Coordination and Collaboration with the GPC

Coordination and collaboration are critical for humanitarian protection – just as it is for an effective overall humanitarian response. Recent crises have highlighted that there remains a need to reinforce protection programming with clear leadership and further articulation of roles and responsibilities. Research has shown that effective coordination during disaster response has been lacking to the extent that it has become the expected norm. How can the GPC ensure it leads on coordination and overcomes identified problems in its work over the next five years?On Tuesday, 26 November, PHAP organized a webinar in partnership with the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) on coordination and collaboration for humanitarian protection. We discussed current weaknesses in protection coordination and what role the GPC may have in ensuring protection programming is well-coordinated – avoiding gaps and duplication – and that responding to the needs of marginalized communities does not fall between different actors. Issues discussed included how global protection coordination fits in with local realities, contextualization of protection coordination, and supporting local coordination mechanisms; the impact of regionalization on protection roles and responsibilities; and how to ensure a bottom-up approach to protection coordination. More information available at https://phap.org/26nov2019?k