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Sphere, ‘benchmarking’…and ‘clusters’ |
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Monday, 30 January 2006 |
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In August 2005 the Humanitarian Response Review (HRR), commissioned by the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), Jan Egeland, was published. One of the recommendations was that a ‘benchmarking’ system be established to enable better monitoring and measurement of the effectiveness of disaster response. The United Kingdom aid department, Department for International Development (DFID), led some work to explore further what such a benchmarking system might look like. The clear link with the Sphere standards meant that the Sphere Project Manager was invited to participate in a ‘virtual’ advisory group formed to inform DFID’s work.
Another recommendation of the HRR was the establishment of sectoral ‘clusters’ under the IASC, each with a lead agency (mainly UN agencies). The aim of the clusters is to improve accountability and coordination in humanitarian crises. The focus of the clusters is on non-refugee situations, since the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the lead agency for all refugee crises. Nine clusters were established in August 2005, four of them directly relevant to Sphere Chapters: Nutrition, Shelter, Water/Sanitation and Health Services. The Sphere focal points for those chapters were invited to take part in cluster meetings (mainly teleconferences), which drew up terms of reference and implementation plans. The South Asia earthquake hit before the clusters had had a chance to become fully operational, but nevertheless ‘cluster’ meetings have been taking place in Pakistan.
A real time evaluation of the cluster process in Pakistan will be take place in early February, led by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). If you have had experience of working with the clusters in relation to Sphere, we would be very glad to hear from you.
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Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
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