Overview

• Participants gain an interactive experience in the initial phase of emergency response, including coordination, team building, rapid assessment preparation, interaction with locals and officials, and reporting findings.
  
  
• Understanding of different actors' roles, including the UN, other NGOs, governments, and the media.

Facilitation Notes

Before beginning the exercise, designate up to 13 people (preferably not participants) to play various roles in the simulation, be sure to designate one actor to serve as the BBC correspondent to introduce the emergency. Then, distribute each role-play to the designated actors and conduct a group briefing with detailed instructions, identifying objectives of each person's role and the exercise as a whole.

Once all of the actors are briefed on their roles, gather the participants in a large room or open space for the beginning of the exercise. The exercise should then proceed in the following order:

• Groups of five are formed randomly (groups can be color-coded for easy identification)
  
• Introduce the simulation, overview and objectives, then have the designated actor read the BBC Newsflashes (15 minutes)
  
• Groups are given copies of the Spoldak Emergency, Country Briefing, Spoldak Assessment and Tasks and time to assign roles within the group and organize an assessment plan (30 minutes)
  
• Groups conduct assessments, recording their interaction with actors (1 hour)
  
• Groups finalize assessment findings for report-back (30 minutes)

Either directly following the exercise, or the next day, each group will report their findings to the entire group. Actors should play a role in giving constructive feedback, highlighting key information that was missed or an innovative approach to a question, for example. The facilitator should elicit responses from the groups along the lines of the key points laid out in the Rapid Assessments session.

Note: If you are conducting this exercise in conjunction with the complete 5-day training, it is recommended to adapt the simulation to be conducted progressively throughout the week, incorporating the week's case studies. For example, the simulation exercise could be adapted to the Riverina Case Study, changing the context and indicators to those of Riverina.

Timing

2 Hours and 30 Minutes

Plan 15 minutes to debrief actors, 15 minutes to introduce the exercise and read the newsflashes, 30 minutes for teams to coordinate team and plan assessment, 1 hour to conduct assessment and 30 minutes to finalize assessment report.

Visual Aids and Demonstrations

Hats and other distinguishing props can be helpful and entertaining for the actors, for example, use an army hat for the Spoldak army or a fake pregnancy bump for the expecting mother.

Provide at least one copy of the following documents for each group:

• Spoldak Emergency
  
• Country Briefing
  
• Spoldak Assessment and Tasks
  
• Map of Spoldak

Provide one copy of the following documents to each actor:

• Guidance to Role Players
  
• Role-specific Guidance