FEMA Releases Information Sharing Guide for Public-Private Partnerships

A new guide from FEMA provides recommendations and resources to help private-public partnerships (P3) formed for the purpose of information sharing around resilience and response and recovery efforts. Some types of these P3s include state-led emergency management departments that incorporate private sector partners into their emergency management frameworks; business emergency operations centers (BEOCs), which exist at the state and national levels; and community resilience hubs.

As noted in the guide’s background section, in the 1990s business leaders applied information about crises to inform their decisions and maintain operations and were aided in the following years by federal legislation and other activities that sought to support information sharing between the private sector and government. Since then, there have been numerous incidents and other experiences that provided lessons about how best to conduct information sharing. Leveraging these lessons, the guide intends to help a P3 1) improve the ability to exchange intelligence, information, data, and knowledge; 2) improve the capability to manage and share information needed for joint resilience, response and recovery planning, and strategy development and coordination of response and recovery operations; 3) and support joint messaging. It is intended for any P3, whether private or public sector led, that shares information to improve resilience, response, or recovery operations. In addition to walking readers through sections that describe how to establish and improve information sharing P3s, the guide includes an information sharing assessment tool, a sample information sharing agreement, and an example information sharing battle rhythm. Access the guide at FEMA or below.