Deployments

One of the GNC priorities is in-country support of the national and sub-national nutrition cluster/sector working group coordination mechanisms. To do so, GNC has established a number of mechanism, namely

• Rapid Response Team, to support countries with deployments for up to eight weeks in cluster/sector working group coordination and information management (cost sharing options are agreed on a case by case basis with the requesting office and varies from zero to 100%). See more information below.
• Technical Rapid Response Team, to support countries with deployments for up to eight weeks in nutrition in emergencies (cost sharing options are agreed on a case by case basis with the requesting office and varies from zero to 100%). See more information below.
• Short missions of the GNC Coordination Team for one-two weeks to review the challenges and provide recommendations to improve coordination and information management in clusters/sector working groups (as a rule, the trip is paid by the requesting office). Contact GNC-CT for more information.
• A roster of pre-vetted consultants established under the Global Technical Assistance Mechanism for Nutrition (GTAM) available to nutrition cluster/sector working groups and partners at global and country level in the following areas (cost to be beared by the requesting office):
  • Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) roster
  • Micronutrient supplementation in emergencies roster
  • Integrated nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions roster
  • Infant and Young child feeding in emergencies
  • Needs assessment and analysis for nutrition outcomes
• UNICEF stand-by partnerships agreements with NGOs to deploy mid-level specialists in cluster/sector working group coordination and information management and nutrition in emergencies for three to six months (at no cost to the requesting office). See more information below.
• UNICEF internal surge and stretch assignments in cluster/sector working group. coordination and information management and nutrition in emergencies for three to six months (travel-related cost and DSA to be paid by the requesting office). Contact local UNICEF HR office or the GNC-CT for more information

Rapid Response Team

The Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are one option for sourcing surge/temporary staff for Clusters and AoRs. The RRT ensures that high level deployable surge staff are secured to ensure that the cluster functions can be supported or established in the event of a sudden onset crisis or if an existing crisis escalates dramatically. Each UNICEF led or co-led Cluster and AoR has an RRT, made up of high quality, rapidly deployable cluster coordinators and information management specialists. This enables timely and coordinated response, which then ensures improved emergency interventions. The RRT members are deployed to UNICEF through Standby Arrangements or hired directly by UNICEF, are hosted by UNICEF at the country level and work with all partners in the cluster. The Global Nutrition Cluster’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) is a partnership between the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) and INGO partners. The purpose of creating the RRT is to increase the capacity of the GNC to support cluster coordination and information management functions through rapidly deployable Nutrition Cluster Coordinators’ (NCC) and Information Management Officers’ (IMO) technical capacity in humanitarian situations. For more information please read the RRT flyer.

Technical RRT roster

The Nutrition Technical Rapid Response Team (Tech RRT) is a team of experienced technical nutrition advisors who deploy within 72 hours to support humanitarian nutrition emergencies. Our advisors are available for both acute and protracted emergencies. Emergencies include natural and environmental disasters, civil unrest, population displacement and armed conflict, all of which can have a devastating impact on a countries nutrition status. Advisors on the Nutrition Tech RRT work to improve the quality of nutrition humanitarian response by deploying technical surge, providing remote support and building the capacity of nutrition partners when national capacity is overstretched or inadequate. The Tech RRT can support governments, UN agencies, and international and local NGOs when they struggle to find adequate technical and human resources to meet urgent technical needs. For more information please go to theTechRRT website here.

UNICEF stand-by partnerships agreements with NGOs

UNICEF (a Cluster Lead Agency for the GNC), has signed a Standby Agreement with various external partners, including NGOs, Governments and private companies. The overall program is referred to as Standby Arrangements. The purpose of Standby Arrangements is to ensure rapid deployment of expertise to provide temporary additional support to UNICEF and UNICEF led clusters/Areas of Responsibility to enhance capacity to respond to emergencies and humanitarian crisis. Various partners maintain either a varied pool of operational resources or specific niche expertise that can be deployed at short notice. Management of the partnership and resources is done in advance, allowing for timely and effective response to sudden onset crisis, as well as support to protracted crisis and expertise gaps in smaller emergencies. Standby Arrangements are an effective example of the power of leveraging partnerships to support emergency response, to impact humanitarian action and to achieve greater results for children. UNICEF’s Standby Arrangements are led by the Inter Agency and Humanitarian Partnerships Section (IA&HP) in the Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS) Geneva.

For more information and an overview of the current response, please see the: UNICEF External Surge Dashboard