Background
Following the landfall of Category 4 Cyclone Giri in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State on 22 October 2010, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) led by the UN RC/HC discussed the need to activate the cluster system in a meeting on 25 October 2010. This was seen not appropriate for different circumstances. However, an informal coordination mechanism was put in place, led by the IFRC for the shelter, as a voluntary effort of the IFRC delegation. At the time, the coordination mechanism’s capacity was limited to the capacity in-country. As the situation evolved on 2 November, it became clearer that there was a need to scale up this coordination mechanism with a dedicated team made up of a shelter coordinator and a shelter information manager. Two Myanmar nationals with international experience in shelter coordination teams and information management were deployed to Myanmar from Canada and Haiti to coordinate the Shelter and Non food Items (NFIs) sector until the 10 January 2011, when the coordination was handed over to UNHABITAT for shelter recovery.
Evaluation process
An independent evaluation was undertaken of the shelter cluster activated in response to Cyclone Giri which struck Myanmar in October 2010.
It was commissioned by the IFRC as Global Shelter Cluster Lead for Natural Disasters. The evaluation process was managed by a threeperson team including a representative from the Asia Pacific zone, the Planning and Evaluation department (PED), and the Shelter department.
The evaluation was carried out by an independent consultant.
The purpose of this evaluation was to:
Appraise the service provided by the IFRC as coordinator of the shelter and NFI sector to shelter sector participants – Government, UN agencies, Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, NGOs both national and international, and other actors;
Review and analyze the experience of the IFRC with respect to the establishment and operation of the shelter and NFI sector, with a particular emphasis on lessons to be learnt for future operations;
Provide recommendations with regard to the IFRC’s leadership of future emergency shelter coordination activities at both national and global levels.
Examine if there were aspects of the IFRC's shelter sector leadership which potentially might have or actually did compromise the mandate and principles of the Red Cross/Red Crescent.
Examine the options for the IFRC to continue to have a lead role in the shelter sector during non-emergency periods and the resources required to perform such a role.
Examine the linkages between the shelter and the NFI sector and any coordination system set up by the national authorities.
Examine the extent to which national actors (NGOs, affected population, civil society and the private sector) were included in the coordination mechanism.
Analyze whether actions have been taken to address recommendations (global and not specific to operational context) made in previous cluster reviews.
The review was completed in July 2011 and this management action plan matrix responds to the evaluation report recommendations.
