Health Cluster Coordination Guidance for Heads of WHO Country Offices as Cluster Lead Agency Health Cluster coordination guidance for heads of WHO country offices as cluster lead agency ISBN 978-92-4-000000-1 © World Health Organization 2019 Some rights reserved. This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). Under the terms of this licence, you may copy, redistribute and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes, provided the work is appropriately cited, as indicated below. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that WHO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the WHO logo is not permitted. If you adapt the work, then you must license your work under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. 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The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by WHO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. All reasonable precautions have been taken by WHO to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall WHO be liable for damages arising from its use. Contents ABBREVIATIONS 4 Contingency planning and preparedness 30 Advocacy and resource mobilization 31 1. PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THIS GUIDANCE 5 The Inter-Agency Standing Committee 4. CONCLUSION 33 and the cluster approach 6 Transformative Agenda 10 5. REFERENCES 34 The New Way of Working: the Humanitarian Development Nexus 10 ANNEX. HEALTH CLUSTER COORDINATION: SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES AND WHO 13th General Programme of Work 12 RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE HEADS OF WHO COUNTRY OFFICES AS CLUSTER LEAD AGENCY 37 2. STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP AND KEY AREAS OF ENGAGEMENT 13 1. KEY AREAS OF ENGAGEMENT 38 Accountability to affected populations 15 Protection mainstreaming 17 Accountability to affected populations 38 The HWCO and the Humanitarian Country Team 18 Protection mainstreaming 39 Coordination with national authorities The HWCO and the Humanitarian Country Team 39 and other local actors 19 Coordination with national authorities Ensuring appropriate coordination and other local actors 39 of all health actors 20 Ensuring appropriate coordination Cluster activation 21 of all health actors 40 IASC protocols related to the classification Cluster activation 40 and management of large-scale humanitarian operations 22 IASC Protocol 1. Humanitarian system-wide IASC Protocol 1. Humanitarian scale-up activation and Protocol 2. system-wide scale-up activation 22 “Empowered leadership” in a humanitarian system-wide scale-up activation 41 IASC Protocol 2. “Empowered leadership” in a humanitarian system-wide scale-up Humanitarian System-wide Scale-up activation 23 Activation Protocol for the Control of Infectious Disease Events 42 Humanitarian System-wide Scale-up Activation Protocol for the Control Cluster deactivation 42 of Infectious Disease Events 23 Cluster deactivation 24 2. CLUSTER CORE FUNCTIONS 43 Information management for strategic decision-making 43 3. CLUSTER CORE FUNCTIONS 25 Planning and strategy development 44 Information management for strategic decision-making 25 Supporting service delivery 44 Planning and strategy development 27 Monitoring and reporting 45 Supporting service delivery 28 Contingency planning and preparedness 45 Monitoring and reporting 28 Advocacy and resource mobilization 46 Abbreviations For definitions, see references (1) and (2). AAP accountability to affected populations CAAP Commitments on Accountability to Affected People CERF Central Emergency Response Fund CHF Common Humanitarian Fund CHS Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability CLA Cluster Lead Agency EMT emergency medical team ERC Emergency Relief Coordinator ERF Emergency Response Fund FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations GCLA Global Cluster Lead Agency GOARN Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network HC Humanitarian Coordinator HCC Health Cluster Coordinator HCT Humanitarian Country Team HPC humanitarian programme cycle HRM humanitarian response monitoring HRP Humanitarian Response Plan HWCO Head of WHO Country Office IASC Inter-Agency Standing Committee IFRC International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies IOM International Organization for Migration OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OIE World Organisation for Animal Health OPR Operational Peer Review PoLR provider of last resort PSEA protection from sexual exploitation and abuse RC Resident Coordinator UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund WASH Water, sanitation and hygiene WFP World Food Programme 4 1. Purpose and scope of this guidance The purpose of this document is to provide of the IASC Transformative Agenda and the Heads of WHO Country Offices (HWCOs) with a commitments of the World Humanitarian Summit clear understanding of their responsibilities and (Istanbul, Turkey, 23–24 May 2016) at country accountabilities in WHO’s role as country-level level. HWCOs are responsible and accountable Cluster Lead Agency (CLA) for health within for the activities of the Health Cluster at the the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), country level, when WHO is designated as the with particular reference to the implementation CLA for health in a specified country. Responsible Accountable the responsible agency does the work the accountable agency is ultimately required to achieve the task. Multiple answerable for the correct and agents may share this responsibility. thorough completion of the task. As CLA for health, the HWCO has a dual 1. Introduction to the IASC, the cluster role, representing both WHO and all the other approach, the New Way of Working and partners of the Health Cluster. the Humanitarian Development Nexus and WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work. As the head of the CLA, the HWCO is 2. Strategic leadership and key areas of ultimately accountable to the Resident/ engagement for the health CLA. This Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) for carrying section provides an overview of WHO’s out the CLA responsibilities and securing leadership responsibilities as the Health appropriate dedicated resources to ensure Cluster /Health Sector lead agency the establishment of strong Health Cluster and as a member of the Humanitarian coordination mechanisms to implement the Country Team (HCT). six core functions of a cluster at country level 3. Cluster core functions. This outlines the defined by the IASC, as well as ensuring responsibilities of the cluster and ways in accountability to affected populations (AAP). which WHO leadership assists partners in This paper is divided into three main sections. delivering these functions. The hyperlinks below will help you to navigate the five main sections of the guidance, as well as the list of abbreviations, the Annex and the Table of Contents. A 1 2 3 4 5 PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THIS GUIDANCE CONTENTS The Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the cluster approach Transformative Agenda The New Way of Working: the Humanitarian Development Nexus WHO 13th General Programme of Work 5 The Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the cluster approach The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) It is a unique forum involving key humanitarian is the primary