Factors threatening effective partnerships in crisis situations

CHIOMA CHIGOZIE-OKWUM

FACTORS THREATENING EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS IN CRISIS SITUATIONS

by Chioma Chigozie-Okwum, Spiritan University Nneochi, Abia State, Nigeria.

Crises can impact individuals, families, communities, countries, or the whole world. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a global crisis: its waves created widespread fear, panic and uncertainty for people regardless of nationality, race, class or religion. For individuals, crises can create fear, depression, and other mental health problems, and produce suicidal thoughts.

Crisis management includes frameworks, decisions, and actions taken to respond to crisis situations. It is imperative to develop a strategy and action plan on how to respond to a crisis situation. Crisis management may not completely eliminate the crisis, but seeks to cushion its impact and provide support to those impacted. Crisis situations can range from violence orchestrated by terrorists and militia to drought, flooding, fire, tribal wars, civil unrest, and even police brutality.

Crises can be micro or macro managed. Macro management approaches crisis management from a broad perspective. Micro management pays attention to every single detail. In managing a crisis, it is imperative to consider the size of the crisis to determine the most appropriate management approach.

Whether a crisis is micro or macro managed, a partnership can be helpful. Partnering in crisis management promotes a shared responsibility. Partnership adopts a top-down cascading approach to crisis management. In the face of a crisis, a partnership allows big players to partner with medium and small players to ensure the cushioning resulting from crisis management trickles down to the most vulnerable members of the population.

Partnering enables the large resources of the major players to be combined with the local structures of the medium and small scale players to achieve effective crisis management.

However, partnerships in crisis management only achieve their aim when there is proper monitoring to identify and counter aspects of the partnership that can compromise its effectiveness.

These factors include, but are not limited to: • Poor communication between partners. • Lack of integrity in any of the partners. • Lack of transparency in dealings. • Trust issues. • Corrupt intents and purposes. Hence partners in crisis management should seek ways to build trust, create effective communication channels, be transparent and prevent corruption, to ensure all work towards the goal of ameliorating the impacts of the crisis in the short and long term.

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