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Abstract
Ethiopia embraced a groundbreaking Inter-Cluster/Sector Collaboration (ICSC) in 2022, uniting diverse humanitarian sectors to combat the severe famine and food crisis exacerbated by recurrent droughts. This innovative ICSC project marshaled the collective expertise of the Food Security, Health, Nutrition, and WASH clusters to forge a synergistic alliance.
1 Introduction
In line with the 2016 Agenda for Humanity call on humanitarian agencies to move towards a collaborative approach across sectors, the call for action by the global clusters to address the famine and food crisis under the inter-cluster/sector collaboration (ICSC) framework and given the specific context Ethiopia had with recurrent drought in 2022, an ICSC project was developed in Ethiopia in 2022. In this project, the Food Security (Agriculture, Food Clusters), Health, Nutrition, and WASH clusters in Ethiopia agreed to leverage knowledge, expertise, reach, and resources to combine their strengths through an effective evidence-based ICSC. The goal of the ICSC was to reduce risk of malnutrition and death in most drought-affected areas. The five clusters agreed on the joint concept, on the priority locations where the concept applied and identified the most vulnerable population groups and the key interventions each cluster would provide to deliver cost-efficient assistance and together reach the collective outcome of reduced burden of malnutrition. The joint package of interventions that the five clusters would deliver at the community and health facility levels included ensuring availability of portable water, sanitation, vector control, food response, access to agricultural products, preventive and curative nutrition services, and access to essential health services.
ICSC brings relevant clusters/sectors together to actively plan and work on joint actions at the same time, in the same place and for the same people. This approach generates an opportunity for the five clusters in Ethiopia to strengthen their collaboration in provision of humanitarian response on the ground, improve community engagement, and promote effective and evidence-based cross-sectoral convergence using innovative and sustainable approaches. The overall objective of the approach is to reduce mortality rates and malnutrition burden among the target population groups. The individual objectives were to:
• Improve the availability and accessibility to food assistance.
• Improve food production.
• Improve the availability and accessibility of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
• Improve the prevention and treatment of malnutrition.
• Improve full access to health care services.
Funding was provided to partners to implement this ICSC approach through the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund (EHF), a country-based pooled fund managed by OCHA. The Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund (EHF) Unit is working with the five clusters and Tufts University to document the ICSC implementation experience, in the Somali and Oromia regions. The aim is to identify the best practices, challenges, and lessons learned, and to propose recommendations for improving ICSC in the future.