Attachments
1. Background Information:
The ‘Cluster Approach1’ was adopted by the interagency standing committee as a key strategy to establish coordination and cooperation among humanitarian actors to achieve more coherent and effective humanitarian response. At the country level, the aim is to establish clear leadership and accountability for international response in each sector and to provide a framework for effective partnership and to facilitat strong linkages among international organization, national authorities, national civil society and other stakeholders. The cluster is meant to strengthen rather than to replace the existing coordination structure. In September 2005, IASC Principals agreed to designate global Cluster Lead Agencies (CLA) in critical programme and operational areas. UNICEF was designated as the Global Nutrition Cluster Lead Agency (CLA).
The nutrition cluster approach was adopted and initiated in Yemen in August 2009, immediately after the break-out of the sixth war between government forces and the Houthis in Sa’ada governorate in northern Yemen. Since then Yemen has continued to face complex emergencies that are largely conflict-generated and in part aggravated by civil unrest and political instability. These complex emergencies have come on the top of an already fragile situation with widespread poverty, food insecurity and underdeveloped infrastructure. Since mid-March 2015, conflict has spread to 20 of Yemen’s 22 governorates, prompting a large-scale protection crisis and aggravating an already dire humanitarian crisis brought on by years of poverty, poor governance and ongoing instability. This escalation of the conflict has affected the provision of the nutrition services, and increase the children vulnerability to malnutrition due to the deteriorated access to the safe water supply, food and basic health services, which is further complicated by the increased cost of living.
The Nutrition cluster is currently well established at national level, with five sub national clusters at the zonal level in Hodeidah, Ibb, Aden, Saada and Sanaa, holding regular scheduled meetings and calling extraordinary meetings when necessary. The nutrition cluster is co-led by UNICEF and MOPHP.
The nutrition cluster is guided by the UNICEF’s conceptual framework for analysing and addressing the causes of malnutrition through a multi-sectoral approach hence enhanced collaborations with key sectors/clusters such as Health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Food security and Agriculture.
The Nutrition Cluster is a member of the Inter Cluster Coordination Mechanism, which is headed by OCHA at central and zonal levels and continuously contributes to updating the humanitarian situation and response in Yemen.