1. Humanitarian programme cycle
Colombia
April 2015
Charles von Huff
Inter-Agency Early Recovery Advisor
Crisis Interface Team - Crisis Response Unit
UNDP Geneva

2. HUMANITARIAN PROGRAMME CYCLE
8 July 2014

3. Humanitarian programme cycle

4. Humanitarian Programme Cycle Steering Group
Established in fall 2013
Composed of 8-10 senior managers or experts to oversee development of and coherence among guidance documents on the HPC
Mandate extended by the Working Group until August 2014

5. 25
countries applied the humanitarian programme cycle, of which two followed the L3 timeline

6. 18
countries used an optional prioritization tool in the humanitarian needs overview process

7. In simple terms….
What is humanitarian coordination?

8. Strategic Response Plan Strategic Response Planning

9. Making collective, well-informed decisions to set the course of the response and its coordination

11. Planning Steps:
HNO
Planning assumptions
Boundaries
Strategic Objectives
Outcome Indicators
Prioritization Criteria
Cluster Plans
Price Tag

12. But in the left panel here, you can see what happens when you try to put each of these elements – each is which is complicated in its own right – into one document. Therefore we are rolling out a new series of products, underpinned by a revamped process in the field…

14. Information Management Quality & Accountability
Essential enablers
Coordination
Information Management
Quality & Accountability

15. Needs Assessments and Analysis Strategic Planning
The steps of the cycle
Needs Assessments and Analysis
Strategic Planning
Resource Mobilization
Implementation & Monitoring
Operational Review & Evaluation

16. The HPC in Sudden-onset crisis
Preliminary Response Plan
MIRA Report
Strategic Response Plan
Operational Peer Review
Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation

17. The HPC in slow-onset / protracted crisis
Humanitarian Needs Overview
Strategic Response Plan
Global Appeal /Overview of humanitarian requirements
Periodic Monitoring Report
Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation

18. Key issues identified in protracted crises
Bad “habits” regarding prioritization of needs and response activities
More targeted guidance to improve data collection, planning figures and cross-sectoral approach to analysis
Difficulties in formulating/agreeing indicators
Heavy emphasis on projects in the planning
Heaviness of cluster response planning
Limited linkages between SRPs and other planning frameworks

19. FIRST STEP 1
OCHA offices should support the HC/HCT to first prepare a humanitarian needs overview (draft by 23 September for HCT and HQ review; final version by 30 September), which outlines the shared understanding of the humanitarian community of the needs in a country.  
Humanitarian needs overview:
* Strengthens credible evidence base by facilitating a joint analysis to identify priority needs
* Supports the HCT in developing a shared understanding of the impact and evolution of a crisis to guide strategy development
* Is accompanied by an optional needs prioritization tool
= To be developed to support the next phase of the cycle: strategic planning
Note: The inter-sectoral needs analysis will almost certainly identify gaps in knowledge and the need for targeted needs assessment (assessment planning) to take place.

20. ENSURING CONSENSUS ON PRIORITIZED NEEDS IS ESSENTIAL TO THE PROCESS.
THROUGH A STRUCTURED DISCUSSION
SUPPORTED BY AN OPTIONAL PRIORITIZATION TOOL
At a minimum, OCHA should facilitate a structured discussion amongst humanitarian stakeholders leading to the identification and prioritization of inter-sectoral needs.  An optional prioritization tool, based on a “vulnerability ranking approach” and derived from field practice, can also be used to support the inter-sectoral prioritization process. The humanitarian needs overview should also include an identification of assessment gaps and a plan to address these gaps.  
The prioritization tool:
Condenses large amounts of humanitarian information into a format that assists comparison, ranking and discussion
Structures transparent paths towards establishing priorities
Facilitates discussion to reach common understanding of humanitarian situation
Reduces bias into decision-making

21. NEXT STEP 2
Previously, each HCT presented its collective humanitarian strategic plan in the common humanitarian action plan (CHAP) section of the CAP document. Most plans did not sufficiently build on needs analysis and prioritization and state meaningful objectives to allow humanitarian action to be sufficiently incisive and measurable.
For 2014 response planning, following the finalization of its humanitarian needs overview, each HCT will formulate a strategic response plan, which will be published online and consist of two parts: a country strategy and cluster/sector activities. The strategic response plan should serve as the basis for monitoring the quality of the response and for resource mobilization. Supported by the OCHA country office, the HC leads the process to determine the vision and direction of the response, which is elaborated in the country strategy.
Country strategy development and the cluster activity planning and costing are two sequential and hierarchical steps.  The country strategy will guide the development of cluster activities, which are budgeted as a way of deriving the total required to implement the strategic response plan. The country strategy should be perfected and crystallized before cluster planning starts.  But for convenience and to meet user expectations (principally that donors want a detailed, justified budget to accompany the strategy), we will bundle the two into one document for publication. Agency-specific projects will no longer need to be drafted at this planning stage.

22. CREATING THE STRATEGY OR SHARED VISION
Determine…
planning horizon
boundaries of the response
target caseload
priority actions
Draft strategic objectives and indicators (basis for monitoring results)
Align cluster plans to the strategic objectives
Actions for the HCT to taken when developing the strategy:
Set the planning horizon (multi-year, calendar year, other)
Review the priority needs and inter-sectoral analysis outlined in the final humanitarian needs overview. This will determine the direction of response operations.
Establish the scope or boundaries of the humanitarian response given that humanitarian actors cannot cover all the priority needs in country, particularly in contexts with general vulnerability and poor social services. These boundaries can be geographic, demographic, sectoral, temporal, or other measures of vulnerability to draw the line between what the HCT must achieve and what is secondary.
Take into account those needs being addressed by others, including the affected government and non-humanitarian actors, as well as what actions relevant to the strategy are planned in other programming tools such as national recovery plans, UNDAF, World Bank poverty reduction programmes, or bilateral aid programmes.
Determine the priority/target caseload (number, type and location of people to be helped) based on the types of need and boundaries of the response. The number of target beneficiaries usually differs from number of people in need listed in the humanitarian needs overview
Identify the response priorities taking into account the four points above as well as resource, access and capacity constraints. Response priorities can be established through a workshop/meeting format or by using a tool to rank needs and plot them in relation to geographical location and response capacity to develop a heat map. Whatever the method used, the priorities must narrow the response to the most critical actions which will have the most impact on the humanitarian situation.
Note: Objectives should be drafted with the intended end state of people in need--not merely what we will keep ourselves busy with.

23. 3 AFTERWARDS RESOURCE MOBILIZATION IMPLEMENTATION
MONITORING AND REPORTING
For protracted crises, an annual consolidated overview of all strategic response plans for inter-agency advocacy and fundraising purposes will be developed by OCHA Geneva. This overview will summarize the strategic response plans and list the estimated funding requirements per crisis, and be available in electronic format and optional hard-copy.
HC/HCT may wish to prepare other material for local resource mobilization and advocacy purposes.
More information on monitoring and reporting, including reporting on 2013 CAP results, will be provided by the end of the year.

24. TIMELINE FOR PROTRACTED EMERGENCIES
SAMPLE USING CALENDAR YEAR PLANNING HORIZON

25. Thank you
Questions?