Cluster Coordination: As part of the Cluster approach, the WASH Cluster, through this project, is developing a roster of competent and trained WASH coordinators for rapid deployment at the country level, with the objective to develop adequate coordination capacity and mechanisms for the cluster. This section thus consists of, progress reports, and training modules and guidelines, toolkits, and emergency rosters for humanitarian response.

Information Management: In any emergency response, data collection (both quantitative and qualitative) and its subsequent transformation to information and ultimately knowledge, is key to a timely and effective humanitarian response. In this effort, the WASH Cluster is working on this Information Management project as one of their most critical projects for this year. The approach is holistic, in order to have a comprehensive system which links through the different tools developed, and where possible, link with other tools being developed by other key sectors. Information relating to the development of these tools and those that have been developed as well as their usability is accessible in this section.

Hygiene Promotion: Historically the way in which hygiene promotion (HP) has been implemented varied widely within agencies and it was frequently given scant attention during sector coordination meetings. It has been suggested that there was a lack of clarity within the WASH sector in relation to the purpose of hygiene promotion and its expected outcomes and that it suffered from a lack of common understanding of methods and approaches in its implementation. The aim of the HP project was to improve capacity and coordination of hygiene promotion interventions in emergencies and to this end it has produced some best practice materials drawing on information from UN organizations and a number of international humanitarian NGOs.  Examples of the materials produced are: short briefing paper on the essentials of Hygiene Promotion, its objectives and how to do it; Training package for field workers; WASH Visual Aids Library.

Capacity Mapping: Global Cluster Leads have a responsibility to assess and analyse capacity at a global and national level, to identify and plan to address gaps as appropriate. This project is therefore seen as part of the WASH cluster’s responsibility to ensure “operational support”. In doing so, the project maps and assesses global and national WASH sector capacities, developing tools/frameworks and piloting these tools in hotspot countries. These products, and the piloting implementation plan, country reports and or lessons learnt are provided in this section.

Emergency WASH Materials: The focus of this project is on globally available stocks which can be moved to where they are needed in a timely manner. Three components have been identified as part of the strategy with the objective of having greater preparedness within the sector for response to emergencies. This section provides reliable information on stocks’ location, ownership, access and composition and would improve predictability for planning and would help the humanitarian community to prepare better for a timely, predictable and joined-up initial response. Relevant data include listing and specification of materials and kits to be stocked by the cluster, best practices, guidelines and logistics plan.

Training for Capacity Building: This project is related to the responsibilities of the Global Cluster Leads set out in the Guidance Note on using the cluster appraoch to strengthen humanitarian response. Therefore, it is seen as part of the WASH cluster's responsibility both at the global and national levels to raise the standards of humanitarian response through more aware and better trained personnel. All materials that are developed (or being developed) such as training modules and training support manuals, training implementation programmes, training of trainers (TOT) modules, needs assessment reports and piloting implementation plan are incorporated in this section