Partners

Due to high turnover and the nature of humanitarian work, new staffs deployed by WASH agencies to emergencies are often initially unaware of the humanitarian WASH coordination system functioning, and of their responsibilities towards coordination. A set of three modules have been designed by the GWC to ensure partners are properly briefed on the general and national humanitarian WASH coordination system.

A high level of communication is needed between the WCC and the partners, to build and maintain the sectorial partnership, using general and bilateral email, plenary and face to face meetings. Most sector partners have emergency response activities to organize and implement, and should not be overwhelmed with unnecessary communication: online collaborative tools must be preferred to email to share documents and information. In a cluster context, and although many have signed commitment at global level, there are no legal obligation from partners to collaborate with the coordination platform and follow their guidance and recommendations: the WCC must be proactive to convince partners of the added value of coordination activities for them and for the affected population. Building partnership with government is often key to achieving cluster local capacity building objectives. Having government taking an active role in coordination and validating documents also enforce their use by the partners. WCC should also foster the participation of other local actors (national NGOs or faith-based organization, local academic institution) to the coordination process.