DRC protection cluster co-facilitation – lessons learned

This evaluation assesses the implementation and impact of a joint Save the Children-Oxfam GB project for the co- facilitation of the protection cluster in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), funded by ECHO, in 2011-12. The project followed an earlier Oxfam/ECHO intervention 2010-11. It was developed in consultation with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as cluster lead agency, which planned to deploy dedicated cluster leads in four locations over the same period. The evaluation includes a brief comparative analysis of the experience of co-facilitation in other DRC clusters, and in the protection cluster in other countries, enabling broader conclusions to be drawn that relate learning from this project to cluster co-facilitation more widely.

Cluster co-facilitation is a relatively new and largely undocumented practice. This project and its predecessor went further than others in DRC in attempting to define, in practical terms and in consultation with the lead agency and members, how co-facilitation could help to make the protection cluster more effective. The timing of this evaluation should be conducive to wider learning, coinciding as it does with relevant debates at the country and global levels and the development of global guidance for the protection cluster and for co-facilitation.