Coordinating Health Care During Humanitarian Emergency: Experience From Pader District, Northern Uganda

Coordination of humanitarian assistance has been a subject of concern for several decades. The humanitarian reforms initiated by United Nations following UN General Assembly resolution 46/182 and the subsequent reforms that introduced the Cluster Approach to humanitarian assistance offers some opportunities for improved coordination. The main challenges to these reforms remain their acceptance among the humanitarian community, mainly NGOs, and donor faith in providing funding through the structures. We conclude that offering a comprehensive package to coordination encompassing joint humanitarian planning, policy, financing and monitoring of interventions is a step towards holistically addressing the needs of the crisis-affected people. There is also need for the UN to intensify dissemination of the humanitarian reforms to key stakeholders to improve their acceptance in the field.