A True Roadmap for Response Preparedness Capacity Building in Developing States

Abstract

ABSTRACT Throughout much of the developing world, capacity building efforts are often delivered without implementing guidelines, whereby receiving states accept offers and/or expend their own funds for training, technical assistance and resource procurements without sound long-term plans of how to effectively capitalize on the efforts and truly build sustainable response preparedness capacity. The scope of various international, governmental and nongovernmental programs available to countries in need is potentially vast, but all too often contractors, offering organizations, or multiple agencies within the same offering organization or nation, provide capacity building that is not always linked to each other or designed to optimally build upon each other in a successive manner that moves the sovereign recipient towards a more robust response preparedness posture. This paper illustrates how a simple application of program evaluation and strategic planning, used along with very basic drills and exercises and the ARPEL RETOS™ tool assessments, can help developing states set true paths towards building better oil spill response preparedness structures in drastically resource constrained, multi-agency environments. This paper discusses how RETOS™ was used to assess oil spill response preparedness throughout the Wider Caribbean Region and presents the audience with a new outlook for conducting capacity building efforts in developing states.