Just as emergency relief activities are crucial to saving lives by responding to the most urgent human needs, integrating an early recovery approach within humanitarian operations is crucial to the first efforts of a community to recover. It prepares the ground for an effective ‘exit strategy’ for humanitarian actors and contributes to ‘durable solutions’ by establishing the base on which nationally-led development occurs after a crisis.
This paper outlines an early recovery approach that can aid an effective and efficient response to crises and get affected communities back on the road to recovery as early as possible as well as addresses today’s crises in a way that helps to prevent their recurrence tomorrow.
Key findings:
UNDP supports early recovery in two main ways:
Within the humanitarian system:
- At the global level, UNDP leads the Cluster Working Group on Early Recovery (CWGER) which focuses on four main lines of action: (i) Providing direct strategic and coordination support to Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs), Resident Coordinators (RCs), Deputy Special Representatives of the Secretary-General, Humanitarian Country Teams (HCTs) and Cluster Lead Agencies at the country level; (ii) Defining and coordinating early recovery work that is not covered by other clusters (e.g. governance, non-agricultural livelihoods); (iii) Providing initiative and guidance on the integration of early recovery in the work of other clusters, and inter-cluster coordination of early recovery; and (iv) Influencing the global policy agenda on humanitarian financing, civilian capacities, and strategic planning to strengthen the potential for, and impact of early recovery within international crisis response and recovery efforts.
- At the country level, UNDP helps HC/RCs and the HCT to integrate early recovery approaches into the humanitarian response through the deployment of Early Recovery Advisors (ERAs). It also provides the HC/RC with coordination support for issues not covered by any of the other clusters that have been activated in-country.
Through programmes:
- UNDP works with the affected country and its humanitarian and development partners (e.g. local authorities, civil society organizations and the private sector) to design and implement programmes needed to help people move from humanitarian assistance to development. It undertakes capacity building of national and local authorities to enable them to take over the coordination of programmes from humanitarian actors, many of whom are international agencies and organizations. UNDP also play a role in assisting countries and their people to prevent crises as well as recover from them. This includes supporting disaster risk reduction (DRR) interventions, particularly in countries affected by recurrent crises.