Pillar 1: GNC Technical Role 31 March 2016

Aim of session Agreement on prioritized recommendations for management response Agreement on scope and ways of engaging with Technical Task Force Initial consensus on operational definition of “Technical Role” Broad direction for coming 6 months

Background Ongoing discussion: what is the best and most appropriate role of GNC in technical issues and support – Coordination of technical area – Decision to reassess from 2015 March GNC Save the Children US undertook the review – Secondary data review, KII, survey of IMO and NCC, more in depth in 3 countries, discussion at GNC Oct 2015 And found – No clear definition and common understanding of “technical role” – No clear IASC guidance – UNICEF 2015 cluster coordination guidance committed to some cluster role in technical support Report shared in CLA senior management and preparations for more formal discussion in April/May

Prioritized Recommendations (1) General recommendations 2. Acknowledge and address grey zone requiring interim operational guidance Role of GNC in development of interim ops guidance Advocacy for UN supported platform in future 4. Identify a lead with a specific function for tracking technical gaps according to agreed classification system (recc 3) Role of Helpdesk in short term, working to longer term solution Recommendations for UNICEF CLA 7. Financial and HR to ensure technical capacity adequately reflects separation of duties no double hatting in L3 8. Increased CLA expertise at CO level and support escalation to RO/HQ 12. Convening technical conferences

Prioritized Recommendations (2) Recommendations for GNC CT and SAG 13. Convene and facilitate TF to address technical gaps as needed Recommendations for GNC Global Partners 18. Make NIE experts available to GNC collective under predetermined agreements 20. Be forward thinking on next priority technical areas for rollout

Prioritized recommendations Do we have adequate consensus that these are the most fundamental to address in coming year? Glaring gaps? Specific suggestions?

Technical Task Force Objective: To review recommendations and oversee, guide and participate in development of activities highlighted in the report reviewing the technical role of the GNC, falling under strategic pillar 3 “Operational Surge Support to Country Clusters” of the GNC strategic Plan Co chairs Diane Holland, UNICEF Leisel Talley, CDC and Colleen Emory, World Vision Jose Luis Alvarez, ACF UK Anne Dominique Israel, ACF France Geraldine Le Cuziat, IMC Caroline Wilkinson, UNHCR Julie Tanaka, Samaritan’s Purse Nicki Connell, Save the Children Erin Boyd, OFDA

Technical Task Force: Proposed Activities Update definition of technical role Facilitate development of management response to prioritized recommendations – Propose options for response on general, GNC-CT/SAG and global partner recommendations – Clarify partner recommendations for CLA on CLA related recommendations – Liaise with CLA on CLA related recommendations – Engage with GNC SAG and GNC collective on proposed response Propose options for – classification of technical needs?issues – Strengthening communication and tracking needs/issues – Working model of GNC role in identify and addressing gaps in operational guidance and role in addressing Conduct SWOT analysis of models for providing technical support

Technical Task Force Remit suits needs? Modifications proposed? Preferred way to engage with collective?

Technical role: operational definition and discussion Previous definition was defined by Lola Gostelow in the GNC governance review Technical role split in 3 categories: – Technical Support is about responding to questions and queries; this is a reactive function. – Technical Training is about offering teaching/instruction on technical aspects of Nutrition in Emergencies this is proactive. – Technical Guidance is about filling gaps in policies and guidelines regarding Nutrition in emergencies approaches

Technical role: operational definition and discussion Some considerations to bear in mind : Support is the most difficult one to define and training is broad. Middle space /grey zone between support/guidance. Missing components ? Articulation of the CLA role will fluctuate according to contexts/understanding of the NCC. Many countries are not pure emergency, which widens the scope of the definition. Lead to different models

Technical role: operational definition and discussion Technical support: This refers to the process of providing response to questions or queries in countries in emergency within a relative short timeframe when normative guidance exists/are available. “for instance development of survey questionnaire/protocol for rapid SMART in a low access/besieged area”

Technical role: operational definition and discussion Technical guidance: This refers to the process of the GNC identifying the need for additional technical operational guidance where (1) no normative guidance exists of (2) normative guidance is insufficient for the specific emergency response. In both cases there is a need to ensure the availability of short, collective, adapted and contextualized interim operational guidance to countries in emergency within a reasonable timeframe in order to set a minimum of consistency among partners. “E.g. the entire community is still hesitant on way forward on MAM but agreed on decision tree”.

Technical role: operational definition and discussion Technical capacity : this is about providing access to expertise to fill needs identified and mapped at country level through a range of mechanisms, including (1) surge, internal deployment, (2) agency level expertise or institution expertise through mechanisms that have been identified and supported by the GNC/CLA (3) systematic roll out of updated training materials and support to NiE capacity building initiatives.

Technical role: operational definition and discussion Do these categorize and present the concepts in a clear way? Are there missing components or suggested modifications? What is needed to ensure that these reflect the collective, including NCCs and IMOs?

Possible next steps Update of Technical TF TOR based on today’s discussion, including workplan -> GNC Technical TF feeds back to collective at fall GNC and…… Technical TF facilitate broader input into operational definition Technical TF work on management response, to feed into strategy development