IASC Cluster updates

1. IASC Cluster updates Shelter meeting 09a 7th May 2009

2. Protection cluster 5 strategicprioritiesat the global level: • Support ing the implementation of protection clusters at the country level • Enhancing protection coordination skills • Promoting application of protection principlesthroughout the humantarianresponseat the global & fieldlevels • Monitoring & evaluation of progress, relevance & impact of protection clusters • Fostering a common vision of protection (identification of gaps, developingcapacities, policies, guidace & standards)

3. TWO-TIERED LEADERSHIP AND ACCOUNTABILITY STRUCTURE PROTECTION CLUSTER WORKING GROUP GBV Mine Act Child Prot HLP RoL & Just Level 1: ‘To make the whole greater than the sums of its part’ Comprehensive & integrated protection interventions that requires an interagency commitment to fill long neglected protection gaps & build new protection partnerships. Level 2: “To ensure an effective response in areas of responsibility” AoRs require separate coordination & capacity to manage specialized protection responses.

4. Protection cluster • Architecture on two levels: • overarching and specific technic sub-clusters for protection activities • Currently 24 in field • Protection mainstreaming – ensuring that other humanitarian actors know how to see the relevant protection concerns

5. Protection A protection-lense: • Places the human being at his/her needs at the centre of humanitarian action and strategic planning instead of structures/mandates • Requires the authorities and humanitarian actors to recognise that the beneficiaries are not simple objects of charity but people with rights who need to be consulted and be active participants in the decisions that concern them • Identifies the rights holders and the duty bearers and thus attributes responsibilities • Helps to improve the effects of humanitarian action

6. Protection A protection lense uses the human rights as a framework: • To systematically analyse the vulnerability of the people affected by the humanitarian crisis and to identify their specific needs • To ensure that humanitarian action is non-discriminatory • To ensure that humanitarian action is adequate*

7. Protection Adequacy of these goods and services means that they are • available, • accessible, • acceptable, • adaptable: (i) Availability means that these goods and services are made available to the affected population in sufficient quantity and quality;

8. Protection (ii) Accessibility requires that these goods and services (a) are granted without discrimination to all in need, (b) are within safe reach and can be physically accessed by everyone, including vulnerable and marginalized groups, and (c) are known to the beneficiaries; (iii) Acceptability refers to the need to provide goods and services that areculturally appropriate and sensitive to gender and age; (iv) Adaptability requires that these goods and services be provided in ways flexible enough to adapt to the change of needs in the different phases of emergency relief, reconstruction and, in the case of displaced persons, return.

9. Protection • During the immediate emergency phase, food, water and sanitation, shelter, clothing, and health services are considered adequate if they ensure survival to all in need of them.

10. Protection • Protection consists of strategies to • Recognise the vulnerabilities ahead of time • Act with the vulnerable persons (participatory assessment) • Reduce their vulnerability by influencing the • Time factors (moments when the risks are highest) • Places (where risks are highest) • Actors • as a source of risk • as a source of protection 10