A little four letter word update

Yes...that little four letter word called WORK, which is what I'm actually here for in Namibia and not on an extended holiday or foodie fest, honest! I thought I'd better mention a couple of sentences about how things are going here.

My colleagues and I circulated our joint UNFPA/NRCS Regional Field Visit Report on Protection in Flood Relief and Recovery to a wide range of people in agencies and National and Regional Government and have used it to generate discussion and planning for activities we can carry out in the coming months to strengthen the protection sector before the next rains.

The report has been well received and we are in the process of planning a national level protection in natural disasters training workshop for a range of actors with support from the Global Protection Cluster Working Group (GPCWG) and regional trainings together with the Namibia Red Cross Society (NRCS) which will take place in November. In addition we have been working closely with our colleagues in the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to provide some input into their Camp Coordination and Camp Management training of trainers course, specifically two protection chapters. The ToT course was launched this Wednesday and will commence in the northern regions of Namibia in the first week of November. It is really good to know that protection will be covered during capacity development of camp managers.

National launch of IOM's ToT course

I've continued to participate in various UNDAF activities including assisting a small editorial group to edit the Country Analysis paper and attending a validation workshop for said paper. I still can't get my head around the fact that it can take almost 2 years to develop an UNDAF (United Nations Development Assistance Framework) that will cover a 5 year development cycle, so no sooner is one completed then the next one begins.....

What am I doing here?

Hello readers! Greetings from Ongwediva, a town in Northern Namibia where I'm based for a week during a two week field trip to flood affected areas. I've just realised that I've been rambling on for a month now and haven't really told you much about what I'm really doing here have I? I'm not on holiday (honest!) although being in such a beautiful and fascinating country, I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.

Anyway, a few months ago I was accepted onto the ProCap roster. ProCap is short for the Protection Capacity Standby Project which is an inter-agency initiative to supply Senior Protection Specialists to UN field missions during emergencies or disaster preparedness phases. There are over 20 of us from different countries on the roster with diverse skills. The roster is managed by the Norwegian Refugee Council and is further supported by the ProCap support cell and Steering Committee in Geneva.

The UN OCHA Regional Office for Southern and Eastern Africa (ROSEA) requested a ProCap mission to follow up recommendations on a previous ProCap mission to Namibia in 2010. This involves strengthening coordination to ensure protection concerns and issues are identified and addressed expediently during emergencies, especially natural disasters such as floods and droughts, training key personnel from UN agencies, Government ministries and Non Governmental Organisations in protection work and raising awareness of rights of displaced people in disasters and ensuring that protection is included in contingency planning for future emergencies. I am seconded into UNFPA in Namibia for a 6 month period and I'm working with UNFPA colleagues and professionals in other UN agencies, like an inter-agency resource. It is an interesting mission.

What does protection mean? Well according to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee "protection covers a wide range of activities that are aimed at ensuring respect for the rights of all individuals regardless of their age, gender, social, ethnic, national, religious or other background. This requires a collaborative and coordinated response by various national and international actors with diverse mandates, expertise and experience." So in natural disasters, such as flooding, when people have to move away from their homes when flooded out, these activities include making sure every  affected family has access to basic relief assistance (i.e. food, shelter, water, sanitation, health etc), helping families to be reunited if separated during flight, replacing lost identity documents and other important documents, preventing and responding to physical abuse including sexual violence, helping families to rebuild their homes and livelihoods after the relief phase has passed and upholding the rule of law. I'll tell you more about our work as time goes on. Meanwhile enjoy a relaxing Sunday!