The purpose of the gFSC Global Partners' Meeting, held on 27-28 November, was to review the work of the gFSC during the second half of 2014 and to identify and reaffirm priority areas for 2015-16, as well as to discuss strategically relevant food security topics.

The meeting report is now available on the FSC website.

In line with the deliberations and action points that were agreed upon during the Global Partners' Meeting in November 2014, and in the spirit of a regular review of gFSC performance and interaction with gFSC Partners, gFSC launched a short consultation survey that is focusing on gFSC functions and work that have not been reviewed recently.

The Focal Points of gFSC Partners and Observers have been approached to complete a survey to provide gFSC invaluable feedback and to guide our work in 2015-16. The deadline to complete the survey is 31 January 2015.

To acquire representative results, only one response per organization is requested. If you wish to update the contact details of your focal points or have not receved the survey link, please do not hesitate to contact us: info@foodsecuritycluster.net

• The Cluster has been working on the Strategic Response Plan (SRP) 2015 with the finalization of partners’ projects. The cluster has coordinated the submission of seven programmes under Food Security to Online Projects System (OPS), in line with SRP objectives and activities, integrating the projects of all partners. In other terms, rather than having individual organizations submitting their own projects, all projects have been grouped into seven main programmes with the purpose of making partners’ activities better coordinated and more coherent.
• FSC is currently working on the review of project submission for the first allocation of the CHF (Common Humanitarian Fund).
• Planning of the agricultural campaign has started: it will follow the approach adopted in 2014, i.e. a coordinated plan where FAO will be in charge of procuring inputs, partner NGOs will take care of the distribution and WFP will provide seeds protection rations to avoid that seeds are consumed before being planted. The agricultural campaign is expected to target 250,000 households for agricultural inputs distribution (including 150,000 with FAO support), if donors support is confirmed.
• The transhumance working group should be soon reactivated under the leadership of the government and FAO; field assessment missions are on-going although slowed down by access difficulties linked to security.

• Community assessments conducted in Anbar and Baghdad Governorates report that food assistance is a priority need
• There is a serious concern for the food security of the people in the besieged city of Al Baghdadi, Anbar governorate, which is reported to be suffering serious shortages of food and medicines. WFP continues to monitor the situation closely, and will distribute food assistance to affected areas whenever it can gain access.
• In response to the recent liberation of many areas in northern Ninewa governorate, the FSC has been coordinating with other agencies to make contingency plans for assistance, ensuring a fast and coordinated humanitarian response once these areas become accessible.
• To best address the complex needs of people returning to their homes following displacement, FSC is developing Standard Operating Procedures for partner organisations assisting returnees.
• Nationals NGOs report urgent need of food supplies in the Heet District of Anbar Governorate, in the southern part of the Salah al-Din Governorate and in Diwaniya District in Qadissiya.
• Workshops have been held among Food Security Cluster partners on gender and safe food distribution guidelines in order to help reduce any negative impact of distributions and strengthen potential positive effects. The guidelines aim to highlight underlying principles and put in place simple measures to increase the protective environment for affected people and be more accountable to them.

• Food distributions: partners have completed distributions in Lul, Koch, Mayendit, and Turkei, reaching almost 60,000 beneficiaries. General Food Distribution (GFD) in PoC 3 (Juba) are on-going.
• Mobile team deployments: Mobile teams have been deployed to Akobo, Gorwai, Kandak, Pading, Pathai and Wai. Next deployments are planned for Dablual, Ganylel, Jikmir, Mading, Mandeng, Makak, Menime, Old Fangak, Pultruk, Reang, Toic and Ulang.
• Food response and achievements in 2014: In the month of December, partners reached around 979,000 people with food assistance in South Sudan. Cumulatively, food partners reached 2.5 million unique beneficiaries with assistance in 2014.
• Post-harvest assessment completed: Partners together with government counterparts completed the postharvest food security assessment (second harvest of the year 2014) in the Equatorial Region and consultants are analyzing the data for the final report.
• Livestock vaccines and animal immunization: Recently, partners released over 1,000 drugs for livestock treatment in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and 1,610 livestock vaccines for Jonglei State, and 350 livestock vaccines to partners for Lakes State. Partners vaccinated dogs in Juba to prevent the spread of rabies and other diseases.
• The cluster was conducting capacity development for implementing partners on gender, accountability to affected populations, and on technical training on crops, horticulture and fisheries. During the reporting period more than 50 participants attended the “Gender and Accountability to Affected Populations” training in Juba. Over 300 participants have registered to attend the trainings.
• Livestock disease in Turkei: During a joint mission to Turkei partners found that 35 per cent of cattle herds were affected by the unknown disease and about 30 per cent of affected cattle have died from the unknown disease between July and mid-December, 2014. A rapid response team is currently being organized to address the disease outbreak.
• Market price monitoring continues.

• The IPC analysis carried out in December 2014 is completed. The main conclusion of the IPC is that the food security situation has deteriorated to Phase 4 (Emergency) in Ituri and Boende, located respectively in Province Orientale and Equateur. Phase 4 persists in Punia (Maniema), Shabunda (Sud-Kivu), Manono, Mitwaba and Pweto (Katanga).
• In total, the number of people in food security and livelihood crisis (Phase 3 and 4 of the IPC) are estimated at 6.5 million. Compared to the previous IPC analysis, there has been a decrease of about 500 000 people, although the number of people in Phase 4 (Emergency) has increased of 523 000. It should be considered that some areas of the country were not classified because of lack of data.
• Life-saving interventions are recommended for people in Phase 4, while activities aimed at livelihood protection and prevention of malnutrition and mortality are proposed for those in Phase 3.

• As of the beginning of January 2015, many homes have experienced serious food shortages and there are women associations that need Volunteer Savings and Loan Associations training, although there are limited funds to do so.
• Logistics support is also still required given the lack of tools, seeds and other agricultural inputs in country.
• FAO and WFP, in collaboration with the Government of Liberia, drafted the 2015 project document on the Liberia Price Monitoring (LPM) project, with the aim to collect, store, analyze and track commodity prices in Liberia on a monthly basis. The LPM is a critical Early Warning Tool in the Food Security Cluster that informs policy and decision making.
• The Food Security Cluster is also working on developing more harmonized Cash Transfer Programming protocols and coordination for the overall EVD response.

• A new article in the Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, "Constructing a culture of accountability: lessons from the Philippines" discusses lessons learned and reflections on creating a culture of accountability in a humanitarian crisis.
• The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability was launched on 15 December 2014 as part of the Sphere project. It is a direct result of the Joint Standards Initiative (JSI) in which the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) International, People In Aid and the Sphere Project joined forces to seek greater coherence for users of humanitarian standards. The JSI consulted more than 2,000 humanitarian workers in head offices, regions and in disaster-prone countries. The feedback highlighted the need for the harmonisation of standards, with communities and people affected by crisis at the centre and humanitarian principles as
  the foundation. To read more anout the nine commitments and quality criteria, please click this link.
• The FAO Quarterly Early Warning Bulletin for Food and Agriculture, covering the period January - March  2015 integrates information on threats to food security and the food chain by region and by country. It is a collaboration between FCC-EMPRES and GIEWS, and contributing to the outcome on information and early warning against potential, known and emerging threats.
• The fourth issue of the e-Newsletter for the Capacity Building Project on Integrating Nutrition and Food Security Programming for Emergency Response and Resilience Building is now available.
• On 26 January, the  ALNAP Humanitarian Policy Group held a webinar on "What have humanitarians learned from their response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Haiti Earthquake?" To read more about these findings, please click this link.

• FAO is recruiting an Emergency Food Security and Agriculture Assessment Specialist. Deadline for applications: 30 January 2015. For more information, please visit this link.
• FAO is also recruiting a Coordonnateur Zone Est (Provinces du Nord Kivu, Sud Kivu, Orientale et Maniema). Deadline for applications: 10 February 2015. For more information, please visit this link.
• International Medical Corps is looking for Food Security and Livelihoods Advisor (Washington DC). Please find the vacancy announcement with more details here.

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