Somalia | Priority areas | The health cluster

Somalia

WHO in Somalia

The health cluster

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Coordinating humanitarian health action

Our mission is to coordinate the work of health agencies while identifying gaps in health service delivery for vulnerable groups and steering health partners to address urgent humanitarian health needs.

Who we are

The Health Cluster in the country, under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO), comprises more than 35 international and 80 national humanitarian health organizations, United Nations (UN) agencies and federal and state health ministries who have worked together since 2006.

The Health Cluster coordinates all key health actors in the country to offer timely relief and life-saving humanitarian health care services to populations affected by humanitarian crises. The Cluster serves as a mechanism for coordinated assessments, joint analyses, and development of joint priorities and a response strategy to health crises. The Cluster oversees the implementation of the response to health crises within the framework of the Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia and when sudden emergencies occur, and monitors and evaluates the response.

At the country level, the Health Cluster establishes a clear system of leadership and accountability for the international humanitarian response in the health sector, under the overall leadership of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator. The Cluster ensures that international humanitarian response to health crises is well coordinated and appropriately aligned with national priorities, strategies and structures.

What we do

In collaboration with health authorities, we work to ensure a coordinated response to humanitarian health needs, primarily through the following actions:

Coordinate humanitarian response

We coordinate and link national, international and UN partners across the country to ensure all health interventions are coordinated and complementary with the aim of meeting the most urgent national and local health priorities. The Health Cluster team works with other clusters (e.g. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene and Nutrition) as part of the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG). A network of state- and regional– level Health Cluster coordination platforms, consisting of six state-level coordinators and nine regional focal point organizations, supports sub- national operational planning and response.

Manage information

We serve as a focal point for the collection, analysis, visualization and dissemination of information on the current humanitarian health situation, and monitoring the Health Cluster response in line with Global Health Cluster guidelines.

Develop the capacity of partners

We organize workshops and training to develop the knowledge and skills of partners on essential topics that address all five stages of the humanitarian programme cycle – humanitarian needs assessments, response planning, resource mobilization, implementation and monitoring, and evaluation and review. These events encourage information-sharing of new ideas, platforms, protocols and techniques, while strengthening and improving service delivery according to established standards and guidelines.

Contribute to the humanitarian programme cycle

We lead the health component of the humanitarian programme cycle each year, contributing health priorities to Somalia’s Humanitarian Needs Overview and the Humanitarian Response Plan. This involves: working with partners to identify people in need of humanitarian assistance in health; prioritizing target populations, those most in need and marginalized people; prioritizing strategic humanitarian health actions; monitoring humanitarian response activities; identifying gaps in health service delivery that can be filled to strengthen delivery, while avoiding overlaps; and organizing the use of scarce resources to ensure communities in great need can access services.

Undertake advocacy and resource mobilization for humanitarian health response

We lead advocacy on behalf of the Cluster partners and affected people through evidence-based needs analysis. We advocate for: equitable and dignified access to health care; safety for patients and health care providers; integrated response actions across health services and multi-cluster response; and building resilience in communities and health services.

Monitor Health Cluster coordination performance

We conduct yearly self-assessments to monitor the Cluster’s performance based on core coordination functions. This results in the development of a yearly workplan for collective action aimed at ensuring effective coordination among partners.

Our impact

Working with the Somali Ministry of Health and partners

  • Strategic health response to humanitarian needs facilitated through regular coordination of more than 120 health partners
  • Gaps in health services delivery for people in need regularly assessed and addressed
  • 2.5 million vulnerable people out of about 3.1 million people in need targeted for health care services
  • US$ 20.3 million allocated for humanitarian health response to nongovernmental organizations in 2018– 2019 through the Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan

What we have achieved

The Health Cluster has successfully:

  • Coordinated health partners in the country to deliver services on the ground with support from WHO Public Health Emergency Officers and peer-elected partner regional focal points who carry out coordination activities at the subnational level.
  • Streamlined reporting activities through the roll out of the ReportHub reporting platform that has enabled improved monitoring of cluster indicators.
  • Established the Attacks on Health Care Reporting System that seeks to record incidents and advocate against attacks or incidents of violence against health care providers or health care facilities.
  • Trained and sensitized partners on how to identify and address gender needs while delivering specialized health care to survivors of gender-based violence. The cluster has also rolled out a project on gender-based violence that seeks to identify and tackle gender-based violence in emergencies by strengthening inter-cluster coordination with stakeholders managing gender-based violence in the country to deliver more gender-sensitive health care.

What is next

During 2021 and 2022, the Health Cluster will prioritize the following activities:

  • Establish the Health Resources Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS) to monitor the health services available to the population affected by the humanitarian crisis.
  • Promote the inclusion of a wide spectrum of groups in health response activities, such as people facing mental health challenges, those in need of psychosocial support, women, survivors of gender-based violence and people living with disabilities. This approach also requires sex and age to considered and integrated in assessment, planning and response.
  • Advocate for and prioritize humanitarian funding mechanisms such as anticipatory funding; establish response frameworks for future crises and other sudden emergencies.
  • Build the knowledge and skills of Health Cluster partners on providing an effective and good- quality response to emergencies, including COVID-19.
  • Mobilize Health Cluster partners to actively implement the Essential Package of Health Services in humanitarian settings towards achieving universal health coverage.
  • Build skills and knowledge of subnational coordinators to improve operational planning and responsiveness.