When starting their assignment, the WASH cluster coordinator should first understand the general in country humanitarian coordination structure. He/she should then define the Terms of Reference of the coordination platform, based on the IASC reference document on cluster coordination and the local context. He/she should then establish his/her work plan for the coming year.
Standard coordination architecture and governance system were defined by the IASC in the "2015 IASC Cluster Coordination Reference Module". They are described in the below diagram, but need to be adapted to each country and context.
In general, the following principles should be followed regarding coordination architecture:
The governance system, responsibilities and accountabilities of the cluster/sector should be formalized by the establishment of Terms of Reference (ToR) for each national and subnational platform. ToRs must be endorsed by UNICEF as CLA, and they should be framed in terms of clusters’ core functions. Template and example of ToR are available in this page.
Achievement of cluster functions, including GWC minimum requirements, have to be prioritized and phased over a certain period, depending on the emergency phase and the context. A coordination work plan must be established and regularly updated by the WCC. It should include general IM tasks , as well as main subnational platform products, although IMO and subnational platforms should have their own more detailed frameworks and work plans. The work plan must integrate all the inputs from the WASH coordination platform to the local HPC product (HRP, HNO etc.). In the case of a first phase emergency, or the creation of a new coordination platform, work plan can be based on the list of GWC Minimum Requirements. When situation becomes more stable, a more exhaustive work plan can be developped based on the exhaustive list of 2019 GWC coordination tasks list.xlsx. Template and example of work plans are proposed on top of this page.