The Officials’ Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination (ODESC) system is New Zealand’s ‘all-hazards, all-threats’ strategic crisis response system.
The ODESC system is used by central government during an actual or emerging significant crises, where consequences of national significance warrant the co-ordination of all-of-government planning and prioritisation.
The system consists of central government agencies working together to focus on strategic matters and provide for a coordinated government response where:
- strategic risks are identified and managed
- response to a crisis situation is timely and appropriate
- national resources are applied effectively
- adverse outcomes are minimised
- multiple objectives are dealt with together
- agency activities are coordinated.
ODESC system decision-making
In responding to a crisis, the government seeks to:
- ensure public safety, protect human life and alleviate suffering
- preserve sovereignty, and minimise impacts on society, the economy, and the environment
- support the continuity of everyday activity, and the early restoration of disrupted services
- uphold the rule of law, democratic institutions and national values.
To achieve these goals, the ODESC system operates at three tiers for escalated decision-making, with the Prime Minister considered the lead decision-maker for the system:
- The Prime Minister/Ministers.
- Chief Executives of government agencies.
- Senior government officials.
When the ODESC system is activated, this three-tiered decision-making model gives us an architecture which allows agencies in a crisis to provide advice and assurance to the Prime Minister and Ministers, that:
- Emerging and current national security and hazard threats and risks are being accurately identified and managed.
- Appropriate resources are available.
- Gaps in capability are considered and dealt with in a structured and coordinated way.
- Information is flowing in a timely and accurate way to allow effective decisions to be taken at the right level.
- These arrangements also take into account the need to communicate with the public in a consistent way.