NDF participated in the training organised by ACTED Pakistan

NDF participation in the training organized by ACTED & NHRP

BY: Abid Lashari

“One day workshop and training “Humanitarian Coordination refresher Training” organized by ACTED on 04^th September 2012 in Indus Hotel Hyderabad.

The main Objectives for Training were as below

·         Strengthen understanding of the humanitarian reform process and the background to the cluster approach

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·         Review the updated humanitarian architecture in Pakistan to ensure that cluster partners understand the system they are asked to participate in

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·         Update on the Transformative Agenda and discuss the ways that agencies can play a greater role in the implementation of the ITA

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·         Discuss access to humanitarian financing (pooled funds) in Sindh

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·         Identify gaps in early recovery coordination in Sindh and brainstorm solutions to address these issues

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·         Identify lessons learned from 2011 Floods emergency coordination responsibility for humanitarian response with a designated Cluster Lead Agency or Agencies (CLA)

The facilitators Mr. Dominic, Ms. Joe Read & Mr. Kirk Pirchard facilitated the training sessions. Mr. Abid Lashari President NDF represented NDF during the training.  The training was very fruitful to develop effective cluster coordination. During the training the briefing was given about the project of ACTED “NGOs and Humanitarian Reform Project (NHRP II) Pakistan”. It was shared that The NGOs and Humanitarian Reform Project is a Geneva-based initiative, convened by the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA). The project began in 2008, with a two-year programme in four countries, covering a variety of humanitarian environments (Afghanistan, DRC, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe).  During 2008-2010, NHRP produced a number of reports and studies on the progress of the UN humanitarian reform agenda, from an NGO/field perspective, looking at: humanitarian leadership, coordination, financing, accountability and partnership.

Ms. Joe READ shared the purpose of Humanitarian reforms that The Humanitarian Reform agenda aims to improve leadership, coordination, accountability and partnership in the humanitarian sector, and to improve financing opportunities for humanitarian partners through pooled funding mechanisms. The Reform agenda has been behind the roll-out of the cluster system from 2008 onwards, and is led by Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) policy bodies in Geneva and New York. The 2011 Transformative Agenda began a process to address the operational challenges experienced by UN, NGOs and humanitarian partners in relation to the humanitarian reform process.

During the training role of it was shared the role NGOs in humanitarian reform that at the policy level, NGOs are recognized as equal partners to UN agencies in humanitarian operations. Humanitarian coordination structures designed as part of the Humanitarian Reform process in Pakistan, such as the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), Inter Cluster Coordination Mechanism (ICCM), Cluster meetings, Emergency Response Fund (ERF) review meetings, are all envisioned as including strong leadership and participation from both UN and NGOs. NGOs (both international and national) are supposed to have an equal voice in decision-making and information sharing processes with regards to the humanitarian operating environment, to ensure that programming and strategic planning are always based on current and complete understanding of the humanitarian operation.

It was also shared that what humanitarian architecture is? The Humanitarian architecture is the combined structures of humanitarian coordination in-country, the cluster system, government humanitarian coordination ---mechanisms, civil society humanitarian coordination mechanisms (PHF, NHN).

The Transformative Agenda was also defined that  the Transformative Agenda is an initiative to strengthen core elements of the cluster approach, to improve the way that the cluster approach (and humanitarian reform) work in the field.

It was focused on three key areas of humanitarian response:

i) Better leadership  (ii) Improved accountability (iii) Improved coordination

The purpose of coordination was shared that the word coordination is defined as per situation in this discussion is the strategic use of clusters is called coordination. The purpose in participation in the clusters is to show commitment to humanitarian principles. To show Readiness to participate in action that improve access to all people, to show commitment to engage consistently in joint cluster work and to show willingness and capacity to contribute to the cluster strategic response plan.

This type of coordination develops strength of NGO representation in the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT). There are three types of NGO representation in HCT. (1) UN Agencies (2) INGOs (3) NNGOs.

The training was ended with ray of hope that the next training will bring new topics to develop strong Humanitarian coordination to respond effectively during humanitarian response.