• The next CC Training will present participants with an opportunity to better understand their roles and responsibilities as Cluster Coordinators before, during and after a Level 3 Emergency.
• 24 participants were selected for this Training from ACF, ActionAid, CARE, GOAL, FAO, IOM, Samaritan’s Purse, WFP; 1 Inter-Cluster (Early Recovery); 12 cluster countries are represented.
• Given the very high number of applications received, the next Training will take place very soon before the end of the year, so as to allow many other qualified partners who applied to attend. We will inform partners as to the exact dates of the Training well in advance.
• For more information about the CC Training, please visit the FSC website.

• The IASC Working Group has recently approved the revised guidance for the main steps of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle in 2015– the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and the Strategic Response Plan (SRP).
• Between 25 and 30 countries will have an HNO and SRP in 2015. Amongst these, eight countries are expected to start soon preparing their 2015 SRPs : Afghanistan, DRC, Haiti, oPt, Somalia, South-Sudan, Sudan and Yemen. Additional countries will follow, including CAR and the countries of the Sahel region.This inter-agency process is very important to achieve a shared vision among humanitarian actors on the main needs of the affected people and how to respond to them.
• The clusters, including the Food Security cluster, have a key role in this process that will be evident going through the HNO and SRP guidance. The release of the Response Monitoring guidance at the same time as the HNO and SRP guidance is an opportunity to integrate the monitoring framework at the planning level, in order to ensure that adequate and realistic plans are made for monitoring of indicators at strategic, cluster and project level.

• Global launch of the Building a Better Response e-learning course on the international humanitarian coordination system The BBR e-learning course is internationally available from the convenience of your computer or mobile device, free to use, and, for emergency responders, it is an exceptional way to guide best practice and stay informed.  Participants completing all five units will receive a certificate from the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard. For more information on the course, please visit: http://www.buildingabetterresponse.org
• World Vision introduces LMMS (Last Mile Mobile Solutions), a digital beneficiary information management software - LMMS is applied to field‐based data collection, management and analysis processes in an effort to eliminate duplication, streamline business variations, and remove complexity. Results from the food‐programming domain verified substantial benefits including a reduction in the time to generate key reports by 60% and a reduction in beneficiary pre‐processing and verification times at aid distributions by approximately 75%.

• The Food Security and the Protection clusters are organising a survey to measure the consequences, in terms of food security vulnerability, of the situation of enclavement in the PK5 area of Bangui, both for the resident and the displaced population. The results of the survey will allow the identification of households that will be included in the next food distribution in the area, which will take place in August. Civilian, military and religious authorities, as well as the wider humanitairan community, have already been informed of the initiative and are supporting it. The evaluation entails three phases:

1. Focus groups in the 10/11 neighbourhoods that are part of the enclave, identified last week together with the neighbourhood chiefs, in order to select together with the population the vulnerability criteria;
2. Recencement of the enclaved population;
3. Survey with food security cluster indicators on a population sample.  A GPS mission will be carried out at the end of the week by the cluster to do a geographic delimitation of the enclave in PK5, Bangui.  The survey will be completed in the next 3 to 4 weeks.

• The Food Security cluster is collecting information on the distribution of seeds, particularly on additional distributions carried out by partners.

• Food distributions were completed in Ganyel  for about 54,000 people. Registrations and distributions are ongoing in Wau SHiluk, Makok( Upper Nile) , Lankein, Gorwai, Magok ( Jonglei) and Kaltak ( Lakes) for more than  120,000 beneficiaries.
• This week 30,000 emergency crop kits were prepared for beneficiaries in the Equatorias who have the opportunity to plant during the second planting season.  The crop kits are ready for dispatch to partners for beneficiaries in Eastern, Central and Western Equatoria States.
• 2,000 emergency crop kits were re-packaged and prepared for an air drop to reach beneficiaries in Pochalla, Jonglei State.
• Over 137, 000 households have been reached with 222,452 emergency kits in the three most affected states of Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity.
• The supplies of sorghum grain in Aweil East are now normal after the traders resumed supplies from Sudan. Rumbek North inaccessible due to insecurity.

• The Food Security Cluster has communicated with all its Partners in order to rapidly coordinate the response and manage strategic planning and gap analysis.
• In this regard, the FSC updated partners on the status and timeline of multi-cluster assessments and agreed to discuss the possibility of providing android phones and transport if required for partners involved in the multi-cluster assessment process. Partners were requested to begin sharing the data collected as soon as the server and resoucres become available and to volunteer food security, gender and protection and accountability experts for the data analysis.
• As of today, FSC Partners have been able to assist more than 110,000 IDPs with food assistance. In particular, through food rations and field kitchens in Shariya, Bajad Kandala, Khanaka (Dohuk).
• Partners have been providing food assistance around Erbil area as well, following the displacement in Ainkawa.
• Following the crisis in Sinjar area, large numbers of IDPs in need of food assistance continue to be reported, especially in Duhok governorate, border areas with Ninewa and on the areas around Sinjar city. Food is one of the main issues to be addressed.
• Gaps and constraints include inaccessibility to conflict areas in order to reach IDPs and the transient nature of IDPs who are constantly on the move.

• The number of displaced people is still high (around 400,000) as a final cessation of the hostilities is still pending. More than 64,000 will not return back to their home soon  as their houses have been destroyed or severely damaged.
• UNRWA and WFP are planning a large distribution to cover most people in the Gaza Strip affected by the conflict.
• Animal feed for 4,000 breeders/herders should be provided in order to avoid further loss of livestock and additional erosion of livelihood of herder’s communities.
• The lack of adequate quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables or the increasing of the prices for these food commodities in the Gaza Strip requires that FSS partners have to increase their effort in bringing into the Gaza Strip food items rich in vitamins and minerals.
• The FSS, through the Logistic Cluster led by WFP, can facilitate the entrance of food commodities into Gaza Strip. Activities related to these commodities will have to be strictly coordinated through the FSS.
• The FSS is moving towards the post-conflict phase, engaging all partners in the assessment process and planning how to re-tune the response.

• Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods Coordinator in Mali - deadline: 28 August, 2014
• Consultancy on Impact Evaluation of SPEDP Food Security & Livelihoods Programme, in South Sudan If you are interested, please contact directly SPEDP spedpngo@gmail.com  and copy frbu@dca.dk Deadline for submission of Technical and Financial Proposal: 14th August 2014.
• Senior Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) Technical Advisor, ACF, USA - deadline: 31 August

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