Coordination in camps is the core responsibility for a Camp Management Agency. Through coordination needs and gaps are identified, duplication avoided, participation enhanced, humanitarian standards applied and human rights protected.
Developing and maintaining a network of effective partnerships with the various stakeholders involved in the camp facilitates coordination and leads to provision of assistance and protection of the camp population.
Successful coordination by the Camp Management Agency at camp level includes all stakeholders in the humanitarian response. These may include national authorities, service providers, the host community, civil society and, most importantly, the camp population. The Camp Management Agency must take an active part in Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster/Sector Lead coordination at inter-camp or regional level. Issues that cannot be solved at camp level must be referred to inter-camp or regional level. At this level, participants may, in addition to stakeholders involved at camp level, also include foreign governments, donors, military and regional/national authorities. In reality, stakeholders involved are always context-specific.
Successful partnerships, and hence successful coordination, are in part dependent upon attitudes, skills, good leadership, clear and transparent communication and an ability to establish consensus and build trust. They enable a Camp Management Agency to plan and carry out comprehensive actions, establish missing but critical connections, identify new and better ways to solve problems and link complementary skills and resources of diverse persons and organisations.
Effective coordination is underpinned by reliable, up-todate cross-sector information, which enables all stakeholders involved to assess the needs of all groups within the camp and to plan interventions to meet them.
Coordination starts by direct contact with camp population and includes service providers as well as regional and national cluster/sector coordination structures. To make a difference, all stakeholders involved in coordination must believe in its benefits, commit to the process and ensure that representation of needs and concerns of affected people are prioritised at all levels.
