UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM
THEMATIC GROUP ON INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT
NOVEMBER 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PRESENTATION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
STRATEGY SECTION
Part I- Introduction
Introduction
Context of the humanitarian crisis
Challenges to the United Nations System posed by the humanitarian crisis
Part II- Response
Response of the State
Response of the United Nations System (UNS)
Response of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Response of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO)
Part III -Humanitarian Action Plan
Introduction
Overall objective
Basic premises
Operational strategies
Sectoral components
Coordination and institution-building
Prevention and protection
Integration and reconstruction
Health, education and family welfare
OPERATIVE SECTION
Part IV- Coordination structure
Part V- Strengthening the Thematic Group on Internal Displacement
Rapid Response System
Rapid Response Fund
Humanitarian Situation Room
Part VI- Operational coordination:
Executive Summary Pilot Humanitarian Action Plan Magdalena Medio
Part VII- Evaluation and monitoring of HAP implementation
UN BUDGET AND PROJECTS INVENTORY FOR COMPONENTS
ACRONYMS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BACKGROUND
Given the humanitarian crisis affecting Colombia, the Heads of Agency of the United Nations System, meeting in New York in October 2001, decided to request the UN country team to prepare a Humanitarian Plan of Action of the United Nations System (UN) in Colombia. The UN responsibility for designing the drafting of the Humanitarian Action Plan (HAP) was assumed by the Thematic Group on Displacement (TGD), led by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the support of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Twelve agencies are part of the TGD: UNHCR-OCHA, FAO, IOM, OHCHR, PAHO- WHO, UNICEF, UNDCP,UNDP, UNFPA, UNIDO, UNIFEM and WFP.
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PLAN
Colombia's armed conflict is having a sustained impact on the civilian population. Internal forced displacement of the civilian population forced by armed groups is the most severe manifestation of this humanitarian crisis. For the UN the humanitarian crisis is circumscribed fundamentally to displacement, including communities that have already been displaced as well as communities at risk of displacement. For that reason, the HAP also will address the needs of populations that are affected by the internal armed conflict, but, are not covered in Law 387/97 and its Regulatory Decrees.
In his sense, the General Objective of the HAP is to contribute in insuring respect for and access to enjoyment of human rights, as well as the basic humanitarian principles of the population affected by the humanitarian crisis, mainly internally displaced, caused by the armed conflict.
HAP STRATEGY AND APPROACH
The Guiding Principles on Displacement emphasize the fact that the State has primary responsibility for promoting security, protection and assistance for persons displaced by violence. In this sense, the HAP intends to foster a more effective application of the international and national normative framework as policy formulation and operative action. The HAP is aimed at strengthening the state institutions and the Rule of Law, related to the effects of the humanitarian crisis and victims of conflict. The UN response to the humanitarian crisis, through the HAP should be: flexible, integral, operative, concrete, visible and impartial and its implementation should be centered on a rights approach. The UN action intends to counteract those conditions that generate risks, particularly risk of displacement, blockaded, isolated, besieged, receiving communities, and to mitigate conditions that generate vulnerability. For the plan to be viable, security for UN officials is an indispensable condition.
The HAP marks a qualitative leap in UN inter-agency work, it creates a strategic framework for joint planning and strengthens the complementarity of agencies. It also allows UN agencies to establish and agree upon criteria for prioritizing in geographical areas. UN action within the framework of the HAP is not centered on emergency attention or relief, but rather on the post-emergency, with a marked prevention approach.
The HAP implementation has been structured into five sectoral components to operate during the course of one year. Each component includes general objectives, specific objectives and actions. These are:
- Coordination and Institutional Strengthening;
- Prevention and Protection;
- Integration and Economic and Social Reconstruction;
- Attention in Health, Education and Social Welfare;
- Food Security.
The components of the HAP should not be considered separately, but rather as interrelated, whit a focus on human rights, to facilitate interagency complementarity. The HAP concentrates on priority regions. The planning, definition, and implementation of plans, programmes, and projects are participatory, ensuring that in all HAP actions a differentiated approach is taken into account. Coordination and monitoring will be one of the main areas of HAP action, and this refers both to coordination among UN agencies and coordination between the UN and public, non-governmental, community and private entities devoted to the attention of forced displacement. Emphasis will also be placed on dissemination and raising awareness on displacement and the humanitarian crisis. As a way of making the HAP viable, links will be created among the multilateral and bilateral cooperation institutions. The implementation of HPA on the availability recourses. Geographical prioritization will be based on an analysis of the vulnerability of territories and populations.
It is important to stress that the preparation and start-up of the HAP is a process initiated by the agencies in 2002. In this sense, the HAP's rationale for its preparation and implementation is by stages, until it reaches a point where UN joint action can be maximized.
Stage 1: HAP 2002. The Plan is a UN strategic document for addressing the humanitarian crisis, whose main feature is displacement. The change of administration in August 2002 implies that the HAP is being discussed within the framework of the priorities of the new Government (Integral Plan for Displacement and Development Plan), to identifying common goals and instruments for effective coordination. Consultation with the Red Cross Movement and with NGOs must similarly be finished.
The HAP in 2002 characterizes its strategy as a conceptual framework for UN intervention. At the national level, the agencies are defining strategic alliances that are articulated in operational components. There is also on going a process of coordination and complementary in three priority areas, under the basic premises and operational strategies and sectorial components namely: the Magdalena Medio region, Chocó and the department of Valle del Cauca. The objective is to learn the lessons derived from implementation in these areas. A novel work scheme arising in 2002 is the Rapid Response System, to be developed based on the Chocó experience. The anticipated coordination schemes will have to be tested and eventually reviewed. Humanitarian Situation Room is also foreseen as an interagency project of the United Nation.
Stage 2: HAP 2003. The strategic and operational adjustment to the necessities deriving from humanitarian action will make it possible to move from strategic coordination to more operational coordination in the priority geographic areas - extending, if necessary, to new ones. This exercise should incorporate the review of planning at the beginning of the year, and benefit from the results of the evaluations planed for mid-2003. Furthermore, in 2003 it is expected that the agencies will undertake joint planning of their activities in the regions, which will make it possible to complement UN intervention and the implementation of joint projects.
Stage 3, HAP 2004. The preparation and reformulation of the HAP in 2004 will be based on: a) the evolution of the crisis, b) the lessons learned during the preparation and implementation of HAP 2003, c) the recommendations derived from the evaluations and, depending on the other items, d) the need to prepare another type of document or not.
(in pdf* format - 1.04 MB)
Budget of the Humanitarian Action Plan 2002-2003 Colombia Nov 2002 - Update Mar 2003 (in pdf* format - 198 KB)
(in pdf* format - 1.90 MB)