Strategic Operational Framework

In an inter-dependent humanitarian world, strategic approaches allow multiple agencies with diverse mandates to achieve goals collectively that could not be achieved by individual approaches alone. Clusters are the expression of that collective realization and aim to provide the “enabling environment” that allows diversity to strengthen both the effectiveness and efficiency of aid delivery.
The Cluster’s (interim) Standard Operating Procedures call for a strategic framework to be drafted on behalf of all Cluster partners and participants by a small team representing all stakeholder groups (see Terms of Reference for the Strategic Advisory Group - SAG). It is a framework document. As such it allows partners to develop their own strategies according to their own mandates, capabilities, capacities, and comparative advantages, while at the same time providing a road-map for coherent planning.
A key assumption when drafting such a framework is that the ‘leadership’ demanded of Cluster Leads (and, therefore, their appointed Cluster Coordinators) by the IASC Guidance Note can only be achieved through consensus management techniques when a) there is a strategic frame of reference, and b) there is a reliable and valid evidence-base against which to focus discussions. (Hence the need for a strong Information Management capability).

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