Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) in oPt - Phase I Through this proposed action, REACH (a joint initiative of ACTED, IMPACT Initiatives, and the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme) will coordinate and facilitate the implementation of a Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) in the West Bank and Gaza. Data collection will consist of a multi-sectoral household survey conducted among a statistically representative sample of the affected population in both the West Bank and Gaza. In a continued partnership from the 2021 MSNA, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) will implement data collection, drawing on the agency’s extensive experience in large-scale surveys and past experience collaborating with humanitarian and development actors to conduct assessments. 

In line with the nexus approach adopted by the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in January 2020, the overall objective of the project is to directly inform joint humanitarian-development response planning through the provision of a comprehensive, multi-sectoral household data and inter-sectoral needs and vulnerability analysis. The MSNA will be conducted in a collaborative, coordinated, and inter-agency manner, inclusive of a broad array of humanitarian and development stakeholders such as humanitarian Clusters, UN development agencies, local NGOs and civil society organizations, and representatives from the Palestinian Authority. Assessment coordination will be channeled through an MSNA Steering Committee, established on an ad hoc basis for the duration of the project, as well as existing coordination bodies such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), the UNCT Data Group and the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group. REACH will aim to target at least 65 humanitarian and development organizations within the oPt response throughout the project cycle.

REACH will lead the overall technical implementation of the MSNA and provide oversight to each phase of the MSNA research cycle: research design data collection, cleaning, and processing, and production of a final clean and anonymised dataset. The clean dataset produced during Phase I of the MSNA cycle will be used to feed into further phases (joint-analysis and PiN calculations) once additional funding is secured. Additional outputs produced through later Phases of the MSNA would allow for multi-sectoral severity of needs analysis and preliminary vulnerability analysis to be integrated in the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), as well as sector/cluster-specific severity of needs analysis and preliminary vulnerability analysis, and would support Cluster coordinators in drafting the sector-specific sections in the HNO. 

The first phase of the MSNA, will consist of data collection and production of a cleaned dataset. Further funding for the second phase (expected August to January 2023) would be focused on humanitarian analysis, to include support for joint analysis and sector/inter-sectoral PiN, presentations to humanitarian and development stakeholders, sector and geographically-specific factsheets, and written analytical reports of the MSNA findings. Further, the MSNA 2022 will also be designed to contribute to enriching the Vulnerability Assessment Framework analysis, which aims to support nexus strategy and programming, through further analysis and integration of data onto the existing VAF dashboard, should funding for additional VAF analysis be identified.