The combination of all the strengths, attributes and resources available within an organization, community, livelihood system or society to manage and reduce disaster risks and strengthen resilience. Annotation: Capacity may include infrastructure, institutions, human knowledge and skills, and collective attributes such as social relationships, leadership and management.[1]
Coping capacity is the ability of people, organizations and systems, using available skills and resources, to manage adverse conditions, risk or disasters. The capacity to cope requires continuing awareness, resources and good management, both in normal times as well as during disasters or adverse conditions. Coping capacities contribute to the reduction of disaster risks.
Capacity assessment is the process by which the capacity of a group, organization or society is reviewed against desired goals, where existing capacities are identified for maintenance or strengthening and capacity gaps are identified for further action.
Capacity development is the process by which people, organizations and society systematically stimulate and develop their capacities over time to achieve social and economic goals. It is a concept that extends the term of capacity-building to encompass all aspects of creating and sustaining capacity growth over time. It involves learning and various types of training, but also continuous efforts to develop institutions, political awareness, financial resources, technology systems and the wider enabling environment.
Transfers and vouchers are considered cash-based if beneficiaries receive cash (banknotes or electronic cash) or value in the form of a voucher that enables them to decide what goods or services to access with assistance received, therefore playing a critical role in responding and enhancing resilience in the face of crises and disasters, when people have no longer the ability to purchase, because their assets have been damaged or depleted. CBTs can be unrestricted if usable wherever and however each beneficiary chooses, or restricted if cash value can be redeemed for goods or services on offer only from contracted retailers. The use of modalities such as cash and value vouchers provide organizations with additional flexibility in responding to hunger and nutrition crises, allowing them to tailor a food assistance response in the most effective way.[2]
Global emergency response fund to deliver funding quickly to UN agencies, funds and programmes to kick-start life and livelihood-saving actions in situation of crisis and disaster. CERF[3]allocations are designed to complement other humanitarian funding sources, such as country-based pooled funds and bilateral funding. The Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) guides the process at country level with support from OCHA. Other humanitarian partners, including NGOs, can receive funding indirectly through sub-grants from CERF grant recipients.[4]
Chronic food insecurity is long-term or persistent and occurs when people are unable to meet their minimum food requirements over a sustained period of time. Chronic food insecurity results from extended periods of poverty, lack of assets and inadequate access to productive or financial resources.[5]
Chronic malnutrition is also referred to as stunting and develops as a result of inadequate nutrition or repeated infections or both; typically, during the critical window of opportunity of the first 1,000 days from conception to two years of age. It is measured by the nutritional index of height-for-age (HAZ) and is manifested by a child being too short for his or her age. Unlike wasting, the development of stunting is a slow cumulative process that may not be evident immediately. Chronic malnutrition cannot generally be reversed, only prevented.[6]
Means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.[7]
Adjustments in natural or human systems are to be made as a response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects “to alleviate adverse impacts of change or take advantage of new opportunities”[8]
Groups of humanitarian organizations, both UN and non-UN, in each of the main sectors of humanitarian action, e.g. food security, health and logistics. They are created when clear humanitarian needs exist within a sector, when there are numerous actors within sectors and when national authorities need coordination support.[9]Clusters are formally activated by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) principals through the Emergency Relief Coordinator to complement coordination mechanisms existing in the country, which may be overwhelmed or constrained in their ability to respond to identified needs in line with humanitarian principles. Clusters are accountable to the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) through the Cluster Lead Agency (CLA), and to both national authorities and people affected by the crisis. IASC clusters are a temporary coordination solution and efforts should be made as soon as appropriate and possible to hand over coordination to the relevant authorities.[10]There are 11 Clusters at global level: Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM), Early Recovery, Education, Emergency Telecommunications (ETC), Food Security, Health, Logistics, Nutrition, Protection, Shelter, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
Is an HC-led review undertaken on an annual basis at a minimum, which examines the continued appropriateness and relevance of cluster coordination structures.[11]
Is a self-assessment exercise. Clusters assess their performance against the six core cluster functions and accountability to affected populations. It is a country-led process, supported globally. Ideally, it is carried out by all clusters/sectors at the same time but can be implemented on demand by individual clusters. The process enables all cluster partners and coordinators to identify strengths and weaknesses of performance and paths to improvement.[12]A CCPM should ideally be implemented three to six months after the onset of an emergency and annually thereafter.
UN agency or organization designated by the Resident and/or Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) to lead a particular Cluster at country level. CLAs at country level can be different from CLAs at global level. For the FSC, FAO and WFP are the CLAs at global level.[13]
Also referred to as the Project Review Team (PRT), is a committee made up of representatives elected by partners, responsible for technically reviewing proposals submitted for the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and any other pooled funding mechanisms in line with the FSC response strategy and project selection criteria.[14]
The December 2011 IASC Principals meeting endorsed five Commitments to Accountability to Affected Populations (CAAP) and agreed to incorporate the CAAP into the policies and operational guidelines of their organizations and promote them with operational partners, within Humanitarian Country Teams and amongst cluster members. These commitments are:
• Leadership/Governance
• Transparency
• Feedback and Complaints
• Participation
• Design, Monitoring and Evaluation[15]
Is a collaborative effort between UN agency field offices and their headquarters, as well as between agencies and OCHA in the field (for which the primary responsibility lies with the Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator). The CHAP is a coordinated program of interventions based on an agreed strategy designed to achieve shared goals.[16]
Is an emerging field of humanitarian response that helps to meet the information and communications needs of people affected by crisis and disasters.[17]CwC is a method used in humanitarian programming aimed at ensuring accountability and transparency, which require the effective exchange of information between disaster survivors and responders.
Country-based pooled fund that provides early and predictable funding to NGOs and UN agencies for their response to critical humanitarian needs and to respond to protracted crises. CHFs[18]enable Humanitarian Country Teams to swiftly allocate resources and to fund priority projects identified in a Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP)[19]or a similar humanitarian plan. CHFs also maintain an emergency reserve used for unforeseen emergencies and new priorities in a crisis. The reserve typically does not exceed 10 percent of total CHF funds. OCHA and UNDP support the Humanitarian Coordinator, who manages the CHF.
Prior to programme implementation, community level participatory exercises are conducted to identify needs and tailor programme responses to local requirements by ensuring prioritisation and ownership by communities. The CBPP constitutes the last step of the 3PA and is done at local levels (see 3PA reference).[20]
The ability of communities (and their members) exposed to disasters, crises and underlying vulnerabilities to anticipate, prepare for, reduce the impact of, cope with and recover from the effects of shocks and stresses without compromising their long-term prospects.[21]
Analysis of the ability of a community exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover and adapt from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner using data and information related to livelihoods, coping strategies, hazards and vulnerability.
A major humanitarian crisis that is often the result of a combination of political instability, conflict and violence, social inequities and underlying poverty. Complex emergencies are essentially political in nature and can erode the cultural, civil, political and economic stability of societies, particularly when exacerbated by natural hazards and diseases such as drought, floods, HIV and AIDS, which further undermine livelihoods and worsen poverty.[22]
A baseline survey that provides an in-depth picture of the food security situation and the vulnerability of households in a given country. It is conducted at normal times, and not during a crisis, in countries subject to crises and disasters: It answers the following key questions:
Who are the food-insecure and vulnerable people? How many are there?
Where do they live?
Why are they food-insecure?
What is the appropriate assistance to reduce vulnerability and food insecurity?[23]
Activities aimed at reducing food insecurity and poverty by making assistance conditional upon the receivers’ actions. FSC partners transfer money/in-kind goods to persons who meet certain criteria or conditions. These criteria/conditions may include enrolling children into school, carrying out community work, undertaking a training, etc. Conditional transfers aim to capitalise on contributions made by those receiving assistance whilst addressing food insecurity. Food/Cash for work and any other conditional cash and voucher programmes and trainings are examples of conditional FSC programming.[24]
Protracted crises are situations in which a significant proportion of the population is acutely vulnerable to death, disease, and disruption of livelihoods over a prolonged period of time due to human-made factors and natural hazards, often occurring simultaneously and reinforcing each other. They include lengthy food crises, the breakdown of livelihoods and food systems and insufficient governance and institutional capacity. Protracted crises may be localized in certain areas or regions, and do not necessarily affect the whole population of a country.[25]
A WFP method used to analyse and report the level of food insecurity within a population, by classifying households in four food security categories, based on their current status of food security and their coping capacity.[26]
A management process that analyses specific context’s disaster risks and establishes arrangements in advance to enable timely, effective and appropriate responses.[27]
A tool to measure behaviour change: the things that people do to compensate not having access to enough food. There are a number of fairly regular behavioural responses to food insecurity—or coping strategies—that people use to manage household food shortage.[28]
Organization, entity or agency that contributes to the activities to enhance resilience and to reach the food security objectives outlined in the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), with its own resources and/ or in combination with those received from UN agencies.
The Core Humanitarian Standards on Quality and Accountability (CHS) is a voluntary code that describes the essential elements of principled, accountable and quality humanitarian action.[29]It sets out Nine Commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. It also facilitates greater accountability to communities and people affected by crisis and disasters: knowing what humanitarian organisations have committed to will enable them to hold those organisations to account.[30]
The physical structures, facilities, networks and other assets which provide services that are essential to the social and economic functioning of a community or society.[31]
Crop diversification refers to the addition of new crops or cropping systems to agricultural production on a particular farm taking into account the different returns from value-added crops with complementary marketing opportunities.[32]
Diversification of smallholder crop production is a crucial step in food and nutrition security strategies. Diversifying production to include horticulture and high value crops allows smallholders to broaden sources of food in local diets and enter domestic markets for higher value products. It strengthens resilience to economic and climate risks. Diversified production can help improve nutrition, strengthen livelihoods, create opportunities for local agro-processing, generate employment along the value chain, and stimulate rural economic development.[33]
Topics considered to be of common interest or relevant across a wide range of subjects, not limited to a single discipline or area of responsibility (e.g. Environment, gender and age, protection and HIV/AIDS).[34]
The crude death rate is the number of deaths occurring among the population of a given geographical area during a given year, per 1,000 mid-year total population of the given geographical area during the same year.[35]
[1]UNISDR (2017) available at https://www.preventionweb.net/terminology/view/7831
[2]http://rconline.undg.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/1-Handbook-Final.pdfand http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5424e.pdf
[3]http://www.unocha.org/cerf/
[4]http://rconline.undg.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/1-Handbook-Final.pdf
[5]Source: An Introduction to the Basic Concepts of Food Security available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/al936e/al936e00.pdf
[6]Nutrition Glossary, UNICEF available at https://www.unicef.org/lac/Nutrition_Glossary_(3).pdf
[7]Source: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change available at https://unfccc.int/files/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/application/pdf/
conveng.pdf
[8]Adger, W. N., N. W. Arnell, and E. L. Tompkins. 2005. Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Global Environmental Change Part A 15:77-86.
[9] https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/about-clusters/what-is-the-cluster-approach
[10]https://www.unocha.org/country/what-we-do/coordination-tools/cluster-coordination
[11]http://who.int/health-cluster/about/cluster-system/cluster-coordination-reference-module-2015.pdf
[12]https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/how-to/improve-cluster-performance
[13]https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/coordination/clusters/about-global-cluster-leads
[14]http://fscluster.org/ukraine/document/cluster-review-committee-tor
[16]http://apps.who.int/disasters/repo/13849_files/h/CAP.pdf
[18]https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/Documents/CHF%20Overview%20Sept12%20final.pdf
[19]https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/consolidated-appeals-process-cap
[20]Part 3 - Community-based participatory planning - download pdf (947 kb)
[22]http://www.fao.org/emergencies/emergency-types/complex-emergencies/en/
[23] https://www.wfp.org/food-security/assessments/comprehensive-food-security-vulnerability-analysis
[24]http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsroom/wfp274576.pdf
[25]http://www.fao.org/resilience/areas-of-work/protracted-crisis/en/
[26]Please see “Introducing the CARI (Consolidated Approach for Reporting Indicators of Food Security)” for more details https://resources.vam.wfp.org/CARI
[27]http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/terminology#letter-c
[28]“The Coping Strategies Index Field Methods Manual Second Edition” available at http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/manual_guide_proced/wfp211058.pdf?_ga=2.145536052.1416379881.1496911222-191125728.1489491970
[29]http://www.sphereproject.org/handbook/the-chs-and-sphere-frequently-asked-questions/#Q1
[30]https://corehumanitarianstandard.org/the-standard
[31]UNISDR
[32]http://www.climatetechwiki.org/content/crop-diversification-and-new-varieties
[33]Source: Crop diversification for sustainable diets and nutrition. The role of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/greenercities/pdf/CDSDN.pdf
[34]“Cross-Cutting Issues Key Things to Know (KTK)” available at https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/Temas%20transversales%20en%20emergen-cias.pdf
[35]Source: For a more detailed description please refer to http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FBS and http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/X9892E/X9892e02.htm