oSIST IWA 5:2006:2011

International Workshop
Agreement
IWA 5
Emergency preparedness
* * * *
État de préparation en cas de catastrophe
Reference number ISO 2006
IWA 5:2006(E) All rights reserved
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IWA 5:2006(E)
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Foreword............................................................................................................................................................ iv

Participation ....................................................................................................................................................... v

Background ..................................................................................................................................................... viii

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ix

Workshop Recommendations ...........................................................................................................................x

1 Scope ......................................................................................................................................................1

2 Workshop Proceedings.........................................................................................................................1

3 Potential Future Work ...........................................................................................................................3

4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................3

Annex A (informative) Final Agenda ISO International Workshop on Standardization for

Emergency Preparedness, 24-26 April 2006, Florence, Italy.............................................................5

Annex B (informative) Submitted Standards/Guidance Documents..............................................................7

Annex C (informative) Output from Breakout Session #1 on Emergency Management..............................8

Annex D (informative) Output from Breakout Session #2 on Business Continuity (6 phases of the

business continuity management system) .........................................................................................9

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies

(ISO member bodies). ISO’s technical work is normally carried out through ISO technical committees in which

each ISO member body has the right to be represented. International organizations, governmental and

In order to respond to urgent market requirements, ISO has also introduced the possibility of preparing

documents through a workshop mechanism, external to its normal committee processes. These documents

are published by ISO as International Workshop Agreements. Proposals to hold such workshops may come

from any source and are subject to approval by the ISO Technical Management Board which also designates

an ISO member body to assist the proposer in the organization of the workshop. International Workshop

Agreements are approved by consensus amongst the individual participants in such workshops. Although it is

permissible that competing International Workshop Agreements exist on the same subject, an International

An International Workshop Agreement is reviewed after three years, under the responsibility of the member

body designated by the Technical Management Board, in order to decide whether it will be confirmed for a

further three years, transferred to an ISO technical body for revision, or withdrawn. If the International

Workshop Agreement is confirmed, it is reviewed again after a further three years, at which time it must be

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this International Workshop Agreement may

be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

International Workshop Agreement IWA 5 was created via the discussions at a workshop organized jointly by

the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the New York University (NYU) International Center for

Enterprise Preparedness (InterCEP), and held in Florence, Italy, 24-26 April 2006.

The following individuals, from organizations based in seventeen different countries, attended and participated

The ISO Advisory Group on Security (AGS) was formed by the ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) and

was tasked to review ISO and other organizations’ existing work related to security, assess the needs of

relevant stakeholders, and recommend what additional standards work should be undertaken to support

The ISO AGS issued its final report in January 2005. One of the report’s fifteen recommendations was that

ISO develop an International Workshop Agreement (IWA) on the subject of emergency preparedness. The

rationale for utilizing the IWA process was that it would allow for the production of an immediate ISO

deliverable, one that could further be evolved into an international standard by an ISO technical committee if

appropriate. The American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) offer to serve as the lead member body for

No international standard currently exists for emergency preparedness. Yet, recent large-scale

disasters ranging from tsunamis and hurricanes to earthquakes and terrorism underscore the

importance of consensus guidance and international coordination in emergency readiness, response,

and recovery efforts. The purpose of the meeting will be to reach an International Workshop

Agreement (IWA), to be published by ISO, for emergency preparedness and operational continuity.

Given the urgency of the need and the significant time frame necessary to develop a deliverable from the

beginning, the decision was made to focus on existing, consensus-based national standards and guidance in

the area of emergency preparedness. All ISO member bodies were informed of this meeting and requested to

further publicize this event. The invitation further invited entities to submit existing standards for consideration

by the workshop participants. The envisioned process was to review and evaluate the submitted standards at

the IWA meeting, as well as their applicability for the IWA deliverable, to be published by ISO.

The New York University (NYU) International Center for Enterprise Preparedness (InterCEP) hosted the

meeting on behalf of the US national body, 24-26 April 2006 at the Villa La Pietra International Conference

Center of NYU in Florence, Italy. The Workshop Chairman was Bill Raisch of NYU InterCEP. The Workshop

Moderator was Alice Sturgeon of the Treasury Board of Canada and member of the ISO/IEC Strategic

The workshop recommendations are presented at the outset of this International Workshop Agreement to

provide context for the rest of the report. The workshop participants reached consensus on the following

1. In accordance with the ISO TMB resolution, the workshop confirms that the appropriate ISO technical

committee to address this subject area further should be ISO/TC 223, Societal security.

2. For the purposes of this workshop, the participants understand emergency preparedness to include all

3. The workshop recognizes there are common elements, but that the disciplines of emergency

preparedness/emergency management and business continuity management are distinct.

4. The workshop recommends to TC 223 that the common elements identified during this workshop (see

Table 1) form the basis of an international family of standards for emergency management and

The workshop recommends to TC 223 that NFPA 1600, BSI 25999, HB 221 and the work of the

Japanese Industrial Standards Committee and Standards Institution of Israel be included in the

The workshop recommends to TC 223 that members nations be requested to submit detailed

tactical/implementation level documents that could provide direction and guidance specifically in the

ISO/IEC Guide 2 defines consensus as “General agreement, characterized by the absence of sustained

opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned interests and by a process that

involves seeking to take into account the views of all parties concerned and to reconcile any conflicting

The 77 workshop participants were not unanimous in their support of the four recommendations. In the limited

time during the workshop meeting, all viewpoints were given the opportunity to be heard and multiple attempts

were made to reconcile conflicting positions. The following disapprovals and/or abstentions were recorded at

The remainder of this International Workshop Agreement will elaborate upon these recommendations, as well

as include further output from the workshop that is useful in the area of emergency preparedness.

• presents the consensus of the workshop participants on the subject of emergency preparedness in

• provides recommendations and guidance to ISO/TC 223 as the first step in a process that may

eventually lead to the development of international standards on this subject, and

• provides the reader with some additional resources for further exploration of this area which is crucial

The five national standards and guidance documents that served as the focal point for the IWA discussions

• NFPA 1600 - Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs

• Israeli Contributions on Security Management Systems: Management Standard and Accompanying

• Japanese Position Paper for IWA and Proposal about Guidelines for the Establishment of Framework

Following opening remarks from the ISO/TC 223 (Societal security) Chairman Designate that noted the

commitment from his technical committee as the appropriate home for the formal development of international

emergency preparedness standards, it was agreed that this IWA would be a one-time meeting and that the

Due to the detailed nature of many of the key terms for emergency preparedness, and the limited meeting

time, the participants agreed that a comprehensive list of terms and definitions would not be included in this

International Workshop Agreement. However, this is a very important deliverable and one that ISO/TC 223

should consider undertaking. An internationally agreed upon list of terms and definitions would be very useful

The workshop participants spent a significant amount of time discussing the meaning of emergency

preparedness and the disciplines that it encompasses, as well as how the five input standards/guidance

documents approach the subject matter. Breakout sessions were utilized to examine the workshop context

and approach for addressing emergency management/emergency planning and business continuity

management. Workshop participants agreed that while these are distinct disciplines (Recommendation #3), it

would be appropriate to include each in the scope of the workshop (Recommendation #2).

The workshop utilized two breakout sessions, (1) emergency management and (2) business continuity, to

discuss and determine the essential elements for each discipline. The output from each of these breakout

sessions can be found in Annexes C and D. The content contained in each of these annexes is presented

only for information and does not necessarily represent the consensus of each group as formal approval

A report from each breakout session was presented to the full workshop. Using the list from breakout session

#1 as the base, participants went through each item and identified the common elements of both emergency

management and business continuity management. Listed in Table 1 are the essential elements of both

emergency management and business continuity management, as identified by the workshop participants.

During the review exercise, there were no further differing elements identified at this high-level.