Guidance note on using the cluster approach to strengthen humanitarian response

At the global level, the aim of the cluster approach is to strengthen system-wide
preparedness and technical capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies by ensuring
that there is predictable leadership and accountability in all the main sectors or areas of
humanitarian response.

Similarly, at the country level the aim is to strengthen humanitarian response by demanding
high standards of predictability, accountability and partnership in all sectors or areas of
activity. It is about achieving more strategic responses and better prioritization of available
resources by clarifying the division of labour among organizations, better defining the roles
and responsibilities of humanitarian organizations within the sectors, and providing the
Humanitarian Coordinator with both a first point of call and a provider of last resort in all
the key sectors or areas of activity. The success of the cluster approach will be judged in
terms of the impact it has on improving the humanitarian response to those affected by
crises.

The cluster approach should eventually be applied in all countries with Humanitarian
Coordinators. By definition, these are countries with humanitarian crises which are beyond
the scope of any one agency’s mandate and where the needs are of sufficient scale and
complexity to justify a multi-sectoral response with the engagement of a wide range of
humanitarian actors. The cluster approach can be used in both conflict-related humanitarian
emergencies and in disaster situations. It should significantly improve the quality of
international responses to major new emergencies. Also, although not limited to situations
of internal displacement, it should make a significant improvement in the quality, level and
predictability of the response to crises of internal displacement and represents a substantial
strengthening of the ‘collaborative response’.