Coordination and Cooperation Workshop March 2010
This page is also available in Arabic
The Humanitarian Forum joined forces with UNOCHA to design a two-day workshop on coordination and cooperation. Answering the needs of the local HFY members and partners, we aimed to establish a more comprehensive understanding of coordination, and improve cooperation procedures, especially during emergencies. The event was hosted by Al-Islah, a leading member of the Humanitarian Forum Yemen, and training sessions were facilitated by UNOCHA and Oxfam. Representatives from 21 Yemeni NGOs, from Sana'a and from Saada and Al-Jawf joined participants from two international NGOs for the workshop.
The workshop
We reviewed the importance of coordination, outlining the pre-requisites for success, and emphasising the added value of collective work during emergencies. The concept of effective coordination was explored using case studies: participants worked in groups to design an emergency response plan related to an internal displacement crisis, before coming together for a general discussion which highlighted some of the common problems and pitfalls. By revisiting the case study in plenary, participants were encouraged to develop a more inclusive attitude to crisis response. They recognised the need to work in clusters and sectors, and the benefits of working jointly rather than separately. By the end of the first day participants had produced an improved redesign of an intervention strategy.
The second day of the training looked at practical approaches and mechanisms to facilitate emergency response and coordination procedures on the ground. Oxfam introduced the Sphere project, an important reference and tool to improve the quality of aid delivered to those affected by disasters (find the Sphere handbook in our resources library).
OCHA also introduced its Emergency Response Fund (ERF), an important humanitarian financing opportunity, designed to help NGOs implement activities to meet short-term emergency needs of vulnerable communities. OCHA Yemen will schedule a further session for local NGOs and HFY members on the application procedures.
OCHA presented a variety of information management tools, which will help improve local response to emergencies and contribute to more coordinated emergency response, by improving the information flow between humanitarian actors, decision makers and the general public. The three main tools presented were:
- The 3W (Who does What, Where): a data and contact management system devised by OCHA to ensure that key information for timely emergency response is available. Information is vital for any coordinated response, and the 3W system indicates who is carrying out what activities in which locations.
- Mapping: The facilitator explained how, for example Google maps and other free programmes can be used in the identification of certain areas, locations, addresses, institutions, and routes can be used. Examples of how to make adaptations, marking and key features to maps were also explained.
- OCHA Field website and facilities. A new country page for Yemen is available. Although the website is in English, some reports and publications are available in Arabic. The website and local office has many facilities the local group can explore.
Recommendations from the group:
- The Humanitarian Forum Yemen must activate the role of the local coordination and cooperation committee. Members of this committee will be nominated to attend and participate at the different cluster meetings and revert back to the secretariat to update the members. It was suggested that OCHA support this by encouraging cluster leaders to extend invitations to the respective cluster nominee.
- OCHA to translate its county page into Arabic to facilitate the access of reports, updates and project templates/proposals.
- Until the country page is available in Arabic, OCHA will share the regular Arabic reports and updates with HFY, which in turn will circulate these to its members and partners.
- HFY and UNOCHA will continue to work and update a simplified version of the 3W data and contact system (in Arabic and English). The 3W will be shared with the local members, and will be made available on the both OCHA and HF's websites.
- HFY and OCHA will work together to develop a map, illustrating where the participating organizations are operational in Yemen. This map will be shared with HFY members and participants, which could be updated in the future.
- OCHA and HFY will organize small roundtable to discuss the ERF in greater detail. Prior to the scheduled meeting, OCHA will share application guidelines and project proposal templates in Arabic to be circulated to the participants.
OCHA comments on the workshop
'OCHA is very grateful to hear that our contribution was valued by the participants and The Humanitarian Forum. It was our pleasure to work with you. The training posed an opportunity to break the ice and open the doors for Local NGOs to work with international organizations. At this stage, we need collectively to pursue the implementation of the training outcome and recommendations. The training successfully managed to address these needs to deliver better humanitarian work.'
