From the 17th to the 19th of June, REACH organized its Annual Global Coordination Meeting, gathering over 40 field staff from 15 countries in Genava’s headquarters. 

The first day opened with an introductory presentation of REACH’s background, achievements and perspectives, and then gave field staff the opportunity to provide an overview of REACH past and current work, as it included rapid deployment (on REACH’s latest deployment in Vanuatu, Nepal and Ukraine) and country (Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, South Sudan, Somalia, Niger, and Central African Republic) presentations. An update on REACH’s partnership with UNOSAT was also provided by UNOSAT staff in Geneva.

The second day introduced some internal guidelines to further improve internal coordination and processes between HQ and country teams. The third and last day offered specific training sessions for assessment and GIS staff, who were divided between several groups to work on thematic exercises.

Several conferences were also organized as “side events”: with the Global Shelter Cluster, during which two field staff gave a short presentation about rapid deployments conducted with them in Vanuatu (read the Shelter and Vulnerability Assessment after Cyclone Pam) and Nepal; and with the Global CCCM Cluster, during which two field staff gave a short presentation about REACH’s work with the CCCM in Iraq and South Sudan.

Finally, some panel discussions were held. Attendees included members from the Global Shelter Cluster, WASH Cluster and OCHA who discussed the main challenges and priorities for information management and provided some feedback on REACH role and contribution; while representatives from ACAPS and JIPS expressed their views on the evolution of information management and assessments in informing humanitarian planning.

Such global events are a key opportunity for REACH’s staff and partners to meet, exchange experiences and learn from each other. It is also a necessary process to identify the main challenges and strategic priorities that need to be addressed by REACH over the coming months.

REACH would like to thank colleagues from UNOSAT, the Global CCCM, Shelter and WASH Clusters, OCHA, ACAPS and JIPS for their active participation.