Oxfam’s protection cluster support project, which started in mid-2010, combined cluster co-facilitation with the development of cluster tools and the strengthening of cluster processes in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several of the lessons learned are of broader use to agencies involved in cluster co-facilitation both within protection and more generally. Direct co-facilitation of the cluster in Orientale transformed a low-functioning provincial protection cluster into one of the more active in the country and increased awareness of, and response to, provincial protection issues at the national level. Activities to improve the effectiveness of the protection clusters across the east included support for annual processes such as the Humanitarian Action Plan, and the production of several procedural and advocacy tools and resources such as the Protection Toolkit and the Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit. Standard impact indicators for protection programs were developed, adopted by the protection cluster at the national level, and are in the process of being adopted by the Pooled Fund. The project also worked to increase the meaningful involvement of Congolese NGOs in the protection cluster through training workshops. NGO’s bring several distinct advantages to their role as co-facilitators, including encouraging greater inclusivity and ensuring linkages to communities through connections to programs. Oxfam’s project underlined the importance of focusing on the added value of NGO’s and avoiding acting as a replacement to the cluster lead. Oxfam particularly brought strong protection and advocacy expertise to the cluster, as well as a strong engagement with humanitarian reform in DRC and the capacity to bring concerns raised in the provinces to the attention of national actors through a proactive advocacy coordinator based in Kinshasa. Due both to the decentralized nature of the protection cluster in the DRC and a series of changing leads and co-facilitators, it has historically been difficult to ensure the uptake and long-term durability of support tools developed. The national cluster does not standardize cluster tools across the country. Providing effective support to the coordination of protection initiatives was dependent upon the regionally distinct characteristics of provincial and national protection clusters and their relationships with the range of other protection structures within the UN integrated mission. The protection cluster is not the primary forum for a number of protection issues, including sexual violence, within UN and state-led coordination systems in the DRC, and there is a lack of systematic coordination between these systems.
