Addressing Integrated Coordination in Food Security Crises: A Brief Assessment of the Role, Mandate, and Challenges of the Global Food Security Cluster

This paper, commissioned by the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency
(SIDA), briefl y summarizes the mandate of the
newly formed global FSC; presents an analysis of
the major issues and challenges it faces; and
provides recommendations to donors and the
global FSC for possible ways to address these
issues. The paper draws on interviews with key
informants and four individual country case
studies of food security coordination through
the cluster system. Interviews were conducted
with a cross section of diff erent categories of
stakeholders, including UN agencies, donors,
national governments, local and international
NGOs, academics and the global FSC itself. A
qualitative analysis of the interviews and case
studies highlighted six major issues facing the
global FSC.
Leadership of clusters and coordination.
Several important considerations on the issue of
leadership emerged from the interviews and case
studies, including the circumstances in which the
UN should lead on coordination; the issue of
multiple lead agencies; and the separation of
coordination tasks from the agenda of the lead
agency.