CEA in Emergencies

CEA Toolkit

This revised CEA Toolkit accompanies the Red Cross Red Crescent CEA Guide. It is organised around the CEA Minimum Actions, with each numbered action linking to the relevant activities, templates, checklists, and guidance to help you put the Guide’s recommendations into practice.The toolkit can be accessed in several ways: you can navigate the full toolkit below, download all tools together as a zip file, or browse and download individual tools.

How to use this toolkit:

You can start by exploring the toolkit overview to understand how the content is structured, or browse the full list of tools if you already know what you’re looking for.

Alternatively, select the category that best fits your work: Institutionalising CEA, CEA in programmes, CEA in emergencies, or Working with cross‑cutting areas. The first three categories are structured around the CEA Minimum Actions. Choose the action you are working on, then explore the related tools—such as activities, templates, checklists, and guidance—to help you put it into practice. The cross‑cutting areas section provides additional guidance that applies across all areas of work.

If you would like to download the full CEA Toolkit as a Zip folder, you can do so here

Download the translated CEA Toolkit
French, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Bangla, Portuguese (only tools 11, 13 & 14 available)

We’d love your feedback on the new design of toolkit. Please scroll to the bottom of the page to share your thoughts.

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Institutionalising CEA

1. Strengthen CEA understanding and capacity at all levels in the National Society

Build leadership buy-in

Develop a CEA policy

Develop a CEA strategy or plan

Adopt KPIs to measure how the National Society is being accountable to communities

Train staff and volunteers on CEA

2. Allocate resources, including funding and staff

Allocate core funds

Identify staff to lead on CEA

3. Integrate CEA into all strategies, values, plans, policies, and tools so it becomes a way of working for all staff and volunteers

Include commitments to accountability in mission statements and values (no tools)

Integrate CEA in annual plans, budgets and technical sectors’ plans, tools, and guidelines

Include expectations to engage and be accountable to communities in staff and volunteer job descriptions, inductions, and appraisal processes

Include CEA in PMER processes

4. Establish a community feedback mechanism, with processes for managing sensitive complaints

Set up permanent feedback mechanism

Related Resources:

CEA Guide

This guide has been produced by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)…

Minimum actions to institutionalise CEA

This infographic, adapted from the CEA Guide, illustrates the four Minimum Actions required to institutionalise Community Engagement and…

Minimum actions for CEA in programmes

This infographic, adapted from the CEA Guide, illustrates the minimum actions for community engagement and accountability in programmes.

Ten actions to engage communities during emergency response operations

This infographic, adapted from the CEA Guide, illustrates the ten actions required to engage communities during emergency response…

Share your thoughts on the CEA Toolkit

It would be great to hear about your experience of using the CEA Toolkit.