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Review of the IFRC-led Shelter Cluster: Burkina Faso September 2009 Floods Response

Countries
Burkina Faso
Sources
IFRC
Publication date
Origin
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Executive Summary

In October 2009 IFRC provided shelter coordination support to Burkina Faso as part of the response to the sudden floods that took place on the night of 31 st August to 1 st September 2009 and affected approximately 150,000 people. Answering a request by the UN Resident Coordinator in Burkina Faso, the IFRC promptly sent a Coordinator to support the coordination efforts of the shelter sector group.

Unlike in other emergencies, clusters were not officially called upon to coordinate the emergency response in Burkina Faso. Instead, sectoral groups were established to strengthen the coordination of activities between the government and the humanitarian community. A total of six sectoral groups were created including: education, food, shelter and NFIs, protection and water and sanitation.

IFRC supported the coordination effort by sending a Shelter Coordinator to Burkina Faso on October 1 st for the period of one month. No additional IFRC staff was deployed at this time or sent to replace the first deployment. According to the Shelter Coordinatorʼs Terms of Reference, the main objective of the Coordinator was “to contribute towards the effective provision of emergency shelter assistance to the affected population through the timely and efficient coordination of shelter agencies within the Shelter Coordination Group in support of the national authorities.” In order to fulfill these tasks the Shelter Coordinatorʼs main focus was to draft the Shelter Sector Strategy and to set up an Information Management platform, through which shelter partners were able to share information about their activities. Data on who was doing what and where was collected and needs and activities were mapped. This information was shared and used to inform the decisions made by the shelter community and by the Government.

The Shelter Coordinator also focused on representing the shelter agencies and serving as intermediary between them and the Government of Burkina Faso. The Coordinator invested a significant amount of time ensuring that the needs from both shelter partners and the Government were understood, that information was exchanged and that dialogue took place. This represented a substantial challenge given the complexity of the response, the lack of awareness on standards and procedures and the limited capacity of partners in the field to respond to emergencies.

These efforts were well received and appreciated by the partners, most of whom had never before been exposed to an emergency and to the humanitarian mechanisms that were put in place as part of the response. Despite the challenging circumstances, both in terms of the operating environment and of the structure of the deployment, the Shelter Coordinator was able to set up a functioning Information Management base that was regarded positively by shelter agencies and Government alike and to support actors at the strategic and technical levels.

However, the short period of deployment and the lack of additional coordination support (specifically, the lack of an Information Management officer deployed as part of a Coordination Team) hindered the ability of the Coordinator to focus on other crucial aspects of coordination, specifically in the transition and recovery phases of the response. This should have been one of the primary objectives of the mission, particularly as the transition/recovery phase was initiating at the time the Coordinator arrived in Burkina Faso.

Moreover, the lack of additional time and support meant that it was not possible to dedicate sufficient time to ensuring the sustainability of efforts, as evidenced by the absence of adequate recovery strategies and limited capacity building activities undertaken. This also had a significant impact on the handover and the strategies that were adopted to ensure a smooth transition from an IFRC-led Shelter Cluster to the recovery partner. As was also the case in Burkina Faso, the handover to UN-Habitat suffered from a lack of time to put the necessary mechanisms in place and a lack of appropriate capacity and capacity building measures.

While coordination support as provided by IFRC traditionally focuses on emergency shelter assistance the type of support required in Burkina Faso called for a different approach. A more tailored support package that responds to the existing environment and matches the needs of partners on the ground needs to be provided in future deployments. This approach requires flexibility in the specific mandate and objectives of the Shelter Cluster and on the structure of deployments.

As experienced in Burkina Faso, however, the deployment of a one-member Shelter Cluster Team for four weeks limited the ability to provide a comprehensive and sustainable response. IFRC needs to evaluate whether providing this kind of support contributes to advancing the Shelter Cluster goal in a consistent, efficient and comprehensive manner, effectively responds to the needs of partners on the ground and contributes to maintaining the standard and credibility of the organisation as a whole.

Emergencies such as the one in Burkina Faso will likely see a steady increase in the near future. Even though the September 2009 floods were an unusual event that occurred outside the typical flooding period, floods have been taken place in the country on an annual basis since 2005. While the impact has not warranted international assistance, in the long run the human and material toll derived from these seasonal disasters will become more evident. This type of silent disasters requires new thinking on the way humanitarian assistance and coordination support is provided.