Michelle Berg was assigned to UNHCR Branch Office Islamabad to ...

UPDATE ON THE PROCAP PROJECT
ProCap funding situation for 2011: Sufficient funds remain for ProCap to cover
another four to five deployments this calendar year.
Joint ProCap and GenCap evaluation in 2011: The Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi)
has been selected for the joint evaluation of the ProCap and GenCap Projects. The
evaluation is now well under way and will be completed by the end of 2011. In mid-
September the evaluators interviewed a broad spectrum of stakeholders in Geneva.
Field visits will include South Sudan, Sudan, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. Different surveys
have been designed for the experts and the receiving offices to glean as much
information as possible to establish the future parameters of the projects.
MICHELLE BERG, RECENTLY HOSTED BY UNHCR PAKISTAN
Michelle Berg was assigned to UNHCR Branch Office
Islamabad to address Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP)
issues arising from the floods of unprecedented
magnitude in Pakistan. When she arrived in April 2011,
the country had moved on to early recovery, led by UNDP
and the government-National Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA). In parallel, OCHA had commenced
contingency planning. Her task was to lead the protection
working group (which had now replaced the clusters)
through the early recovery process and through
contingency planning. Perhaps the greatest coordination
challenge during the mission was meeting the many and
time-bound demands of these two separate inter-sectoral
coordination mechanisms.
Happily, the protection group was able to achieve several
tangible goals by the time the mission was over at the end
of July 2011. Amongst its achievements were a protection
contingency plan and extremely detailed human resource
mapping for the country. The map showed which persons
in what jobs could be called on to undertake which tasks
during a future emergency. Additionally a “one year on”
review of protection activities was produced. Thematic
protection meetings were conducted on gender based
violence, land, age and disability, psychosocial issues and
child trafficking. The dormant Housing Land and Property
sub group was re-activated in June of 2011. A
comprehensive Rapid Protection Assessment, with
Guidelines and Tabulation Plan, was redrafted and
national and international surveyors were trained to cope
with emergency. Finally, on the strength of Real Time
Evaluations for Pakistan, beneficiary selection criteria were
drafted by the Protection Group, which is currently
seeking endorsement for these criteria from other sectors
and the Government. The onset of new floods in the
summer of 2011 proved just how vital the contingency
planning was for the protection of beneficiaries’ safety and
dignity.
OVERVIEW OF PROCAP DEPLOYMENTS
THAILAND (WFP) Paul White
COLOMBIA (UNHCR) Alfredo Zamudio
DRC (WFP) Isabelle Rivolet
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
(UNHCR)
NAMIBIA
(UNFPA/OCHA)
ONGOING DEPLOYMENTS 12
Etienne Antheunissens
Sara Packwood
LIBYA (UNHCR) Laurent Grosbois
KENYA (UNICEF) Cate Steaines
GLOBAL PROTECTION
CLUSTER
GLOBAL PROTECTION
CLUSTER
Simon Russell
Michelle Berg
SOMALIA (UNICEF) Chris Watkins
MALAWI
(UNHCR/OCHA)
KENYA
(UNHCR/KNCHR)
Burundi
Laurie Wiseberg
Ann Kristin Brunborg
The Protection Standby
Capacity Project (ProCap)
is an inter-agency initiative
in collaboration with the
Norwegian Refugee
Council (NRC). ProCap
seeks to build capacity of
humanitarian actors at
country level to
mainstream protection in
all sectors of humanitarian
response.
20.03.2011-
24.03.2012
31.03.2011-
30.09.2011
09.04.2011-
30.12.2011
22.06.2011-
05.11.2011
19.06.2011-
23.12.2011
12.07.2011-
31.12.2012
30.08.2011-
1.02.2012
05.09.2011-
30.12.2011
05.09.2011-
05.10.2011
15.09.2011-
15.12.2011
26.09.2011-
25.10.2011
28.09.2011-
27.03.2012
PENDING PROCAP REQUEST 1
TOTAL PROCAP DEPLOYMENTS 84
39 COUNTRIES, 8 REGIONAL OFFICES, 1 AFRICAN REGIONAL
ORGANISATION, 4 INTEGRATED MISSIONS, 7 AGENCIES. 3 HCS

ALFREDO ZAMUDIO, UNHCR COLOMBIA
In recent years, protracted, low-intensity conflict in
Colombia has displaced an average of 200,000 people a
year. Natural disasters also have an enormous impact in
this country, with additional displacement caused by
rain, floods and landslides. A total of 3.6 million people
were displaced at the end of 2010. Issues such as
recruitment of children and youth, lack of humanitarian
access and humanitarian space, gender based violence,
forced displacement, torture and killing of civilians, and
usurpation of land by the mining, agriculture and oil
industries impinge on and displace Indian, Afro-
Colombian and rural agricultural communities.
The 2010 IASC mission to Colombia urged the Country
Team to focus more on humanitarian assistance for the
country. As a result, the cluster system was reorganized
to provide more accountable humanitarian assistance.
A Common Humanitarian Framework was established
with hard won agreement on actual humanitarian
needs, and on the prominence protection analysis
should be given in several of the clusters.
SIMON RUSSELL, GLOBAL PROTECTION CLUSTER
Near the end of 2000, I came to work for ICVA- the
International Council of Voluntary Agencies- as NGO
focal point for the Global Consultations on
international protection, marking the 50th Anniversary
of the Refugee Convention. That experience drove me
to spend the next decade in the field, including by now
six years on constant rotation with Procap, avoiding
Geneva as much as possible.
I’m now back in Geneva for a short assignment to assist
with something called “visioning” for the Global
Protection Cluster. This somewhat off-putting title
covers a process of re-orienting the Global Protection
Cluster: the aim is to make it work, particularly for
colleagues leading field clusters, who in general don’t
know what the GPC is or what it does. I include myself
in that group.
It’s a bit tricky coming to the GPC from the field. I’m
trying not to appear like the country cousin marveling
at all the things sophisticated people in the big city talk
and worry about. Much of what concerns people in
Geneva does not worry us in the field and the reverse
also is true.
Pursuing the objective of
engaging protection cluster
members themselves in the
mechanisms of the
protection cluster, my
contribution has been to
facilitate the exchange of
information, help the cluster
with its terms of reference,
consolidate its work plan,
coordinate meetings and assist with set up of a
webpage where standards, guidelines and minutes
are posted for all members of the protection
cluster.
I am advocating for more structured needs analysis
and improved interaction between the protection
cluster and those for early recovery, education,
food security, nutrition and shelter.
For example, the talk here is
usually about standards and
guidance, in the field the
major concern is always
about money and people to
do the job.
I believe that the cottage
industry of developing
standards, guidelines and tools- which are rarely
disseminated properly to the field- needs to make
way for a focus on giving field clusters the
operational tools they need.
In a short assignment I have no illusions about
what change can be effected. I expect to rotate to
the field early in the new year; in the meantime I
will have to get used to the long-forgotten
experience of working in a cold climate.