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Project Overview
The global Food Security Cluster (gFSC) works with national and regional cluster systems in both sudden onset disasters and protracted emergencies, be they from natural or human causes, and long-running crises. Among the responsibilities of the Food Security Cluster during an emergency is the management of member responses to ensure gaps are addressed and humanitarian responses are comparable and timely to affected populations.
The purpose of the IM Tool To coordinate the partner responses, every country cluster is currently obliged to develop local level response tracking and data management tools. As a result, mechanisms that collect and report on the food security responses differ between emergencies and require specific trainings for each tool. Local level tools, depending on the size of the emergency, can become cumbersome, hinder analysis and information sharing, and consume limited incountry resources and capacity. Recognizing the need for the clusters to take a holistic approach to data collection and sharing, the gFSC has created a web based Information Management (IM) tool that will be accessible to cluster systems and partners. The gFSC IM tool is an elaboration of a tool that was built and used by the Somalia and Sudan FSC.
With the ability to be deployed to any operation, the IM tool will make data collection, processing and response analysis globally comparable. By producing project reports and maps the IM tool will visualize gaps and overlaps of partner responses, and avoid duplication of humanitarian assistance, especially considering issues of food availability, access and utilization. Consistent information sharing by partners will facilitate project tracking and monitoring, and result in evidence based decision making for strategic intervention and improved implementation. Furthermore, use of the IM tool will result in the dissemination of timely and accurate information for advocacy efforts by clusters.
In sum, the IM tool will benefit for both the country clusters and partners:
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For country clusters, it will make it easier to collect information on partner activities and visualize data through generating the monthly FSC gap analysis to avoid gaps and overlaps.
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Partners will be able to directly capture their monthly plans and actual outputs.
Partners will be given direct control of the information on their achievements towards the overall response efforts, and will be able to generate standard monthly reports and maps where this information is reflected.