Report of a lessons learned and effective practice workshop
A lessons-learned and effective practice workshop on UNHCR’s expanded role in support of the inter-agency response to internal displacement situations was convened by the Division of Operational Services (DOS) and the Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES) from 11 to 14 October 2006 in Nairobi.
The idea to convene this workshop mainly derived from the fact that UNHCR has assumed, since December 2005, a new leadership role in relation to internally displaced persons (IDPs), better known as the ‘cluster approach’. Nine months after the introduction of the cluster approach, it was deemed necessary to take stock, at least in the interim, of what innovations the new approach has introduced to UNHCR’s operations, what challenges remain and in which directions the Office should invest in order to better assume its leadership role in the areas under its responsibility, i.e. protection, camp coordination/camp management and emergency shelter.
By way of contrast, and to compare UNHCR’s operational experience in various IDP situations, the workshop brought together not only countries where the cluster approach has been activated but also a number of different countries where the organization is working with IDPs
