Nutrition Cluster: A Lesson Learning Review

The Cluster Approach was established by the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) to address the findings of the Humanitarian Response Review of 2005. It has since been endorsed by the IASC (Inter-agency Standing Committee). The Nutrition Cluster is one of 11 global clusters established and UNICEF is involved in leading or co-leading 5 of these (see Table 1).
The clusters operate at the ‘global’ and ‘country’ levels. In general, the Cluster Approach aims to strengthen the overall capacity for and effectiveness of humanitarian response by:
• Ensuring that sufficient global capacity is built up and maintained in all the main sectors/areas of
response in order to achieve timely and effective responses to crises.
• Ensuring predictable leadership in all the main sectors/areas of response.
• Creating partnerships (i.e. clusters) between UN agencies, the International Red Cross and Red
Crescent Movement, international organisations and NGOs that will work together towards agreed
common humanitarian objectives both at the global and field levels.
• Strengthening accountability. Cluster lead agencies are accountable, at the global level, to the
ERC. At the field level, in addition to their normal institutional responsibilities, cluster leads are accountable to Humanitarian Coordinators. The approach also aims to strengthen accountability to beneficiaries through commitments to participatory and community-based approaches, improved common needs assessments and prioritisation, and better monitoring and evaluation.
• Improving strategic field-level coordination and prioritisation.