How has the Foreign Ministry developed its crisis preparedness following the tsunami of 2004?

10 points:

1. The 24/7 service at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is in a constant state of preparedness to respond to any major accidents occurring abroad and, if necessary, to launch crisis measures.
2. The Ministry has a situation awareness room that functions as an operative situation centre, which is activated quickly in an emergency. The general management and situation awareness of the crisis situation are in one place.
3. In crisis situations, the Ministry has the preparedness to send the specially trained consular rapid response team quickly to assist Finns.
4. The Ministry has set up a crisis response team to maintain technical and operational crisis preparedness capabilities and to organize preparedness exercises in cooperation with Finland’s diplomatic missions and other authorities.
5. The communication links between the Ministry, Finland’s diplomatic missions and crisis response teams in the field have improved significantly.
6. The Ministry continuously provides crisis response training for the staff of diplomatic missions. More than 100 crisis exercises of different types are held each year.
7. All of Finland’s diplomatic missions have regularly updated preparedness and evacuation plans for possible emergency situations.
8. Crisis communications has acquired an increasingly versatile role in managing crisis situations. The possibilities offered in particular by online communications and social media are emphasized in situations requiring rapid response.
9. The Ministry offers the electronic travel notification service for citizens who want to notify the Ministry and the diplomatic mission in the destination country of their travel abroad (www.matkustusilmoitus.fi). Those who have filed a notice can be warned of acute danger situations and can be reached more quickly should a crisis occur.
10. Cooperation between the Ministry and international actors has been intensified. Coordination between the EU Member States, and among the Nordic countries, in consular crisis situations has improved clearly. The EU Member States engage in close cooperation to share situation awareness as well as to assist and, if necessary, to evacuate citizens of the Union.