Humanitarian Coordination: NGOs in government-led and refugee coordination contexts

The humanitarian coordination learning stream has so far covered how NGOs engage and how NGO fora and consortia function in the international humanitarian coordination architecture at the global, regional and country levels.

The UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/46/182 of 1991 states that “in a natural disaster and other emergencies occurring on its territory… the affected State has the primary role in the initiation, organization, coordination, and implementation of humanitarian assistance within its territory.” The increasing capacity of many governments to lead humanitarian coordination efforts, coupled with the growing critique of relying on an internationally led approach to humanitarian coordination means that NGOs are engaging even more with governments to provide humanitarian assistance.

Moreover, in the light of the refugee crises that we are currently witnessing around the world, another coordination model has become increasingly important for humanitarian practitioners and NGO staff: the Refugee Coordination Model (RCM). It provides a framework for humanitarian response in the context of a refugee crisis and links with broader humanitarian coordination structures and the IASC cluster system.

On 9 November, ICVA’s and PHAP’s sixth and last online session of the humanitarian coordination learning stream, focused on how NGOs engage and interact with government-led coordination mechanisms and on NGOs role in the Refugee Coordination Model.