The World Humanitarian Summit’s online consultations launched on 5 May 2014 to gather ideas and solutions from people around the world to shape the future of humanitarian action, in the lead up to the global summit in 2016. The online consultations will serve as a place to identify and prioritize global solutions around improving humanitarian effectiveness, increasing innovation, addressing needs of people in conflict, and reducing disaster risks.

The summit, convened by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, will bring all interested humanitarian stakeholders together to set out a new course for how we collaborate in the vital effort to prepare for and respond to natural disasters and man-made crises around the world. The online consultation will involve dialogue and debate as to how we can come together to save more lives and reduce suffering. Findings from these online discussions will be included in the reports and recommendations that the summit will consider.

The summit process is being managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and is supported by a broad group of champions including over 35 countries and 50 organizations who are working to improve global humanitarian action.

Please invite your colleagues, partners and friends to participate and add their ideas and solutions, as we work to ensure that the WHS is an inclusive process. The first round of discussions for West and Central Africa and our Global Forum will conclude on 6 June 2014, and findings will be compiled and shared on the site and through social media.

For more information about the World Humanitarian Summit, please contact info@whsummit.org or visit worldhumanitariansummit.org

• Updates from the agricultural campaign include:
• Almost 97 percent of seeds are already pre-positioned in the provinces for NGOs to distribute.
• More than 22 500 households have already received seeds and tools, out of the 80 000 targeted.
• Thanks to USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and DFID, additional 30 000 families will benefit from short cycle seed varieties.
• Distributions will be on time for the planting season, as per agricultural calendar and rainfall pattern. More details on the agricultural campaign can be found in the latest CAR FSC bulletin
   
• WFP provides food support to food insecure farmer households and other vulnerable groups and continues to expand geographical coverage. WFP's distribution activities in May have experienced significant delays and disruptions, as insecurity affects the supply of food from the main hubs and distributions going out to the villages. With the onset of the rains, timely and unimpeded movement will be further challenged. Distributions as of 17 May have reached 73 058 beneficiaries with 928 MT of food. (WFP data are taken from the latest WFP external report.)
• A common tool for rapid food security assessment at household level has been agreed by all cluster partners.

• Update from the Oslo Conference: The international donor community raised more than US$600 million in pledges to scale up humanitarian response to the South Sudan crisis at a conference hosted by Norway in collaboration with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 20 May. Find out more here.
• Updates from the Food Security and Livelihoods Cluster: In April food assistance was provided to over 594,000 conflict affected beneficiaries and 480,000 beneficiaries with recovery based activities in the non-conflict states.
• Partners’ distributions are on-going in Old Fangak, Ganyel, Walgak, Lul and Rom. Multi-sector teams are being deployed to Akobo and Myandite to provide a second month of humanitarian assistance; as well as to Renk. Partners are also working to support 40,000 people in Leer.
• The focus of emergency livelihood distribution is to the there most affected areas (Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile). In April, over 2,000 kits were distributed to Jonglei (Duk and Twic East). Up to date, 73,996 households have been reached (443, 976 people).
• Over 200 fishing kits were distributed in Unity state in Rubkhona and Pariang.
• Storage space in the Juba warehouse is limited and inputs need to be distributed timely to partners to allow for space in the warehouse for new inputs arriving.
• Fashoda, Meilut, Akoka, Malakal, Maban, and parts of Renk Counties remain accessible by road for programme implementation. Malakal Town still remains inhabited although civilians visit the town during the day and returning to the POC in the evening.
•  Farmers have started land planting maize and vegetable seeds using their own supplies.
• Partners are facing challenge in transporting their inputs.

• Following the catastrophic consequences of the typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November 2013 and the subsequent activation of the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC), important steps were taken towards integration of people centric issues such as age, gender, disabilities, protection and accountability to affected populations across the phases of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle. Five months on, in April 2013, the FSAC went back to partners to compile concrete evidence on how various agencies operationalized the commitments made in the Strategic Response Plan for the integration of people centric issues. Based on the feedback provided by 7 agencies (Concern Worldwide, Save the Children, Plan International, National Coalition of Churches in the Philippines, FAO, WFP and CARE), a summary is provided on the overall achievements and challenges
• The OCHA Policy Development and Studies Branch and Humanitarian Data Exchange project invites applications to the 2014 Humanitarian Data Visualization Challenge. The 2014 Humanitarian Data Visualization Challenge aims to inspire original and creative interpretation and analysis of data that relates to humanitarian needs and response. Find more details here.
• The concept of ‘resilience’ and its practical application in food security (and nutrition) policy formulation and implementation has recently become influential in humanitarian and development communities. A new discussion paper from FAO “ Strengthening the links between Nutrition and Resilience in food and agriculture” brings together the thinking on nutrition and resilience from a food and agriculture perspective and discusses the linkages between the two agendas from a conceptual, strategic and operational perspective.

• Food Security and Agriculture Cluster Coordinator in the Philippines: The overarching objective of the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster is to ensure a timely, coherent and effective food security response by mobilizing stakeholders to respond in a strategic manner to Typhoon Haiyan. Several humanitarian actors are now fully engaged in the implementation of activities geared towards addressing the recovery and rehabilitation needs of the affected populations. In this context, the role of the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster Coordinator is to facilitate collaborative and complementary efforts amongst all FSAC partners, including Government Agencies at all levels, to enhance the impact and quality of the response in the ultimate interest of the populations affected by Typhoon Haiyan. Find more details here. To apply by 1 June, please contact Alessia.Anibaldi@fao.org copying oliver.abrenilla@fao.org and Bernard.Mrewa@wfp.org
• Save the Children: Food Security and Livelihoods Adviser, London. Save the Children is currently looking for a Food Security and Livelihoods Adviser to join the Humanitarian Technical Unit on a permanent contract. This is strategic role that will be responsible for developing  of humanitarian food security & livelihoods programming and capacity, while ensuring the delivery of high quality, timely and accountable humanitarian responses. For more details and to apply, please visit here.
• WFP: Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Officer, P3, Bamako, Mali. For more details and to apply, please visit here.
• FAO is recruiting a Field Operations Officer in Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou) and the Central African Republic (Bangui). Fore more information, please visit the FAO website. The deadline for applications is 1 June, 2014. More FAO vacancy announcements can be found here.

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