This fifth Health Cluster Coordination Training for current and potential Health Cluster Coordinators and Information Management Officers took place in Divonne-les-Bains, France, on 20-29 November 2018. The training was organized by the Global Health Cluster (GHC) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA).
The objectives of the training were to:
1. Build and strengthen the capacity of Health Cluster Coordinators to lead and coordinate the planning, implementation and monitoring of more effective, efficient, timely and predictable evidence-based humanitarian health interventions in acute and protracted emergencies.
2. Build and strengthen the capacity of Information Management Officers to lead and coordinate the generation of evidence-based planning, implementation and monitoring of humanitarian health interventions in acute and protracted emergencies.
3. Ensure that Participants can effectively and collaboratively carry out the tasks and duties associated with the Terms of Reference for Health Cluster Coordinators and Information Management Officers.
This nine-day training programme contained a blend of didactic and practical sessions, including three joint desk-top exercises and a two-day joint simulation exercise (SIMEX), and closely followed the IASC Humanitarian Programme Cycle and the Reference Module on Cluster Coordination.
The training was attended by 38 participants, including both WHO and partner organizations staff (Save the Children, International Rescue Committee, iMMAP and Norwegian Refugee Council). These were twelve Health Cluster Coordinators, with five working at sub-national level and six Information Management Officers. The other twenty participants had a wide variety of roles, and sixteen were WHO Health Emergencies Programme personnel mainly from the SEARO and WPRO Regions.
The feedback from the participants and the training team was very positive. The training was rigorously evaluated and provides a firm foundation for continuing to strengthen and refine future training for Health Cluster Coordination teams.
After the relaunch of the current series of Health Cluster Coordinator Training in 2015, the joint Health Cluster Coordination training was designed by the GHC Capacity Development Task Team, the Public Health Information Services Task Team, the GHC unit and other staff of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme.