Further information and documentation related to ETC (Services and ET Cluster Roll Out project) are available within the Community.  A membership is required to access these pages.

Approach

The cluster leadership approach, as described in the document IASC - Guidance note on the Cluster Approach to strengthen humanitarian response, is a mechanism that can help to address identified gaps in response and enhance the quality of humanitarian action. As part of a wider reform process, it aims at improving the effectiveness of humanitarian response by ensuring greater predictability and accountability, while at the same time strengthening partnerships between NGOs, international organizations, the ICRC and UN agencies.

Operating at both global and country levels, the cluster leadership approach represents a substantial strengthening of the “collaborative response” with the additional benefits of predictable and accountable leadership and overall cost reduction of emergency responses.

Global level – the cluster approach strengthens system-wide preparedness and technical capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies. This involves designating global “cluster leads” to be accountable for ensuring predictable and effective inter-agency response and establishing a broader partnership base.

Applying the cluster approach at the global level improves the ability to:

  • enhance monitoring, advocacy and, where necessary, standard setting
  • establish and strengthen surge capacity and standby rosters
  • secure consistent access to appropriately trained technical expertise
  • establish or improve material stockpiles
  • improve response capacity through complimentary efforts and pooling of resources

Country level – the cluster approach improves response capacity by mobilizing UN agencies and their operating partners in a more cohesive and coordinated fashion. Each cluster has a designated lead, determined by the humanitarian coordinator (HC) in close consultation with the UN country team. To enhance predictability, where possible sector (cluster) arrangements at the country level should be in line with the lead agency arrangements at the global level. However, the choice of local cluster lead will be the one agency that is best positioned to lead the cluster with minimum intervention of the global cluster leads. Thus, the structure of the local cluster lead arrangements at the country level may not replicate those at the global level.

Applying the cluster approach at country level improves the ability to:

  • identify gaps of humanitarian response and ensure well identified and predictable leadership
  • create stronger partnerships among NGOs, international organizations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movements, and UN agencies that can address gaps in humanitarian response
  • strengthen the accountability of cluster leads to the HC for different aspects of the humanitarian response where this is lacking
  • improve strategic field-level coordination and prioritization
  • reduce overall cost of response