SWAN (Save the Children, World Vision, Action Against Hunger, Norwegian Refugee Council) Multi-sectoral integrated response in WASH, Health and ES/NFI The Government and humanitarian partners are dealing with the triple challenge of drought impact in the eastern and south eastern parts of the country, localized flooding and the still significant humanitarian and recovery needs of IDPs, returnees and host communities (MYRP 2019). The country also continues to be dominated by challenges posed by intercommunal conflict and the resultant mass internal displacements (IDPs). The number of internally displaced people spiked from 1.7 million at the end of 2017 to 3.2 million by mid-2019, of whom 2.6 million were displaced due to conflict. The impact of extreme weather variability continues to be felt with some areas experiencing drought, while others are impacted by flooding. Floods up to July have affected 271,000 and displaced over 81,000 people. The MYRP identified around 7.8 million people as still requiring humanitarian assistance until the end of the year. However, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released on 19 November 2019 projects the number of food-insecure people in Crisis to increase to 8.5 million between February and June 2020. In response to the ongoing humanitarian needs, SWAN, a humanitarian consortium drawn from four INGOs (Save the Children, World Vision, Action Against Hunger and Norwegian Refugee Council) will continue to provide a multi-sector response in ES/NFI, WASH and Health across the country based on priority areas as triaged by the national clusters and inter cluster coordination groups (ICCG). The project is a one-year follow-on to the SWAN intervention pilot with the overall objective of providing immediate and lifesaving activities including access to safe water, establishment of sanitation facilities, support to health and nutrition services averting pipeline breaks, responding to the shelter and other needs of IDPs/ returnees and affected communities. The consortium approach will facilitate a coordinated joint response, minimize beneficiary overlaps, standardize assistance packages and reach affected populations at scale in prioritized locations. Pre-positioning will be available for further scale-up in those locations, as well as the ability to respond to displacement crises in any part of the country. SWAN’s design addresses a currently reactive and inadequate humanitarian supply pipeline management through the following approach and principles based on effectiveness and efficiency:
- Consortium members offer comprehensive national coverage and current presence in priority locations (assigned organizational lead in each hot spot)
- SWAN members will continue to lead on the sector they are assigned to during the pilot phase (i.e SCI-Health, WV-WASH, NRC-ES/NFI) to ensure expertise is applied, including procurement experience/leveraging existing FWAs with preferred suppliers and adequate quality Supply Chain controls. AAH will continue to focus primarily on distribution. The consortium members will continue to work with UNOPS, and other partners. SWAN Rapid Response Team will continue to be on standby to start collection of multisector data within a maximum of a week. The current SWAN’s operational manual ensures rapid decision-making among consortium members, so that information and issues are escalated to the Cluster in real time. SWAN members are active members of the various humanitarian cluster coordination groups. SWAN’s consortium will not only strengthen previous ties and working relations with all clusters, but also clearly emphasize the role of the ICCG throughout the design and response strategy and decision making in this consortium. SWAN will regularly collaborate with each of the clusters, including UNICEF, IOM and WHO on the SWAN priority intervention sectors, but also with clusters that do not directly oversee response sectors (i.e. Protection, Education and Nutrition) to make informed decisions on targeting, prioritization, and reduce duplication of effort.