Project Management
ProCap aims to strengthen the collaborative response of protection agencies and non-protection mandated organisations. To do this, it deploys senior personnel with proven protection expertise at field, regional and global operations and trains mid-level protection staff from standby partners and humanitarian organisations. The Project objectives and activities are guided by the 2014-2016 ProCap Strategy.
Project Governance / Management
The ProCap project operates on a tri-partite governance and management structure:
1) The ProCap Steering Committee (SC), defines and oversees the project’s strategic direction through leadership, engagement and regular support. The SC also approves deployment requests and roster membership. SC members include representation from the following organisations: International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Observers include the GPC, World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
2) The OCHA-hosted Inter-Agency Standby Capacity Support Unit (SU) serves as the secretariat to the SC and is responsible for project management and implementation, including donor relations. The SU is funded through OCHA’s budget.
3) NRC is responsible for roster management, namely recruitment, employment, deployment and ongoing support, including staff welfare. Capacity building of roster members is undertaken in collaboration with OCHA. Roster members are deployed under a personnel support agreement with UN agencies, IOM and NRC.
In 2016, management procedures and structures were strengthened through clarification of responsibilities as well as streamlining of process, for example through the bi-annual call for ‘requests for deployment’ and defining clearer deployment criteria.
Key Achievements in 2016
In 2016, ProCap supported deployments to 15 field locations at the country and regional levels. An additional ProCap advisor was based in Geneva as a roaming advisor for the Global Protection Cluster (GPC), with three additional home-based advisors, also supporting the Global Protection Cluster.
ProCap missions were fielded to all L3-declared crises (South Sudan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen), with guidance provided to a range of protection-related needs in the Central African Republic (CAR),
Burundi, Pakistan and Haiti.
A sample of specific ProCap country level achievements include:
Central African Republic (CAR); ProCap advocated for protection as a central aspect of humanitarian programming, which included the Human Rights Based Approach. ProCap also coordinated a protection mainstreaming working group, supported development of an action plan to enhance Accountability to Affected People (AAP), and supported the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), InterCluster Coordination Mechanism (ICCM) and clusters to mainstream protection in programmatic initiatives. Capacity building initiatives were delivered on sensitising protection mainstreaming for 60 program managers from the UN, international organizations, INGOs and NNGOs.
Yemen: ProCap provided technical support to the ICCM, and significantly strengthened the protection cluster through leadership of the group. ProCap also led a process to develop a protection strategy for the HCT, and supported UNHCR to develop a strategy on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to strengthen coordination around IDP response activities.
Burundi: ProCap organized a workshop on protection mainstreaming aimed at clarifying the principles of protection. An important outcome of the workshop was the development of protection mainstreaming modules for the humanitarian community. ProCap also provided operational guidance to the Protection Sector Group and its members, and took a lead role in developing a strategy and work plan to guide efforts to place protection at the centre of programmatic responses, in particular to promote the safety and dignity of beneficiaries. This work helped shape coordination mechanisms to align with IASC principles to improve leadership, accountability and effectiveness of the protection response. In addition, ProCap in collaboration with Oxfam GB, developed a policy brief to advocate for mainstreaming protection in the European Union’s 2017 funding allocation to Burundi.
At the regional level, ProCap deployed senior protection staff to OCHA through regional offices in Nairobi, Kenya (for the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region), Suva, Fiji (for the Pacific) and Amman,
Jordan (Syria regional response).
ProCap in Nairobi provided support to ten country offices (OCHA) including those with emergency situations, namely Burundi, South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia. The deployment aimed at improving protection outcomes by strengthening decision-making processes to prioritize protection activities in humanitarian action. This included technical guidance to leadership within the humanitarian community and regional bodies on the centrality of protection, as well as direct support to protection mechanisms and initiatives. ProCap also bolstered evidence-based advocacy and regional coordination efforts through analyses of protection risks. These fed into recommendations for durable solutions which strengthened Accountability to Affected People (AAP) and the protection of civilians in the region.
ProCap also helped establish a regional information network on protection to collect information on protection concerns for the purpose of advocacy, resource mobilization and humanitarian negotiations.
ProCap in Fiji provided support to 14 countries in the region through OCHA's Regional Office in the Pacific. The deployment integrated protection concerns into disaster preparedness, response and recovery activities through support provided to the Pacific Humanitarian Protection Cluster (PHPC), and the Pacific Humanitarian Team (PHT). ProCap guided clusters, and in particular, the cash and voucher working groups to input protection concerns into normative guidance frameworks. In addition, ProCap led a process to draft a terms of reference, strategic framework, and work plan for the PHPC, and supported development of rapid assessment tools. ProCap attended PHT meetings to strengthen linkages with humanitarian organisations and to advocate for membership to the PHPC.
The ProCap adviser assigned to the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) developed operational guidance for developing strategies for durable solutions for displacement, which was disseminated among the Technical Working Group (TWG) members and other relevant actors. ProCap also established, on behalf of the TWG, linkages with actors and institutions working on durable solutions for displacement.
Throughout the assignment, ProCap provided technical support to in-country focal points, in particular on developing durable solutions.