Rolling out Humanitarian Reform in the region

The humanitarian reform process launched by the international humanitarian community in 2005 seeks to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian response through ensuring greater predictability, accountability and partnership. To strengthen the foundation for understanding the process, ROAP conducts workshops on humanitarian reform at the regional and national level to promote regional and country-level progress towards humanitarian reform and create dialogue between policy-makers and practitioners on the reform. ROAP continues to advocate for the implementation of the principles of the reform in both major new emergencies and on-going emergencies. The key elements of the reform are: (1) the Cluster Approach; (2) a strengthened Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) system; (3) more adequate, timely, flexible and effective humanitarian financing; and (4) the development of strong partnerships between UN and non-UN actors.

Cluster Approach

The Cluster Approach aims to strengthen overall response capacity as well as the effectiveness of the response in five key ways: (1) Sufficient capacity maintained in the main sectors of response, ensuring timely and effective responses in new crises; (2) Predictable leadership in the main sectors of response. Cluster leads ensure response capacity is in place and that assessment, planning and response activities are conducted in collaboration with partners, in accordance with standards; (3) Partnerships between UN agencies, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, international organizations and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), all working together towards common humanitarian objectives through the Clusters; (4) Strengthened accountability with clear roles and responsibilities; (5) Improved strategic field-level coordination and prioritization in specific sectors of response by placing responsibility for leadership and coordination of these issues with the competent operational agency. ROAP is committed to promoting the use of the Cluster Approach in support of disaster response. This includes supporting RC/HCs and UN / Humanitarian Country Teams (HCT) to incorporate the Cluster Approach into contingency planning, a process of anticipating a pending disaster and solving problems in advance.

OCHA tools and mechanisms available at the regional level

ROAP provides surge capacity and technical support to OCHA field presences and the RC/HCs and UN/IASC Country Teams in the region, all in the spirit of humanitarian reform.

More information on the reform can be found on the website of the OCHA Humanitarian Reform Support Unit.
Please find more information on Humanitarian Network for Asia-Pacific on this fact sheet.