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, 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 coordination platform and the partners, to build and maintain the sectorial partnership. General and bilateral email, plenary and face to face meetings and online information management platforms can be used. Partners have emergency response activities to design 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 partners made commitments to coordination at global level, they do not have any legal obligation to collaborate with the coordination platform and follow their guidance and recommendations: the WCC must be proactive to make partners understand the added value of coordination 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 enforces the application of cluster guidance by partners. WCC should also foster the participation of other usually less vocal local actors (national NGOs or faith-based organization, local academic institution) to the coordination process.