Agenda, 92ndt IASC Working Group Meeting, final version March 23 2017
Inter-Agency Standing Committee
92nd IASC Working Group Meeting
Agenda
5-6 April 2017
Host: FAO, Rome
Time / Day 1: Wednesday, 5 April 201708:30 – 09:00 / Arrival with Coffee / Tea
09:00 – 09:30 / Opening remarks by Ms. Ursula Mueller, Chair of the IASC WG and Mr. Daniel Gustafson, Deputy Director-General, FAO
09:30-11:00
(90 mins)
/ Session 1: A Vision for the IASC in a changing world
Session Facilitator: Ms. Ursula Mueller, DERC and Chair, IASC WG
The DERC shares her initial vision on the opportunities and challenges ahead for the IASC, as she takes up the Chair of the IASC Working Group and drawing on outcomes from her initial bilateral meetings with IASC colleagues. The session provides an opportunity for the IASC members to share their own thoughts and forward-looking agenda, particularly in the context of a fast-changing political landscape, which will have an impact on humanitarian response. As the Secretary-General revises UN coordination and management structures, and puts in place a UN reform agenda with implications for the broader humanitarian community including initiatives of the IASC, the DERC shares her perspectives on her interactions with these structures. IASC Working Group members discuss policy issues arising from the field and field perspectives of the ongoing reform programme. This discussion will complement the ongoing IASC Principals’ dialogue.
Presenters: Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ethiopia
Expected outcome:
· Share thoughts on the opportunities and challenges ahead for the IASC and explore implications of current political change, new structures and reform initiatives for the humanitarian system and the work of the IASC itself.
· Identify policy issues arising in the field, in relation to the IASC and ongoing reform initiatives.
Background papers:
· Secretary-General’s Paper on Enhancing Performance in the Peace and Security Pillar
· Secretary-General’s Paper on the Establishment of an Executive Committee 2017
· Secretary-General’s Paper on EOSG Terms of Reference
· IASC Proposition Paper - Engaging with new structures - 29 January 2017
11:00-11:30 / Coffee Break
11:30-13:00
(90 mins) / Session 2: Interactive Discussion on Shaping the Vision of the IASC
Session Facilitator: Ms. Patricia McIlreavy (InterAction)
Participants will identify key elements of a future vision for the IASC in the context of considerable, and evolving, political and structural change. In this discussion, participants will build upon the analysis in Sessions 1 and the outcomes of on-going IASC Principals dialogue in advance of the IASC Principals Retreat. The session provides an opportunity to explore how the IASC can optimise its relationship with partners (including donors and Member States), as well as identify key issues for targeted collective advocacy.
Expected Outcomes:
· Identify clear immediate and medium-terms actions for the IASC Working Group to clarify and enhance its role in support of IASC Principals and field response.
· Concrete proposals and recommendations for the IASC Principals on strengthening the IASC in its relationship with key partners and in collective advocacy.
In addition, at its last meeting, the IASC Working Group tasked UNHCR to convene a small working group and ‘come up with proposals to enhance the way the WG works for further consideration by the WG and the in-coming WG Chair.’ The proposals of this group will be shared with participants and help inform discussions to identify clear actions that are within the remit of the IASC WG and its Chair to implement, and clarify how the different structures, roles and relationships within the IASC can be enabled to best support IASC decision-making and action.
Presenter: Member of the small working group (tbc.)
Expected Outcomes:
· Concrete proposals and recommendations for the IASC Principals on strengthening the IASC, including in its relationship with key partners and in collective advocacy.
· Clarify the links between the WG and Emergency Directors Group, and agree how WG can work in dialogue with Humanitarian Coordinators to ensure policy facilitates humanitarian response on the ground.
Background Papers:
· IASC Proposition Paper - Engaging with new structures - 29 January 2017
· IASC Principals Proposition Paper - Increasing Outreach 2017
· IASC Principals Proposition Paper - Working Practice 2017
· IASC Principals Lunch Discussion Summary Record - 8 February 2017
· Small Working Group proposals on improving working modalities and Working Group support to IASC Principals
13:00-14:30 / Lunch, hosted by FAO
14:30 – 16:00
(90 mins) / Session 3: Creating Essential Links: Diversity and Inclusivity
Session Facilitator: Mr. Manuel Fontaine (UNICEF)
The IASC must ensure that it is fully informed by humanitarian field perspectives, and takes the voices and views of Humanitarian Coordinators, other field leaders, and the diverse humanitarian eco-system into account. These are essential for defining appropriate policy, guidance and tools and ensuring their operational relevance. The Working Group will agree on avenues to cooperate more effectively with the broader humanitarian eco-system, including civil society stakeholders from the Global South. It will identify how it can learn from, or bring into IASC discussions, communities of practice, as well as other actors who can deepen analysis and inform decision-making, such as academics, members of think-tanks, policy advisers or politicians. The session will support the IASC Principals agenda for change in ensuring IASC action is more inclusive of, and responsive to, the needs of diverse humanitarian stakeholders.
Presenter: Ms. Laila Muriithia, Kenya Refugee Committee
Expected outcomes:
· Agree next steps for Working Group outreach and cooperation with the broader humanitarian eco-system, including civil society stakeholders.
· Identify opportunities for a more inclusive and diversified IASC, while maintaining light and streamlined structures and processes, for further deliberation by IASC Principals.
Background Papers:
· ICVA Background Note on strengthening diversity
· IASC Principals Proposition Paper - Increasing Outreach 2017
16:00-16:30 / Coffee Break
16:30-17:30
(60 mins) / Session 4: The Secretary-General’s Reform Agenda
Session Facilitator: Ms. Ursula Mueller, DERC and Chair, IASC WG
In 2015, three significant reviews were undertaken in the peace and security area – on peace operations, the peacebuilding architecture and the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. These reviews – as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the World Humanitarian Summit – emphasized the need to focus and strengthen the effectiveness, coherence and relevance of the UN system in its efforts to prevent violent conflicts and sustain peace in today’s complex and interconnected crises. The Secretary-General has made the prevention of violent conflicts and collaboration across the pillars of the UN system a priority.
Participants will discuss the implications of this agenda for the international humanitarian community and assess how IASC concerns and messaging should influence agenda-setting, strategic decision-making and policy formulation. The discussion provides an opportunity to identify entry points for discussions with other actors on these issues, to assess the implications of this agenda for leadership, coordination and accountability to affected populations, and to focus the IASC Working Group’s contribution to the work of the SG and IASC Principals.
Presenter: Mr. Fabrizio Hochschild, Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination in the Executive Office (via VTC/skype from New York)
Expected outcomes:
· Orientate participants on the Secretary-General’s reform agenda, including on sustaining peace, and the implications for the IASC and the broader humanitarian system.
· Explore implications of current political change, new structures and reform initiatives for the humanitarian system and the work of the IASC itself.
Background papers:
· IASC Proposition Paper - Engaging with new structures - 29 January 2017
17:30 – 18:00 / Review of Day 1 Outcomes and Action Points
19:30 / Informal Dinner - Taverna Cestia located at Viale della Piramide Cestia 71
Time / Day 2:Thursday, 6 April 2017
09:00-09:15 / Summary of Day 1
09:15 – 11:15
(120 mins) / Session 5: Internally Displaced Persons
Session Facilitator: Ms. Ugochi Daniels (UNFPA)
In 2016, there were calls for renewed efforts to prevent internal displacement, address the root causes, and support safe, dignified and durable solutions for internally displaced people, with the aim of halving internal displacement globally by 2030. In October 2016, the WG reflected on ways in which its action, and advocacy in particular, can better support IDPs, and asked OCHA to engage with relevant partners on paragraph 20 of the New York Declaration. The response to IDPs has been identified by a number of IASC Principals as an area for their particular attention. This session provides an opportunity to update WG members on current initiatives and for Prof. Walter Kaelin to share analysis and recommendations from an OCHA-commissioned study on the impact of protracted internal displacement, to be published in April 2017. The study features 5 country case studies (Colombia, DRC, Philippines, Somalia and Ukraine), and specific recommendations for government, humanitarian and development actors to work towards ‘collective outcomes’. In addition, UNHCR is currently undertaking an internal review of its response to internal displacement, including identification of the gaps that hamper an efficient response to IDPs, while IOM will soon launch its own IDP Framework.
Presenters: Professor Walter Kaelin, Mr. Arafat Jamal (UNHCR), Ms. Cecilia Jimenez-Damary (SR on HR of IDPs) (via skype), Ms. Tristan Burnett (IOM)
Expected outcomes:
· Increased understanding of gaps in the IDP response, current initiatives to address these, and specific areas for WG action and support to IASC Principals and the field.
· IASC WG is updated on UNHCR’s operational review and potential implications for the overall IASC response to IDPs, and IOM’s IDP Framework.
· Based on the OCHA-commissioned IDP study, the IASC WG discusses relevant recommendations, including for the 5 identified countries, and is informed of planned follow-up.
Background papers:
· Executive Summary and Recommendations - Breaking the Impasse: Reducing Protracted Internal Displacement as a collective outcome
· IOM Framework for Addressing Internal Displacement
· IASC Working Group - Special Rapporteur Paper on the human rights of IDPs – 2017
· Background document provided by UNHCR (tbc.)
11:15 – 11:45 / Coffee Break
11:45 – 12:45
(60 mins) / Session 6: Sustaining Peace and The New Way of Working
Session Facilitator: Mr. Daniel Gustafson, FAO
This session builds upon session 4 on the Secretary-General’s Reform Agenda. In addition to emphasizing the need to focus and strengthen the effectiveness, coherence and relevance of the UN system, the Secretary-General has made collaboration across the pillars of the UN system a priority, as well as prevention and engagement with a more diverse range of actors. Participants will discuss the implications of this agenda for the international humanitarian community, in particular in relation to on-going work on the New Way of Working in the context of the broader humanitarian-development–peace nexus. Participants will identify how the WG can support momentum on the NWOW at all levels, including by the SG and IASC Principals, and provide guidance to the IASC Task Team on the Humanitarian-Development Nexus on its specific contribution to this.
Presenter: Mr. Bruno Lemarquis (UNDP) as HDN TT representative
Expected outcomes:
· Provide guidance to the IASC Task Team on the Humanitarian-Development Nexus on how to position itself and focus its workplan vis-à-vis the Sustaining Peace Agenda.
· Provide guidance to the Task Team on its agreed position within the broader workstream on the humanitarian-development nexus with internal and external partners.
· Provide guidance to the task Team on its revised workplan.
Background papers:
· Summary Report: Joint Workshop between the IASC Task Team on Humanitarian-Development Nexus in Protracted Crises and the UN WG on Transitions, 20-21 October 2017
· WHS Commitment to Action - Transcending Humanitarian-Development Divides
· 2017 Progress Report - IASC Task Team on Strengthening the Humanitarian/Development Nexus with a focus on protracted contexts
· IASC-WG Analysis Paper on NWOW + Sustaining Peace
· Decision and Discussion Points for IASC WG
13:00-14:30 / Lunch
14:30 – 15:30
(60 mins) / Session 7: Strengthening Communication for the IASC through Social Media
Session Facilitator and Presenter: Ms. Ursula Mueller, DERC and Chair, IASC WG
There are opportunities to further strengthen IASC communication through enhanced use of social media platforms, within and between IASC member organisations. More systematic engagement on and reflection of key messaging and products can highlight, and act as a multiplier, for the considerable advocacy, work and impact of IASC partners individually and collectively, and take forward the humanitarian agenda.
Expected outcomes:
· Identification of potential areas of collaboration and complementarity in leveraging existing efforts and content in a more systematic way through the IASC’s existing social media platform and tools.
Background papers:
· Strengthening Communication for the IASC through Social Media
15:30 – 16:00
(30 mins) / Conclusions and Closing Remarks
Session Facilitator: Ms. Ursula Mueller, DERC and Chair, IASC WG
· Conclusion and Action Points
· Reflection on outstanding Action Points
· Agreement of dates of the next WG meeting
Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)