Aid workers involved in coordinating and managing camps for
refugees and displaced people around the world are meeting in
Islamabad today at the start of a 3-day workshop organized by IOM.

The meeting of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee's (IASC) Camp
Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster working group
follows similar events held in Senegal in December 2005 and Uganda
in April 2006.

The IASC cluster initiative, which aims to improve the capacity
of the UN and other humanitarian agencies to respond to
emergencies, identifies major operational agencies able to play a
coordinating role in various aspects of emergency response, such as
food, shelter and health.

At the Islamabad workshop, senior officials, experts and camp
managers will discuss best practices for camp management and
coordination, particularly following natural disasters - a cluster
area jointly coordinated by IOM and UNHCR.

IOM Pakistan played a pioneering role in applying the IASC
cluster concept, which was introduced as part of a wider package of
UN reforms in mid-2005.

Following the October 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan, it
coordinated the Emergency Shelter Cluster (ESC), which coordinated
the work of all relief agencies providing emergency shelter to
earthquake victims.

ESC members included more than 70 international and national
NGOs, 3 UN agencies and Pakistan's Federal Relief Commission
(FRC).

Together with government counterparts, they delivered half a
million tents, five million tin roofing sheets, 6.4 million
blankets and 2.2 million tarpaulins to help earthquake victims to
survive the Himalayan winter.

For more information, please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Pakistan

Tel. +92.3008565967

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int