Preparing for the Next Crisis: Developing a More Effective Crisis Management System

The Crisis Management simulation exercise was informed by the findings of the National Democratic Institute's flagship crisis management assessment, “North Macedonia's Crisis Management Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak” as well as the European Union’s Peer Review Report of the Republic of North Macedonia’s crisis management system in 2018.

The purpose of this exercise was to examine existing crisis management processes, clarify roles and responsibilities within the crisis management infrastructure, evaluate the Assembly's request to the executive branch for the improvement of the crisis management process, and improve oversight of the national crisis management processes.

Based on these discussions, the Parliament Support Programme (PSP) presents a report and video discussion containing key findings and recommendations for state-level crisis management, focusing on roles and responsibilities, structures and work processes in all phases of a crisis— before, during, and after. These recommendations can be used to help identify potential areas and actions to improve state crisis response mechanisms globally.

This report was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) through the Parliament Support Programme, in partnership with the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia. The exercise and key recommendations were designed and conducted by Dr. Ann Phillips, Colonel (Retired) Jim Ruf, and Colonel (Retired) John Agoglia.