Protecting the right to health of internally displaced mothers and children: the imperative of inter-cluster coordination for translating best practices into effective participatory action

Substantive progress has been achieved in advancing emergency response interventions during disasters including assistance of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Explicit operational technical guidelines and management strategies have been successfully applied through the “cluster approach”. In 2008–09 armed conflict in several districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan resulted in over 2.7 million IDPs. This report describes the response by the Pakistan government, assisted by the hosting populations and humanitarian partners, to deal with the crisis using the cluster approach to ensure the health protection of the IDPs, particularly mothers and children.