UNICEF role in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene emergencies and the IASC Cluster approach. Prof. Paul S

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UNICEF role in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
emergencies and the IASC Cluster
approach.Prof. Paul Sherlock.Senior
Adviser,Emergency WaterIASC Cluster
Coord.Copenhagen ECHO meeting July 2006
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The Humanitarian Reform Agenda Building a
Stronger, More Predictable Humanitarian Response
System
Humanitarian Reform Support Unit, OCHA
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Objectives of Humanitarian Reform

• Sufficient humanitarian response capacity and
  enhanced leadership, accountability and
  predictability in 9 gap sectors/areas of
  response
• Adequate, timely and flexible humanitarian
  financing
• Improved humanitarian coordination and leadership
• More effective partnerships between UN and non-UN
  humanitarian actors

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Cluster Leadership Approach

• Contributes to Goals 1, 3, 4 of Reform by
• Building sufficient response capacity in 9 gap
  areas
• Improving humanitarian coordination and
  leadership
• Building more effective partnerships

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Gap Areas and Cluster Leads

• Technical clusters
• Nutrition UNICEF
• Water/Sanitation UNICEF
• Health WHO
• Shelter (conflict, IDPs) UNHCR
• Shelter (natural disasters) IFRC Convenor
• Cross-cutting clusters
• Camp Coordination Mgmt (conflict, IDPs) UNHCR
• Camp Coord Mgmt (natural disasters) IOM
• Protection (conflict, IDPs and affected) UNHCR
• Protection (natural disasters) UNHCR/OHCHR/UNICEF
  
• Early Recovery UNDP
• Common service clusters
• Logistics WFP
• Telecommunications
  OCHA/UNICEF/WFP
• N.B. Four sectors also agreed Food,
  Education, Agriculture and Refugees

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Cluster Leadership Approach What does the
Cluster Lead do?

• Global level

• Partnerships Identify partners chair cluster
  with UN, Red Cross/Red Crescent and NGOs
  participation
• Preparedness Develop and maintain predictable
  cluster response capacity (stockpiles, trained
  staff, rosters, etc)
• Standards and policy-setting

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Cluster Leadership Approach What does the
Cluster Lead do?

• Field level (terms of reference)

• Identify and work with key technical partners
• Coordinate programme implementation within sector
• Develop a plan, according to need
• Apply standards
• Monitor and report on impact
• Advocate on behalf of cluster and mobilise
  resources
• Train build capacity of national actors/civil
  society
• Serve as provider of last resort

The Cluster Lead, in this capacity, is
accountable to the Humanitarian Coordinator
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Cluster Leadership Approach How is the cluster
approach activated?

• Humanitarian Coordinator provides ERC with
  analysis of the gaps and specific clusters
  recommended in the country
• ERC consults with global cluster lead agencies
  giving them 24 hours to respond before activation
  is approved
• ERC informs IASC of new developments and ensures
  that appropriate guidance and support is provided

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Cluster Leadership Approach What is meant by
accountability?

• Global cluster leads accountable to ERC for
  ensuring adequate preparedness and effective
  responses in the sectors or areas of activity
  concerned.
• Country level cluster leads accountable to the HC
  for ensuring adequate preparedness and effective
  responses in the sectors or areas of activity
  concerned, ensuring complimentarity of partners
  actions, strengthening the involvement of
  national and local institutions, and making the
  best use of available resources.
• Also accountable for ensuring establishment of
  adequate coordination mechanisms for the sector
  or area of activity concerned, as well as
  adequate strategic planning and operational
  response.

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Cluster Leadership Approach What is meant by
provider of last resort?

• the commitment of cluster leads to do their
  utmost to ensure an adequate and appropriate
  response.
• it is necessarily circumscribed by some basic
  preconditions that affect any framework for
  humanitarian action, namely unimpeded access,
  security, and availability of funding.
• need to be applied in somewhat different ways,
  depending on the type of cluster.
• determination of when last resort applies will
  usually depend on the HC and IASC Country Teams
  advice that critical needs are not being met by
  existing responses.

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Cluster Leadership Approach Examples from roll
out countries

• UNHCR leads the development of a protection
  strategy, and establishes a protection monitoring
  system in IDP camps, together with partners.
• UNDP leads inter-agency recovery assessments,
  together with Government, in potential areas of
  return.
• WHO deploys additional staff and opens
  sub-offices in districts to establish improved
  surveillance and response systems with Government
  and partners.
• IFRC convenes partners to prepare a complimentary
  response to emergency shelter needs following an
  earthquake.

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What could the Cluster Approach look like?
So how is this different from sectoral
coordination?
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How the cluster approach fills gaps and
strengthens sector coordination

• The intent
• Smarter sector coordination and leadership
• Terms of Reference for cluster leads
• Technical capacity and stockpiles built at global
  level, especially in gap areas
• Response is more predictable because who does
  what is pre-defined
• Real accountability from operational agencies gt
  HC gt ERC (agreed ToR for cluster leads)
• More strategic field-level coordination
  prioritization more timely and effective
  response
• Real partnerships between UN-IOM-Red Cross/Red
  Crescent-NGOs

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How the cluster approach fills gaps and
strengthens sector coordination

• The reality
• IT IS TOO EARLY TO DRAW CONCLUSIONS!
• But, some observations
• Uneven leadership by Cluster Leads
• Field still perceives as top down
• Terminology has caused confusion
• NGOs do not feel adequately consulted,
  added-value to them still unclear
• Donors not yet forthcoming with support for
  building global capacity
• OCHA has yet to implement its steward role

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Some things to remember

• If it aint broke, dont fix it!
• Keep it simple and practical
• Not more meetings, better meetings
• If more meetings are needed, it could be because
  NO meetings for the sector were taking place
  before
• OCHAs role more focused on core competencies
  (inter-cluster) coordination, advocacy/resource
  mobilisation, information management, policy

Ultimately, reform is about improving our
collective humanitarian response
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Stengthening the Humanitarian Coordinator System

• Contributes to Goals 3 and 4 of Reform by
• Improving humanitarian coordination and
  leadership
• Building more effective partnerships

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Strenthening the HC System

• A comprehensive strategy for

• Selecting
• Mentoring
• Training
• Appointing and
• Holding accountable
• individuals that can deliver
• effective leadership in
• humanitarian emergencies

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Humanitarian Reform Where to go for help?

• Key documents
• IASC Preliminary Guidance Note on Implementation
  of the Cluster Leadership Approach
• Generic Terms of Reference for Cluster Leads at
  the Field Level
• Specific cluster guidance, provided by global
  cluster leads
• For assistance
• Humanitarian Reform Support Unit hrsu_at_un.org
• CERF Secretariat (for technical/procedural
  questions)
• IASC website www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc
• Humanitarian Reform Website coming soon!

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The IASC Cluster Approach
inWater,Sanitation and Hygiene
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For all non-refugee emergencies in the future if
declared by the IASC as a Cluster emergency
UNICEF will be the lead agency and coordinator of
the WES sector.
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Clusters vs. Sectors

• Clusters may provide a broader coordination
  mechanism than the sector approach
• Cluster leads go beyond the scope of agency
  mandates
• Accountability
• Sectors may be continuous. Cluster is time-bound
• Provider of Last Resort applies to emergencies
  where clusters are applied

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• WASH Cluster group
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

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WASH Cluster group Lead by UNICEF

• Key Cluster partners
• I.F.R.C.
• ICRC
• OXFAM
• ACF
• I.R.C.
• W. V. I.
• CRS
• CONCERN W
• ICMH

• NCA
• CARE
• UNHCR
• WHO
• OCHA
• UNEP
• SCHR, Interaction,
• ICVA
• Donors.. DFID,ECHO,USAID,NORAD.
• Interested Research Inst. WEDC, CEHE, CDC.

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KEY ISSUES Presented at the First meeting in
Oxford 2005

• Assessing the sector capacities
• Strengthening Surge Capacity
• Strengthening Co-ordination
• Development of Supply Assistance
• Support to Standard setting and Performance
  indicators
• Training and Orientation
• Making Strategic use of experience and lessons
• Monitoring and Advocacy.
• Resource Mobilisation.
• Cluster secretariat- New York and Geneva

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Results based Management Framework for WASH
Cluster Working Group
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Work groups coming out of the work plan

• Surge Capacity group Coords Tech.
• Hygiene Prom. Package
• Standard assessment forms
• Standardisation of equipment.
• Capacity Mapping
• Standards SPHERE plus
• Pilot Countries
• In country assessment of Java disaster.

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What Challenges for UNICEF.

• Two main areas
• To develop the cluster leadership and capacity to
  play this role
• Develop inside of UNICEF its own capacity in
  Water and Sanitation to respond world wide as a
  major player efficiently and effectively to any
  type of emergency.

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What does UNICEF need to do to its self.

• It has too few emergency experienced staff. We
  need to work on changing this.
• It has to have a roster of emergency experienced
  people ready to go from outside of the
  organization
• It has to have a fast track recruitment system
  for people outside of the organization
• It has to dramatically change it system of supply
  to emergencies.
• Has to have a larger range of emergency
  equipment in stock for fast deployment.
• UNICEFs system of audit needs to be engaged with
  the emergency from the outset.
• More training in each region on emergencies, the
  cluster approach, SPHERE etc for field staff and
  country offices.
• In smaller countries UNICEF needs to consider
  options for fast scale up of the country office
  in the event of an emergency.

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What does this mean at a Regional level

• Based on risk-analysis, identify prone countries
  or areas
• Determine sub-regional, country specific context
• Strengthen partnerships with other humanitarian
  actors (Red Cross, NGOs)
• Preparedness
• Assessment of partners
• Analysis of context
• EPR emergency preparedness and response plan

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Context

• Small offices and small country teams
• Strong/fair government capacity (military, civil
  protection units), but not updated on
  humanitarian principles/standards.
  Infra-structure in place.
• Nature of emergency a-typical
• No famines, no high malnutrition rates,
• Need to determine anticipated health crisis
• Crude indicators not applicable CCCs, SPHERE?
• Scale of disaster varies
• Baseline situation, partners, supplies,
  coordination

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Questions?