Learning from Disaster Events and Exercises in Civil Protection Organizations

This report focuses on understanding how civil protection organizations learn from direct or indirect experiences(events), and planned learning processes (exercises). The work is based on information gained from desktop analysis and interviews with civil protection representatives or researchers from the case study countries concerning international events and exercises. We examined how these events were reported, evaluated, and then (if at all) acted on organizationally, and how the information was used to inform adaptive processes in the context of the national civil protection system. An implicit assumption of the authors was that civil protection organizations should be learning organizations that document and respond to operational, coordination, and planning issues if and when they are recognized. By exploring a range of international cases, this study seeks to provide recommendations on good practice, reporting and evaluation, and provide insights into how international civil protection organizations have responded to challenging events or informative exercises.