Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

London 2013

The Emergency Relief Coordinator will work with colleagues to ensure that the work of the humanitarian community supports the implementation of the commitments made today as part of the Global N4G Compact. Specifically, the coordinators will make sure that nutrition is sufficiently prioritized in humanitarian emergencies and that the work of humanitarian and development agencies on nutrition is more closely aligned. In order to do this, the coordinator will commit to highlighting the importance of nutrition for growth with governments, partners, and donors and will ensure the following:

1. All humanitarian appeals contain an analysis of nutrition needs and priorities.

2. Nutrition is adequately considered and prioritized in the allocation of humanitarian funding.

3. All Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs) are fully informed of the importance of nutrition and how to support it.

4. Emergency nutrition programs are linked to national and development efforts.

Reported progress

1. All humanitarian appeals contain an analysis of nutrition needs and priorities.

Nutrition needs are increasingly being considered when defining humanitarian needs and responses. As of June 2022, all countries preparing humanitarian responses within the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) are using the Joint Intersectoral Analysis Framework (JIAF) – launched in 2020 – to inform their country “Humanitarian Needs Overview” (HNO). The JIAF is led by OCHA and respective clusters at a country level, and analyses the multiple needs, including nutrition, of populations in crisis to inform response plans. The Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) promotes the use of nutrition analysis, data, and assessments to inform humanitarian plans. However, issues remain during the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) prioritization process. In some contexts, nutrition is deprioritized due to a lack of recognition that it is a standalone cluster and a lack of understanding the importance of addressing nutrition in humanitarian contexts as an overarching, multi-sectorial lifesaving priority.

2. Nutrition is adequately considered and prioritized in the allocation of humanitarian funding.

Globally, there are shortfalls in humanitarian funding across all sectors. While nutrition is increasingly being considered and prioritized in humanitarian funding, in 2020 there was a shortfall across all humanitarian appeals and sectors with only 47% of funding requirements met – according to data collected on the OCHA Financial Tracking System (FTS). For the nutrition sector, the funding shortfall was greater, with only about 40% of funding requirements met. Furthermore, future financing needs to be mobilized faster, be more flexible and fund proactive solutions that cover longer periods of time. To support adequate funding for nutrition in context of fragility the GNC Technical Alliance created a financing working group to ensure the implementation of core initiatives in relation to increasing the quality and quantity of financial resources in the Nutrition in Emergencies (NiE) sector.

3. All Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs) are fully informed of the importance of nutrition and how to support it.

Nutrition is a lifesaving priority in humanitarian action and the most cost-effective developmental intervention. The GNC regularly advocates and disseminates guidance on the importance of nutrition and how to support it before, during, and after emergencies. The GNC Coordinator at the global level and Nutrition Cluster Coordinators at the country level, actively highlight the importance of addressing nutrition in a humanitarian response and of the need to prioritize intersectoral collaboration and convergence of efforts among Nutrition, Health, Food Security, WASH, and other clusters, to increase reach and impact. The GNC is supporting all nutrition clusters with advocacy efforts through the development of advocacy plans, strengthening advocacy capacity through the dissemination of guidance, and regularly organizing webinars and bilateral country calls on this topic. While the GNC is actively advocating on this topic, additional effort is required by HCs to ensure that nutrition is adequately supported. For example, through the activation of standalone nutrition cluster coordination mechanisms, where applicable.

4. Emergency nutrition programs are linked to national and development efforts.

In 2020, several updates were made by OCHA to the HPC process. One of the updates included the need to better ensure the link between humanitarian and development response planning frameworks, both in the intersectoral and sectoral plans of respective HRPs. HNOs and HRPs now undergo an OCHA-led quality assurance process where they are scored against a set of criteria by a panel of reviewers (from donors to partners). This quality assurance process includes scoring on the link between emergency response efforts and national and developmental efforts. Thus, all HRPs must now better articulate the link between emergency and development efforts in order to adequately meet the quality assurance review process. To ensure that Nutrition Cluster Coordinators adequately link emergency nutrition programs with national and developmental efforts, the GNC provides updated annual guidance on this topic during the HNO and HRP process. The GNC guidance aligns with the Grand Bargain and New Ways of Working Framework and recommends an integrated model of programming and capacity strengthening with government and civil society structures in order to bolster the Human Development Nexus (HDN). The GNC supports nutrition clusters to ensure that cluster response plans consider preparedness, early recovery, and transition processes; identify possible areas of convergence with the Scaling Up Nutrition country teams (where applicable); and that discussions take place with other clusters to address food systems and resilience building.