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As
part of ongoing efforts to improve the timeliness and
effectiveness of the humanitarian response, the Inter-Agency
Standing Committee (IASC) has embarked upon an initiative
to strengthen leadership and accountability in nine key
“clusters” of the humanitarian response. Among
these is the cluster for “early recovery”—a
complex area that is critical in linking immediate responses
to disasters with medium and long-term recovery efforts.
UNDP was designated as the lead agency for this cluster.
Working with 17 humanitarian and development partners,
UNDP identified critical gaps in early recovery and prepared
a plan for 2006 that identified priority actions and resource
requirements, in order to improve capacities and apply
the cluster approach to crisis situations. This, along
with the plans for the other eight clusters, were reviewed
by the IASC Working Group on 21-22 November 2005 and were
submitted for endorsement by the IASC Principals on 12
December 2005. While this new cluster approach is expected
to be implemented in early 2006, the early recovery cluster
has already had experience applying its key strategies
during assistance efforts for the Pakistan earthquake
of October 2005. There, the cluster played a key role
in coordinating early recovery activities, conducting
a joint needs assessment, and producing a UN System Early
Recovery Framework, which was presented to the donor conference
held in Islamabad on 19 November 2005.
