What we do
Activities
Topics

DOCO’s Crisis and Post Conflict Cluster (CPC) provides targeted support to Resident Coordinators and RC Offices/UNCTs operating in transition countries, mainly in the areas of strategic planning (both national and UN), coordination structures and capacity, and financing mechanisms for transition. Through the UNDG-ECHA Working Group on Transition CPC has also developed policy guidance on transition issues.

What we do

DOCO/CPC works with RCs and UNCTs along the following three service lines:

1. Direct technical assistance to RC offices and UN Country Teams, including through the provision of targeted and time-bound surge capacity, in the areas of UN strategic planning, including integrated planning with peacekeeping operations, coordination mechanisms and financing strategies and instruments.

2. Financial support, through the Transition Fund, to enhance staff capacity in the RC Office in areas such as strategic planning, UNCT coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation and donor relations, depending on country context and available resources;

3. HQ liaison and facilitation of inter-agency/inter-departmental activities and processes related to crisis and post conflict countries. On behalf of UNDG, Resident Coordinators and RC offices, the CPC Cluster plays an HQ liaison role with a number of UN departments and units, including UNDP/BCPR, DPKO, DPA, OCHA and the PBSO. Tasks include:

• Coordination and facilitation of UNDG engagement in Policy Committee submissions and decisions, country specific SG reports and other system wide policy initiatives
• Engagement, on behalf of UNDG, in various PBSO-lead initiatives on Burundi, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau, including the review of PBF submissions from the field
• Participation in DPKO or DPA-led country-specific Integrated Mission Task Forces to ensure that RC and UNCT considerations are adequately reflected and disseminated at the corporate level
• Development, in conjunction with DPKO and DPA of policies and procedures to strengthen integration
• On behalf of the UNDG, DOCO also engages closely with the World Bank to strengthen collaboration in supporting national recovery efforts after conflict or natural disasters, particularly in the design and use of joint tools such as Post Conflict Needs Assessment (PCNA) and on funding instruments.

Finally, CPC facilitates a number of country specific inter-agency working groups designed to share information and mobilize system wide support for RC offices and UN Country Teams.

Activities

UNDG-ECHA Working Group on Transition

The UNDG-ECHA Working Group on Transition, co-chaired by DOCO and OCHA, embodies a partnership between the development, political, peacebuilding, peacekeeping and humanitarian actors of the broader UN system to develop policy, guidelines, and tools in support of countries in post-crisis transition settings. The DOCO Crisis and Post Conflict Cluster serves as its permanent Secretariat.

This Working Group has a hybrid nature, as it is linked to both the UNDG and ECHA (the Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs). This hybrid nature reflects constellation of actors which is required to effectively address transitions, which are by nature multi-dimensional and call for a response that encompasses these different dimensions.

View the Working Group’s webpage.

Workshop on Strategic Planning in Transition Contexts

DOCO’s Crisis and Post-Conflict Cluster hosted two global workshops on transition issues, one held in Marrakech in February 2006 and the other held in Cairo in March 2008. The workshops brought together Senior Coordination Officers and Strategic Planners from Resident Coordinator Offices in some 20 countries in transition settings, as well as representatives from member agencies of the UNDG-ECHA Working Group on Transition. The transition workshops served to further professionalize the coordination and strategic planning functions of RC offices in transitions by building on comparative experiences, sharing lessons learned and best practices of coordination in transitions, and explaining the latest tools and Headquarters’ initiatives.

In November 2008, DOCO-CPC organized a workshop for UN system Strategic Planners in New York, to further develop skills needed for strategic planning in transition contexts, bringing together actors from UNDG agencies, DOCO, DPKO, DPA and PBSO both from HQ and the field.

UNDG-DPA working session

The Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) have many opportunities to strengthen their collaboration, particularly in post-conflict and transition countries. To promote this better understanding of each other’s work and in particular to explore ways in which there could be better cooperation and collaboration within the existing assessment and planning processes, DPA and UNDOCO are organizing a working session in August 2008. Topics CPC covers in particular the following areas of work:

Transition Planning: The UN strategies in transition contexts help to situate the UN’s comparative advantage and response within the broader national and international efforts for crisis recovery.

Transition Financing: Tools and approaches possible to ensure adequate and timely funding of the UN’s response in transition situations.

Integration issues: Current UN policies and steps towards more integrated operational structures. Post

Conflict Needs Assessment (PCNA): PCNAs are increasingly used by national and international actors as an entry point for conceptualizing, negotiating and financing a common shared strategy for recovery and development in fragile, post-conflict settings.

Partnerships: The CPC Cluster works together with a wide range of partners inside and outside the UN system to enhance common understanding and policy and HQ support to RCs and UNCT s in transition contexts.