Contingency Planning Against Disaster Risks in the City of Natal/RN: barriers, gaps, and regulatory strategies.

Contingency Planning, Contingency Plan, Disaster, Risk and Disaster Management, Ergonomics.

The Contingency Plan to face risks and disasters of a city is a document required by Law 12.608/2012, which establishes the National Policy of Protection and Civil Defense-NPPCD. The technical and scientific literature indicates to contingency planning as a primary management tool for the elaboration of the contingency plan and, thus, for the reduction of disaster risks. The main objective of this work was to analyze the contingency planning process of the Brazilian city Natal in Rio Grande do Norte state, checking that the process met international guidelines,  national legislation, the real needs of the city and  participatory planning criteria, as well as to identify and analyze the difficulties faced and the strategies practiced by the agency of protection and civil defense of the city which is responsible for preparing and coordination of the execution of the Contingency Plan. Concerning the methodology, different types of research have been adopted, which are qualitative, exploratory, explanatory, case and field study, the research site was the civil protection and defense agency of the Natal city. The participative and situated method of work ergonomic analysis was used, which consists of global and systematic analyses and the application of observational and interactional techniques for the collection of field data. The Planning meetings between representatives of several institutions were recorded, which were coordinated by director of the protection and civil defense agency of the Natal city. In addition, questionnaires were applied with representatives of the 23 agencies participating in Contingency Planning to gather available human and material resources, the actions that each agency could perform and their respective responsible, as well as the training and experience of existing human resources that could compose the Contingency Plan and be used in an eventual disaster contingency. The results obtained with this research show that the contingency planning process took place with inefficiency of the coordination of works, meetings, and data collection for the construction of the plan. During contingency planning there were four changes in the management of the civil and defense protection agency and the secretaries of the department to which the agency is linked, as well as late effective support from the mayor of the city to contingency planning. It was also observed the improvisation and unpreparedness of the actors involved, including those who coordinated the contingency planning. There was no participation of 36.11% of the set of agencies that should participate in contingency planning.  52.17% of the agencies consulted did not provide the necessary data to constitute the contingency plan and the state agency for protection and civil defense participated in one of the meetings, without firming its responsibilities. In addition, information from the institutions representing the Brazilian Armed Forces was not contemplated, although these institutions had been consulted and participated in a meeting. Besides the vulnerable community and the Red Cross were not invited to participate in contingency planning. In view of the explained, it is evident that law 12.608/2012 provides for the participation of voluntary organizations, government agencies from the municipal, state, and federal levels, as well as community organizations. The law also provides for the performance of simulated exercises to test the plan, however simulated exercises were not carried out. It was concluded that the Contingency Plan reflects contingency planning and that the test of the plan, through the simulated exercise is fundamental to validate it or not and, with this, to improve it.