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KEY POINTS

Why are you making a consolidated appeal – what is a humanitarian strategy, its added value and its purpose? The strategy presents an overall humanitarian goal or vision, then states how that will be achieved, considering resources and constraints. It aims to make the actions of the many organizations on the ground greater than the sum of their parts; to make the best use of limited resources; and to seize opportunities tomove towards a long-term resolution and recovery. It maps and prioritizes needs; it matches capacity with needs to ensure full coverage; it attains effectiveness (filling gaps) and efficiency (eliminating duplication and use of resources on low priorities); it capitalizes on comparative advantages; it seizes opportunities for synergy, reducing aid dependence, avoiding the deepening or relapse of a crisis, and attacking inter-related problems; it anticipates future needs and opportunities, and positions the humanitarian country team to respond to or pre-empt future problems. This strategy is the essence of the CAP.

CAPs should be thorough but concise. They can summarize and refer to more detailed information available elsewhere. Make your 2011CAP less text-heavy – use tables, charts, graphics, and links to on-line resources to tell the story, present the evidence and outline the plan. Make your document visually appealing– see theon-line Best Practices page (items 9-12) for examples of good graphics.

Present the needs clearly, with evidence for each. Cluster/sector response plans should use tables, matrices or maps to show the needs and who is proposing to cover which needs where.

State clearly the boundaries of need and response for your CAP. Most CAPs take place in situations of generalized vulnerability and impaired social services. Aid organizations can’t cover them all, so the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) and the humanitarian country team (HCT) should draw the boundaries strategically. These boundaries can be geographic, demographic, derived from clusters/sectors, temporal, or based on finer measurements of vulnerability – whatever combination serves best in your context to draw the line between what the HCTmust achieve and what is secondary.

Every CAP must be prioritized. This means that each project should receive a priority designation (applying at least a simple two-step system) through peer review in the clusters/sectors, following general priority criteria agreed by the HCT.

All organizations proposing projects in the CAP should upload their draft projects onto the Online ProjectsSystem (OPS). (Cluster/sector coordinators should volunteer to upload projects for their members with poor connectivity.) Clusters/sectors peer-review the projects by viewing them on OPS, select those to be included in the CAPs, prioritize them, and apply the gender marker code for those CAP countries piloting the gender marker (Chad, Haiti, Kenya, oPt, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Zimbabwe). After review by the HC and agency HQs, the projects are published electronically on FTS. A compendium of projects can be downloaded in printable PDF format.

Writing tip: each paragraph should have a beginning, middle and end. The beginning introduces the paragraph’s subject. The middle presents all key facts and arguments. The end makes clear the point of the paragraph. (If you cannot define the point of the paragraph, consider omitting it.)

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Guideline table of contents

PART I:GUIDANCE ON THE SUBSTANTIVE CONTENT OF A CONSOLIDATED APPEAL.....

1.The CAP as a common cycle of humanitarian action

2.Needs analysis

3.Devising a humanitarian strategy

4.Stating strategic objectives and monitoring

5.Criteria for selection and Prioritization of projects

PART II:BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND POLICY ON SUBSTANTIVE & TECHNICAL ISSUES

1.ROLE OF THE HC IN THE CAP

2.THE CLUSTER SYSTEM AND CAPS

3.The Role of OCHA in the CAP Process

4.OVERVIEW OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE CAP PROCESS

5.NGOs AND CAPs

6.COHERENCE OF THE CHAP AND PROJECTS

7.PROJECTS and the On-line projectS system (OPS)

8.EARLY RECOVERY IN CAPS

9.THE GENDER MARKER INITIATIVE

10.USEFUL LINKS

11.CONTACT US

PART III:APPEAL DOCUMENT TEMPLATE

CAP 2011 Guidelines: Document version 1.0, 18 August 2010

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PART II:BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND POLICY ON SUBSTANTIVE & TECHNICAL ISSUES

9.THE GENDER MARKER INITIATIVE

Guidelines for the 2011 Consolidated Appeals

PART I:GUIDANCE ON THE SUBSTANTIVE CONTENT OF A CONSOLIDATED APPEAL

1.The CAP as a common cycle of humanitarian action

OCHA and the IASC are expected to produce a consolidated appeal document once a year for major crises: stakeholders need an organized snapshot and analysis. But the appeal is ineffective if the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) treats it as a one-off document-writing exercise – and the humanitarian response is likely to be ineffective too. The Consolidated Appeal Process comprises the whole programme cycle of humanitarian action: needs assessment and analysis, joint planning and strategizing, resource mobilization and allocation, and monitoring and evaluation. The annual document publication is a milestone to focus the analyses and decisions that these four elements entail, and it presents a frame of reference for monitoring the success of humanitarian action on a collective crisis-wide level.

These guidelines therefore contain a document template (in Part III), but they start with guidance on the substance that constitutes that appeal process and must go into an appeal document. The processes and analyses that produce the substance must start far in advance of the CAP document due date.


See the next page for a suggestive chart which places the elements of the programme cycle, including the CAP development season, on an annual timeline.

2.Needs analysis

This is the essential starting point of coordinated humanitarian action, and a crucial section of your CAP document, where you will need to convince donors to allocate millions of dollars to your crisis – and moreover to allocate it according to the priority needs that you identify here. This section must show solid evidence and solid reasoning.

TIMING:

In the 2010 CAP Mid-Year Reviews, each HCT should have presented a plan for needs assessments to be done in the period between the MYR and the 2011 CAP development season, to fill crucial information gaps in order to base the 2011 CAP on comprehensive information. Those assessments should be completed by about the end of August. The HCT then finalizes the needs analysisfor the CAP as early as possible in the process – about mid-September – to provide the basis for agreeing on strategic priorities. (Needs analysis is the step in which the HCT synthesizes the sector-specific needs assessment data into a strategic view of the interactions of needs and of their root causes.)

PURPOSE:

The needs analysis should explain the major humanitarian consequences of the crisis and how they are inter-linked. The section should:

  • Present priority humanitarian needs overall (not just those needs that will be addressed through the projects listed in this appeal – though the CAP should cover as many of those as possible).
  • Using the hierarchy of causes and outcomes illustrated in the NeedsAnalysis Framework (NAF), reproduced at the end of this section, analyze the humanitarian needs, rank their urgency, and identify the interactions among their causes across clusters/sectors. (The HCT and individual responding agencies will have to understand the inter-relations to design their programmes right.)
  • Analyse the main outcomes of the humanitarian crisis, such as mortality and morbidity rates. Elaborate on the factors behind the basic humanitarian statistics (the ones presented in the box after the executive summary). Show how data differ among specific groups (e.g. women, girls, boys and men, the displaced, refugees, host populations) and/or geographic regions. Present data in a table or chart.

Needs analysis should be evidence-based, inter-agency and multi-sectoral (drawing on needs assessments which are usually cluster/sector-specific) and include reference to the integration of cross-cutting issues).

METHODOLOGY:

Several methodologies exist to analyse priority needs. Certain countries have been using a set of key indicators with related thresholds to triage and map needs and vulnerabilities, establish inter-sectoral strategic priorities, and identify humanitarian actions that should cover all priority areas. This seems to be particularly effective and necessary when the crisis is one of extreme chronic vulnerability and poverty where the humanitarian caseload must be distinguished from the generally poor and vulnerable population, without a clear trigger like conflict or sudden disaster.

See best practice here:

  • West Africa 2010
  • Democratic Republic of Congo 2010

PROCESS MANAGEMENT:

Step 1:

►Cluster/sector leads should compile, review and organize their cluster/sector the needs assessment data using their sector’s part of the NAF or a similar mechanism for sound needs analysis. Assessment information can be complemented by surveys, contingency plans, monitoring reports, government data, academic research, or the like, and referenced accordingly. Clusters/sector leads should identify a set of key indicators and thresholds used to assess the priority needs in their sector.

►Cluster/sectors should provide a list of all the needs assessments on which this CAP is based, which OCHA will compile for the CAP document’s Annex II. If information is unavailable (for example because of insecurity) or unreliable, explain why, and what is being done to improve information.

Output 1: Clusters/sectors complete the needs analysis for their cluster/sector, provide an evidence base for their analysis and complete a needs assessment reference list for their cluster/sector.

Step 2:

►OCHA reviews the cluster/sector inputs, analyzes the inter-relations of needs and causes across sectors, and drafts a needs analysis document. This document should provide the basis for the CAP workshop and be circulated beforehand. At the CAP workshop, the HCT should reach agreement on what the priority needs are, leading to decisions about the strategic objectives for humanitarian response.

Output 2: OCHA elaborates a consolidated needs analysis document and the HCT agrees on a common understanding of what the priority needs and inter-relations of needs are across clusters/sectors which needs to be addressed in the CAP.

KEY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER IN THE NEEDS ANALYSIS:

  1. What are the priority needs for humanitarian assistance and protection in this crisis and why? (Remember: at this stage, focus on NEEDS, not the HCT’s plans to respond to those needs. The response to needs will be covered in Section 4.)
  2. How are the priority needs related to one another?
  3. What factors are placing additional and possibly differentrisk on people (women, girls, boys and men)? What are the risks?
  4. What is the demography of the country, and what are the most vulnerable groups? Present this information in a table or chart if possible, disaggregated by sex and age. Please disaggregate beyond sex and age if necessary, i.e. livelihood groups, regions, ethnic minorities, etc.
  5. What inequalities could put certain groups at additional risk (e.g. gender, racial, religious, age)?
  6. What are the levers (economic, social, institutional) that will enable the provision of an effective and prioritized support to the affected communities in their attempt to recover from the crisis as early as possible?
  7. Recognising that needs and risks may differ across demographic groups (e.g. women, the elderly, IDPs, children), what are the specific needs and risks of such groups in this particular context?
  8. Identify cultural and religious specificities.
  9. What information gaps exist, and how does the HCT plan to fill them?
  10. Donors reserve humanitarian funds for needs that can’t be met in time by development or anti-poverty programmes. Argue clearly here why needs you identify here cannot be met in time by development aid.

Your analysis should take into account the following elements:

  • governance (including political situation, crisis context, national response capacity, and aspects of the regional and international context);
  • existing coordination mechanisms;
  • the situation of security and rule of law (in particular law enforcement);
  • demographics and economic context;
  • socio-cultural context (including human development index, social stratification and gender analysis);
  • socio-economic patterns (livelihoods, community infrastructure, coping mechanisms);
  • physical environment;
  • root causes of conflict/tension;
  • availability of natural resources used to meet humanitarian needs;
  • environmental impacts;
  • availability of natural resources expected to be in high demand to meet recovery needs.

Vulnerability can also relate to an individual’s or group’s age (young and old), ethnicity, location, disability, chronic illness, etc. See page 4 of the NAF for more detailed guidance on these.

INTEGRATION OF CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES:

CAPs (and the humanitarian action that they reflect) should deal with a range of cross-cutting issues. Do not leave them until the last minute and try to add them to the text as an after-thought. Instead, communicate now with the cluster/sector coordinators (copying the HC) and make sure they are incorporating them into their cluster/sector response plans, and encouraging their members to incorporate them in project design. The HCT may also decide that one or more cross-cutting issues is so critical in your particular crisis that addressing it rises to the level of a strategic objective for the CAP.

Each CAP should in the needs analysis:

Integrate a gender analysis throughout the CHAP and include projects that respond to different needs of men and women, girls and boys.[1]

Disaggregate data by sex and age.

Include protection and human rights in your analysis and response.

Explain implications of access and security on your assessment of needs and your response.

plus any other situation-specific cross-cutting issues.

3.Devising a humanitarian strategy

TIMING: Strategy development follows needs analysis, and therefore in the humanitarian programme cycle it should come early in CAP development season (approximately the first half of September).

PROCESS MANAGEMENT: Strategy development should be consultative and consensual; but on the other hand, writing a strategy by committee is more likely to produce a diluted laundry list than a coherent, incisive strategy. (See below for common pitfalls in strategy statements.) Some leadership is probably needed, so the HC should designate an experienced senior humanitarian to draft a strategy for discussion with the broader HCT.

WHAT IS A HUMANITARIAN STRATEGY? CAPs are supposed to bring a strategic dimension to coordinated humanitarian action. The HC is supposed to ensure that a humanitarian strategy is in place. OCHA is supposed to support this. But “humanitarian strategy” has never been clearly defined, so these guidelines will try to do so.

A humanitarian strategy states a long-term goal,[2] and then states how the HCT will achieve that goal (or part of it in 2011) in that environment with available or expected resources, capacities and access. It should state clear decisions on the dilemmas pertaining to humanitarian action in that crisis, and it should specify what it is relying on non-humanitarian actors or mechanisms (like UNDAF) to achieve as part of a durable resolution of the humanitarian crisis.

Why is this important? Because humanitarian response never has ideal conditions – it always lacks some resources, some capacity, some access. Therefore there are dilemmas to be resolved, and priorities to be identified. Someone has to make a plan that brings the pieces together in a way that is more than the sum of their parts. Also, we say ‘humanitarian response,’ but we don’t want to always be responding – we want to get ahead of the curve sometime and lead the situation out of crisis. Some countries have had CAPs for ten years in a row. A situation that long-lasting needs a plan that is not merely reflexive, but which gets on top of the crisis.

None of the following is a strategy:

  • a list of the activities and aims that each organization or cluster is doing individually.
  • a mission statement, like “save lives by delivering life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable…”
  • a statement of the methods or tools in our toolbox: like “immediate relief for those in need, protection for those who are threatened, early recovery to restore self-sufficiency.” Tools or methods by themselves are not a strategy.

To illustrate the point with a simple example, imagine the owner of a football team asking the manager to state her/his strategy for the next match. “Win the game and advance to the next round” – that’s a mission statement, not a strategy. “Attack and defend successfully” – that’s a platitude. “Pass the ball cleanly and score lots of goals” – these are self-evident tactics, not a strategy. The strategy needs to state how you will achieve the aim or the mission with expected resources. “Play an entirely defensive game to achieve a scoreless draw, and then win on penalties” – that’s more like a strategy. “Play defensively and provoke Wayne Rooney into getting a red card, then attack” – that’s more of a strategy. “Attack on the left side, because their left defender has a bad knee” – that could be part of a strategy. A game strategy must state how we will win the game, given our capacities and those of the other team.

Obviously, there are limits to the extent that you can strategize, because humanitarian actors usually don’t have much control over the environment that is causing humanitarian needs, especially where conflicts exist. But this makes it all the more important to be strategic, not just responsive.

One important aspect of a strategy is that it is as much about what you will not do as what you will do. A strategy that says we will do everything is not a strategy, because resources and capacity are finite, and access is imperfect. Strategy has a lot to do with identifying the priorities, whereas CAPs are developed by consensus, which can make it difficult to state what you will not do, or what is lesser priority. But HCs and HCTs have to try.