The speaker presented an overview of the work undertaken by the Humanitarian Response Review (HRR) and the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Emergency Shelter Working Group including:
- assessing the overall humanitarian response capacity of the UN, NGOs, and the Red Cross Movement, and other key humanitarian actors, including the IOM
- identifying possible gaps in expertise, management and resources of these capacities
- recommending measures that need to be taken to address the shortcomings
- developing a joint plan of action to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of the humanitarian response to emergencies
This was followed by recommendations made by the HRR to the international relief community, and issues pertinent to the shelter sector.
Excerpts from discussions
NB: The following excerpts are extracted from notes by Shelter Centre volunteer rapporteurs. The extracts are for general interest and do not necessarily represent the views of the majority of the participants of the Shelter Meeting, or of Shelter Centre.
"Of course we should try to learn from Pakistan, but the cluster is very new at the moment, and we have to help to develop it further. We have tried in emergency shelter not to create another layer, such as subclusters"
"...the clusters seem to be classically sectoral with cross cutting issues. Wouldn't regional and national divisions also be useful, to reflect the strengths of some organisations in some areas? Secondly. if agencies are to be serious about coordination , they may benefit from examining their own staffing trees."