Role of NGOs in Crises Management Cooperation

1. Role of NGOs in Crises Management Cooperation Nikolay Tomov Bulgarian M&S Association - BULSIM CoE CMDR Sofia, 17.09.2013г.

2. Outlines • NGOs Concept • How NGOs fit into the CMDR equation • BULSIM activities and impact • Conclusions

3. Who are they? Working Definition: • Non-profit organizations or associations of private citizens with any common interest • The common interest, for our purposes, is international humanitarian assistance activities and/or crises management planning and training • May be international or local

4. How do they operate? • NGOs vary greatly • Organizational structure is similar to businesses • Usually non-rigid hierarchy; significant flexibility and authority at the field level • International NGOs often team up with local NGOs or have regional or local branches

5. What do they do well? • Usually have excellent advocacy or lobbying capacity • Can fill gaps-specialised skills/capacity • Usually mobilise quickly • Often well connected at local level

6. What don’t they do well? • Can duplicate services • May step outside their areas of specialty • Often overcommit/overextend capacities • May not be so good at sustainability

7. Who sponsors them? • Funding sources • Private Donations (citizens, businesses and foundations) • International Organizations • National Governments • Importance of public relations and the Media

8. Who monitors NGOs? • Little External Monitoring • Self-Regulation: NGO Bylaws and Standards • Government • Other NGOs

9. How effective are NGOs? • What have they chosen to do? • What is their mandate? • Do they add value? • What will the other players allow them to do? • How do you measure these? Are they accountable?

10. NGOs Independent Decentralized Authority On-The-Job Training Few Manuals Long-term Perspective NGO and Military Cultures: Differences Military • Highly Disciplined • Hierarchical Command • Extensive Branch Training • Doctrinal Pubs • “End-State” Approach

11. Areas of Expertise • Local Situation • Environment • Health and Medical Issues • Religion • Clan/tribe relationships & hierarchy • Dialects • Psychological Profiles • Personality Profiles • Local Organization • Effects of Local Weather and Terrain on Equipment and Personnel

12. What Makes NGOs Success? • Meeting a need • Clarity of Mission • Independence • Professionalism

13. Bulgarian M&S Association - BULSIM • MISSION BULSIM promotes M&S knowledge and use of simulation methods and techniques in research and education, in civil and military societies, state organizations and business. It aims competence growth of the human capital in all mankind activities. Association facilitates the transfer of experience and knowledge among people and organizations interested in specific areas of modeling and simulations.  • VISION BULSIM will provide comprehensive framework on national and international level, where people and organizations involved in the area of M&S will cooperate, share expertise and work on problems of common interest. • „Code of Professional Ethics for Simulationists”

14. M&S benefits in CMDR Simulations: • Are cost effective and reliable approach for conducting experiments • Enable alternatives evaluation • Give a possibility for “time-jumps” to predict the crises • Enable development of a coherent environment for analyses of current situation • Provide environment for emergency planning and training • Provide decision making support • Enable prerequisites to “pre-live” the Future…

16. BULSIM activities in CMDR • Collaboration with national and international M&S organizations • Transfer of Knowledge and experience and Information exchange • Conducting trainings and exercises • Organization of conferences and seminars • Analyses and consultations

17. BULSIM’s expertise • Design, deployment and conduction of computer-assisted exercise and training environments for crises management and cybersecurity • Design and development of decision-making support systems for crises management • Usage of M&S tools for decision-making support on operative and tactical level in combat operations • Modeling and simulation of natural hazardous events • Design and development of virtual simulators • Business simulations • The competences of the Association continuously increase due to growing number of newly admitted members.

18. CAX as a CD&E&T Environment GOs Synthetic Experimental Environment (M&S, Serious Gaming, Data) GOs Industry Industry “CD Lab” “Experimentation Lab” Academia Academia Scenarios Test Env IOs IOs Concept Development Experimentation Development Exper. – Dev. NGOs NGOs Exper. – Estim. Control Others Others Lessons Learned

19. CMDR Related Projects 2013 – “Interagency Cooperation in Crisis Management and Disaster Response: Tools and Practices for Training” 2011 - “CYBERWINTER 2011 Computer Assisted Exercise” 2012 - “Exercise Planners Training Course” 2012 - ”Development of Mechanisms, Tools and Practices for Crises and Emergency Response Using Modeling and Simulation” 2013 – Supporting Partner of ITEC

20. Conclusions • Government and NGOs have to develop common understanding • Involvement of NGOs in Strategy preparation for CMDR • Readiness of NGOs to be coordinated by GOs • Enhance cooperation in Emergency Planning and Training

21. Contact Nikolay Tomov Chairman of the Management Committee Bulgarian Modeling and Simulation Association - BULSIM mobile: +359 88 6816281 е-мail: nikolay.tomov@bulsim.org http://www.bulsim.org