- Distinguish camp administration, coordination and management.
- Describe the types of sites and the camp life cycle.
- Place the CCCM cluster and the Camp Management Toolkit within the humanitarian architecture.
1Three roles, three responsibilities
The CCCM sector (Camp Coordination and Camp Management, known in French as CGC) rests on three functions that must never be confused:
- Camp administration: this is the responsibility of the national authorities. They designate and allocate land, issue documents, ensure security, law and order and the civilian character of the site, and remain responsible for protecting their citizens and the people on their territory.
- Camp coordination: this is the responsibility of the cluster lead agency. At global level, the CCCM cluster is co-led by UNHCR (conflict-induced displacement) and IOM (natural disasters). It creates the humanitarian space between sites: common strategy, standards, gap analysis, advocacy, information.
- Camp management: this is the responsibility of the site management agency, often a national or international NGO. It coordinates services within the site, ensures residents' participation, monitors standards and maintains infrastructure.
The site manager does not provide all services itself: it ensures that the right actors provide them, at the right level, without duplication or gaps.
2Planned sites, spontaneous sites and collective centres
CCCM covers all "camp-like settings" where displaced people live:
- Planned camps: land chosen, prepared and divided into plots before or during people's arrival, with services planned from the outset.
- Spontaneous or self-settled sites: people settle on their own on public or private land, often without the owner's agreement, with a high risk of eviction and improvised services.
- Collective centres: existing buildings (schools, churches, mosques, warehouses, public buildings) that host families; typical problems are lack of privacy, overcrowding, insufficient sanitation and competing uses (the school needs to reopen).
- Transit and reception centres: short stays, in principle a few days, before referral to a more durable site.
Key reminder: most displaced people live out of camps, with host families or in rented housing. A camp is a temporary solution of last resort.
3The camp life cycle
The Camp Management Toolkit describes three phases, which often overlap:
- Set-up (opening): choice of land with the authorities, assessment (water, drainage, access, security, land ownership), planning, reception and registration, first life-saving services.
- Care and maintenance: service monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, resident governance, complaints management, risk preparedness. This is the longest phase: many "temporary" camps last ten years or more.
- Closure: planned from opening, it accompanies residents towards a durable solution, rehabilitates the land and hands over the infrastructure.
Thinking about the exit from the outset changes technical choices: reusable materials, written land agreements, infrastructure that is useful to the host community.
4The CCCM cluster and its reference tools
The CCCM cluster is activated when mass displacement exceeds national capacities. It works with the Shelter, WASH, Protection, Health and Food Security clusters, since most services on a site come from them. Its reference tools:
- the Camp Management Toolkit (NRC, 2015 edition): the site manager's field manual;
- the Minimum Standards for Camp Management (CCCM cluster, 2021): what a management agency must guarantee (presence, participation, coordination, site environment, exit);
- the Sphere Handbook: quantified standards for space, shelter, water and sanitation;
- the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) for population and needs data by site.
The basic principles remain those of humanitarian action: humanity, neutrality, impartiality, independence, together with the centrality of protection and accountability to affected people.
Night-time arrival
Planned site, reception block
You are the assistant site manager on duty.
At 9 pm, two trucks drop off 180 people from a combat zone. The plots planned for new arrivals have not yet been prepared. Several children appear to be alone and an older woman cannot walk.
Decision 1 of 3What is your first action?
Decision 2 of 3The children who are alone say they lost their parents while fleeing. You:
Decision 3 of 3The next day, how do you settle the new arrivals?
Key takeaways
Receive people safely, identify and refer vulnerable people, then settle new arrivals in an orderly way while preserving community ties.
Exercise: who does what?
On the Kalimba site (8,500 people), the following problems are reported: a landowner is threatening to evict families, one latrine in three is full, armed men move around at night, and two NGOs are distributing hygiene kits to the same blocks. For each problem, indicate who is responsible (administration, coordination, management, another cluster) and what the site manager's first action is.
Key points
- Administration = authorities; coordination = lead agency (UNHCR for conflicts, IOM for disasters); management = site management agency.
- The site manager coordinates the site's services; it does not provide them all itself.
- Planned camps, spontaneous sites, collective centres, transit centres: different risks.
- Life cycle: set-up, care and maintenance, closure planned from opening.
- Key tools: Camp Management Toolkit, 2021 Minimum Standards, Sphere, DTM.
Further reading: course references
- Norwegian Refugee Council, on behalf of the CCCM cluster (2015). Camp Management Toolkit. www.cccmcluster.org
- Global CCCM Cluster (2021). Minimum Standards for Camp Management. www.cccmcluster.org
- Sphere Association (2018). The Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards (Shelter and Settlement, WASH chapters). spherestandards.org/fr/manuel-2018
- International Organization for Migration (2024). Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM). dtm.iom.int
- Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) (2010). IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons. interagencystandingcommittee.org
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2024). UNHCR Emergency Handbook. emergency.unhcr.org
Daily quiz
3 questions to check what you have learned. Answer them all to complete the day.