12.1 Communicating preliminary findings

Preliminary updates on the humanitarian situation and initial assessment observations should be shared with key stakeholders as quickly and regularly as possible, considering the following:

• Provide basic updates to the head office of the CO (or CEG in non-presence situations) on a daily basis during an initial emergency assessment. The CO should include this information in sitreps to share with the broader CARE membership (refer to Chapter 21 Information management).
• Updates can be either brief written communications or verbal phone briefings.
• In some cases, such as non-presence situations, the assessment team may be requested to prepare sitreps directly.
• Preliminary assessment reports and summary recommendations may be requested at any point in the assessment process.
• The assessment team may be requested to provide updates to CCG or ERWG conference calls.

For safety and security purposes, the assessment team must keep regular contact with the head office, and the whereabouts of assessment team members must be known at all times. A communications schedule should be agreed with the head office before deployment (refer to Chapter 20 – Telecommunications and IT, and Chapter 14 – Safety and security) for more details.