Protocol 2 of the Scale-Up activation document serves as guidance on the Humanitarian Coordinator’s empowered leadership following an IASC Scale-Up activation.

 The document includes the following sections:

1. What empowered leadership means;
2. How empowered leadership is reflected in the HC’s actions:
   1. In setting priorities and planning;
   2. In leading overall cluster coordination;
   3. In leading advocacy and relationships with national authorities and with donor and other partners;
   4. In ensuring adequate information and monitoring of the response
   5. In leading humanitarian funding strategies;
   6. In aiming for strengthened accountability.

This reference document replaces the March 2014 Concept Paper on ‘Empowered Leadership’.

The Cluster Coordination and Reference Module is one of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Transformative Agenda Protocols. This module outlines the basic elements of cluster coordination and intends to serve as a reference guide for field practitioners to help facilitate their work and improve humanitarian outcomes.

The reference module includes eight sections:

1. Cluster and Sector Coordination
2. Cluster Activation
3. Cluster Functions
4. The Role of Clusters in Preparedness
5. Cluster Management Arrangements
6. Sharing Leadership
7. Minimum Commitments for Participation in Clusters
8. Inter-Cluster Coordination, Sub-National Coordination, Monitoring Cluster Coordination

This document is a revision of the 2013 Module of the same name.

The IASC Task Team on Preparedness and Resilience has developed the ‘Emergency Response Preparedness’ (ERP) approach to enable the international humanitarian system to apply a proactive approach to emergency preparedness. The ERP guidance builds on the importance placed by the IASC Transformative Agenda on preparedness on both the programmatic and financial side and, in particular, for HCT and IASC organizations to act on specific early warning indicators to engage in inter‐agency contingency planning and other coordinated preparedness actions to improve collective response readiness.

The ERP approach can be complementary to development action, e.g. through an UNDAF, that seeks to build national and local resilience, including preparedness capacity – especially where international and national capacity can be closely coordinated. The ERP replaces the ‘Inter-Agency Contingency Planning Guidelines for Humanitarian Assistance’ as developed in 2001 and updated in 2007.