Minimum Standards for Camp Management

What are the Minimum Standards?

Overview

The Minimum Standards for Camp Management (MSCM) describes the minimum actions needed to support meaningful engagement within a site as well as planning and coordination between sectors and agencies. They aim to clarify the role of any site management agency working daily in humanitarian settings and to set out minimum levels of quality for that work.

Although called the Minimum Standards for Camp Management, the guidance can be applied to all contexts where displaced people seek shelter, protection, and other support. The term “site” is used unless a specific camp context is meant.

The MSCM set out minimum standards, key actions, key indicators, and guidance for all aspects of management of sites, including:

1. Site management policies and capacities
2. Community participation and representation
3. Site environment
4. Site service coordination and monitoring
5. Exit and transition

Each minimum standard is accompanied by key actions, key indicators, and guidance notes to achieve them:

• The Standards are universal and derived from the rights of all displaced people, and apply universally in all contexts.
• The key actions outline practical steps to achieve the minimum standard. The practitioner should select the most relevant to the situation.
• Indicators measure whether the standard is being reached. They provide a way to capture progress and measure program results against the standard over the life of the response. Minimum quantitative requirements are the lowest acceptable level of achievement and should be contextualized.
• Guidance notes are included as additional information to support key actions, with cross-references to other guidance including the Camp Management Toolkit and Sphere.

Development of Standards

The Minimum Standards for Camp Management is a Sphere companion document and forms part of the Humanitarian Standards Partnership (HSP) secretariat. The HSP grew out of the Sphere movement   aimed at improving the quality of humanitarian assistance. It draws together the ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what’ of humanitarian work, and encompasses: the Humanitarian Charter, providing the ethical and legal backdrop to humanitarian response; the Protection Principles, which set out how to protect people from violence, avoid causing harm, ensure access to impartial assistance and assist with recovery from abuse; the Core Humanitarian Standard, which describes the essential elements of accountable, effective and high quality humanitarian action.

Role of the Cluster

Promoting the Use of MSCM in CCCM Response

A CCCM Cluster coordination team should ensure CCCM partners have access to and can apply the MSCM in their own programming, e.g. through:

• • Contextualize the MSCM: while the Standards themselves are universal, the indicators (and key actions and guidance) can be contextualized, so that the guidance for CCCM actors is relevant to the context. See example from Ukraine in Toolkit Resources. 
  • Disseminate copies or online links to CCCM partners and relevant stakeholders  
  • Support translation: if the MSCM aren’t yet available in local languages, speak to the Camp Management Minimum Standards Working Group, who will be able to advise on translation options or good practices
  • Organize briefings on the MSCM and how to apply them, especially for new CCCM partners
  • Facilitate staff/agency capacity building: In some response training on the Minimum Standards has been conducted at the start of the emergency to ensure that all CCCM partners had the skills and knowledge required to provide high quality CCCM services. Speak to the Camp Management Minimum Standards Working Group, who will be able to advise on any available training options.

The Cluster – with CCCM partners – with their responsibility to monitor the gaps and needs of displaced persons living in temporary sites should  monitor whether the CCCM services provided in displacement sites meet core minimum standards in site management. For example, through:

• Appropriate integration in the Cluster monitoring of CCCM response. For example, through harmonized data collection tracking progress on whether the services provided in displacement sites meet core minimum standards, or satisfaction surveys with affected communities
• Utilizing available data from feedback mechanisms
• Self-assessments by CCCM partners

Applying the Minimum Standards in Cluster Work

Needs Assessments

• Do use the MSCM for CCCM sectoral needs assessments and analysis. Set up and agree thresholds applicable for the context.
• Do use the MSCM for the CCCM component of a (multi-sectoral) site level needs assessment. Set up and agree thresholds applicable for the context. Be sure to consult other sectors for their technical indicators.
• Keep in mind that MSCM indicators will need to be selected and contextualised, and additional CCCM indicators can be utilised, as appropriate for the context.

Cluster Response Strategy

• Do use the MSCM to guide formulation of activities and activity level indicators when developing the cluster’s response strategy and monitoring framework.
• Keep in mind to consult the national Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) whilst formulating indicators and activities.

HRP Indicators

• Keep in mind that HRP indicators should be outcome/output-level indicators, measuring whether the HRP objectives are achieved. The MSCM suggested indicators, on the other hand, are different indicator levels and are typically not a good fit for HRP outcome-level indicators.

Monitoring

• Do use the MSCM to monitor cluster response progress, as outlined in the cluster strategy monitoring framework which all cluster partners will report against.
• Do use the MSCM for ongoing site-level monitoring of CCCM sectoral needs and gaps, in line with baseline thresholds (see Needs Assessment points above), taking into consideration that MSCM indicators must be carefully selected and contextualized.

Related Resources