Sub-National Shelter/NFI Cluster Meeting for KR-I 26/11/2014, Jouhayna Hotel, Erbil Minutes

Sub-National Shelter/NFI Cluster Meeting for KR-I – 26/11/2014, Jouhayna Hotel, Erbil – Minutes

Chair

Jens Christensen – Sub-National Shelter/NFI Cluster Coordinator for KR-I

Agenda

• Opening remarks – An Overview
• Immediate Response Plan KR-I
• Shelter/NFI Governorate meetings
• Operational Strategy Review Committee
• HLP update
• AOB

Opening remarks – An Overview

• For now the Sub-National Cluster meeting for KR-I will be held every Wednesday, the Sub-National Cluster for the South and Centre of Iraq will also hold a meeting next Wednesday (note: this has now been rescheduled to Thursday).
• Recent displacement figures from IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix show a stabilisation of the number of IDPs in Dahuk (ranging between 430,000 and 450,000 for the past month), however increases are seen in Erbil (+45,000 since 19 October) and Sulaymaniyah (+30,000 since 19 October).
• In terms of the accommodation types that IDPs are staying in, 17% are with host families, 41% are in rented accommodation and 42% are in what is seen as substandard shelter (including 17% in abandoned buildings, 10% in schools, 8% in camps 5% in unknown accommodation types or informal settlements and2% in religious buildings).
• A recent assessment of unfinished and abandoned buildings in Dahuk indicates thaton average 34% of the buildings houses 5 or less IDP families, with significant variations between the four districts assessed (40% in Zakho, 24% in Amedi, 9% in Dahuk and 0% in Semel).

Immediate Response Plan KR-I 2

• The IRP review process will lead to reporting on results and updated targets based on the REACH Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment. Winter clothing is an important part that should be included in IRP2.
• Within 2-3 weeks in 90% of the IDPs are expected to be in camps in Dahuk, but in general progress in shelter is slow.
• Progress on winterisation kits is roughly 50% of the total target of 80,000 families.
• There are no official results yet from the workshops, the clustersstill need to compile information from the governorates.
• The target for winterisation remains unchanged for now, but will be revised to account for the increase in number of IDPs as soon as their needs are known.

Shelter/NFI Governorate meetings

• An operational strategy will be developed, defining the role of the sub-national cluster as including, but not being limited to:undertaking gap analyses, communicating with authorities at regional and national level and coordination. However, the operational strategy review committee will define the final scope of work.
• Ideally, government counterparts should be a key partner in every cluster meeting regardless of the level.The cluster structure reflects the governmental structure, the Ministry of Planning and Governorate Emergency Cells.
• The cluster has two Information Managers, and relies on the inputs from the partners to serve the information needs of both the cluster and its partners. Support to the governorate coordination meeting/structures in terms of information management will be made available.
• Combined Shelter/NFI coordination meetings for both IDPs and refugees already exist in Dahuk and Sulaymaniyah, in Erbil the cluster will start with these combined coordination meetings as well from next Wednesday 3 December at 10:00. The KR-I level cluster meetings will be followed by back-to-back meetings for the Shelter and NFI Working Groups for refugees at KR-I level, this should reduce the amount of meetings.
• Sectoral working groups have been in existence since 2013 for refugees, since the first half of 2014 these working groups have been coordinating with OCHA and ICODHA.After the clusters were activated in September, a duplication of meetingsspecial in Erbil has been observed, this is why they are now being streamlined.
• It is the mandate of the sub-national cluster to make sure there are coordination meetings in all governorates. However, there are resource constraints and people are not able to attend too many meetings. Donors want organisations to target both IDPs and refugees in their response, but separate funding streams exist for both. Refugee coordination mainly focuses on camp interventions and coordination is mainly done per refugee camps and camp management, back-to-back meetings are therefore suggested rather than merging them, and the first meeting will be conducted after this meeting.
• The streamlining is still work in progress and is meant to make coordination more efficient, ultimately making our response to meet the needs of both IDPs and refugees better.

Operational Strategy Review Committee

• A national Shelter Cluster strategy already exists, but an operational strategy for KR-I is still needed. An Operational Strategy Review Committee (OSRC) is to be selected later in this meeting today, which will beresponsible for drafting, reviewing and monitoring this strategy.
• Within the next two weeks the first night with temperatures below zero will most likely occur in Dahuk, so speed is drafting and completing is essential.
• Contingency planning will be included, as are the sub-national cluster’s objectives, technical support needs and how to best utilise cluster resources to do gap analysis and advocacy.
• Sub-national cluster coordinators (lead or chair) will always be represented at the governorate level coordination meetings. If partners have ideas about how to improve the structure, these are very much welcomed.
• Confirmed as members of the OSRC are GenCap, IOM, Qandil, UN-HABITAT and UNHCR. Cluster partners that do not participate in the OSRC can still contribute through working on technical guidance and other cluster products.
• Shelter outside of camps is receiving only little attention in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah; the OSRC should take this into account. Information is needed on the breakdown of IDPs in camps and outside of camps; coordination structures should deal with both. In Dahuk there is for instance a technical working group dealing with shelter outside of camps to ensure that all geographical areas are covered. Donors also need to support partners who target IDPs, refugees and the host community, as all need assistance.

HLP update

• Discussions between the HLP Technical Working Group and colleagues from the Protection Cluster are on-going. Emerging issues are the threat of forced evictions, permission for shelter upgrades and lack of proof of tenure arrangements.
• There is mainly advocacy and protection work to be done, shelter is less of an issue in itself. Landowners need to know that winterisation upgrades do not damage their buildings and local authorities should be persuaded to put in place a moratorium on evictions or support the extension/establishment of lease contracts with for instance tax incentives, this can also help to keep the rental prices under control.

AOB

• An inter-agency call centre is being established in KR-I, whichIDPs can call to ask questions about the humanitarian response.
• A GenCap advisor has arrived in Erbil and will be here for 6 months, she is hosted by OCHA and managed by NRC. Geeta Kuttiparambil ( / +964(0) 7511844384), will be providing support with gender mainstreaming in strategies and monitoring frameworks.

Action points

• Partners who already have bilateral relations with the government are asked to let the cluster know so that coordination can be strengthened.
• Cluster partners to provide top 15 questions expected for the inter-agency call centre.
• Cluster to share one-pager about Communicating with Communities with cluster partners.
• Cluster partners to complete winterisation reporting and pipeline reporting templates
• Cluster partners to update their contact information on the cluster contact directory

Participants

ACTED, Bunyan, Caritas, GenCap, INTERSOS, IOM, IVY, JEN, NRC, OCHA, Qandil, Samaritan’s Purse, UN-HABITAT and UNHCR