Overview
EN ISO 22397:2018 (identical to ISO 22397:2014) - titled Societal security - Guidelines for establishing partnering arrangements - provides practical, non-prescriptive guidance for creating and managing partnering arrangements among organizations. Published by CEN as a European adoption of ISO 22397, it covers a lifecycle approach to partnerships for events that impact societal security, including planning, development, implementation and review. The standard is applicable to public, private and not‑for‑profit organizations of any size.
Key Topics
- Partnering process: Plan → Develop → Implement → Review, with a focus on continuous improvement.
- Defining purpose and scope: Clarify why the partnering arrangement is needed and what it will cover.
- Partner identification and engagement: Criteria for selecting partners and arranging initial dialogue.
- Risk assessment: Conduct risk assessments in accordance with ISO 31000 to identify vulnerabilities, high‑priority risks and appropriate risk treatments.
- Roles, responsibilities and authority: Define clear responsibilities, decision‑making levels and accountability across partners.
- Relationship rules and dispute resolution: Establish protocols for governance, confidentiality and resolving challenges.
- Communication and interoperability: Determine communication needs, information sharing rules and interoperability between systems and organizations.
- Training and exercises: Identify competency needs and exercise plans to validate the partnering arrangement.
- Contractual and informal tools: Select appropriate instruments (MoUs, mutual aid agreements, contracts, operational agreements) to formalize the partnership.
- Review and maintenance: Use checklists and post‑exercise reviews to update arrangements; Annexes provide examples, obstacles and a partnering review checklist.
Applications
EN ISO 22397:2018 is designed to strengthen collaboration for prevention, preparedness, response and recovery across a wide range of events (natural disasters, human‑induced incidents, cross‑jurisdictional impacts). Typical uses include:
- Developing public‑private partnerships for critical infrastructure resilience.
- Creating mutual aid agreements among emergency services, utilities and NGOs.
- Structuring supplier and vendor relationships for business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Formalizing interagency coordination for city, regional or national emergency preparedness plans.
Who uses it
- Emergency managers, resilience officers and continuity planners
- Local and national government agencies
- Private sector critical infrastructure operators (energy, transport, telecoms)
- Not‑for‑profit organizations and humanitarian partners
- Legal and procurement teams drafting partnership documents
Related Standards
- ISO 22300 - Societal security: terminology
- ISO 31000 - Risk management: principles and guidelines
EN ISO 22397:2018 helps organizations create robust, interoperable partnering arrangements that improve collective capability to manage complex societal security risks.
