managment runs almost throughout the whole exercise cycle, from preparation, to conduct, analysis and reporting, even if evaluators are not heavily involved during the planning phase. It is useful to provide some guidance to evaluators for the content of data collection, usually this is developed in two pillars: evaluation of players performance and exercise conduct. There are different methods for data collection: through evaluators input, feedback from participants, recording, possibly input from observers, interviews, debriefs. To decide if and how to use observers for data collection, exercise managers may decide differently based on who the observers are. Info from observers may support evaluators, depending on the design of the exercise.
Mainly raw data, not information, that is available.

Registering as many as possible facts in real time, possibly in field (FSX,TTX), improves the impartiality of collected observations due to avoiding opportunity for interpretation from the observers’ sides. Moreover, it helps to distribute observation collection activities in both phases: during and after the exercise, providing logistical advantage. Lastly, the observations are available in the evaluation database earlier, giving the opportunity to be used for introducing the corrections after each stage of the exercise, so the information use also for exercise conducting purposes. 

• Evaluators have different background, expertise - does an holistic certification make sense? Distinguish between different types of exercises and parts of exercises - minimum basic requirements
• Guarantees certain level of training of evaluators
• Set-up some kind of basic information that evaluators should get at the beginning of any exercise
• All evaluators should have some common knowledge on cross-cutting topics e.g. communication
• Standardises level of evaluators in certified issue i.e. knowledge, skill
• Documentation that will support training and certification of evaluators is supposed to assist both evaluators and exercise managers that will have the same expectations and preparations for an exercise

• very useful information - adds on value, pillar for exercise success
• framework information to understand certain actions - to reach certain goals!
• misconceptions of certain actions without knowing the general goals
• without framework information, uncertainty rises and degrades the quality of evaluation
• group dynamics and leadership processes, framework information helps to define this structures
• social interactions have to be addressed (communication, etc.)
• to know competent people during crisis (organizational social structure of all involved people has to be focused on to better understand certain processes)
• for "context" - available information for decision making (real vs exercise) and motivation/understanding amongst the training audience

When CBRN-events are simulated and casualties need to be decontaminated, the sucess of the decontamination has to be validated. Due to invisible substances (e.g. gases) and their high hazard potential, it poses a challenge to evaluators in exercises.

An evaluator needs to know why participants do certain things and whether they follow their own procedures, which are different from those of the evaluator's country, or whether they have no procedures but improvise.