INTRODUCTION
The Cluster Approach
The cluster approach was established in 2005 following an independent Humanitarian Response Review, to address gaps and to increase the effectiveness of humanitarian response by building partnerships. Thus, the cluster approach has been implemented for 10 years now.
Following the experience of the Humanitarian community in responding to the two L3s, the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods in 2010, the IASC Principals “agreed there is a need to restate and return to the original purpose of clusters, refocusing them on strategic and operational gaps analysis, planning, assessment and results”.1 At the global level, the aim of the cluster approach is to strengthen system-wide preparedness and technical capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies by ensuring that there is predictable leadership and accountability in all the main sectors or areas of humanitarian response.
Similarly, at the country level the aim is to strengthen humanitarian response by demanding high standards of predictability, accountability and partnership in all sectors or areas of activity. The cluster is about achieving more strategic responses and better prioritization of available resources by clarifying the division of labour among organizations, better defining the roles and responsibilities of humanitarian organizations within the cluster/sectors, and providing the Humanitarian Coordinator with both a first point of call and a provider of last resort in all the key sectors or areas of activity.