Managing a site day to day

1Planning space according to Sphere

Sphere benchmarks for a camp-type settlement:

• At least 45 m² per person, including household plots, roads, services, communal space and firebreaks (excluding agricultural land); 30 m² if some communal services are provided outside the site.
• 3.5 m² of covered space per person in the shelter, more in cold climates or urban settings (4.5 to 5.5 m²).
• Firebreaks of 30 m every 300 m of built-up area, and at least 2 m between shelters (ideally twice the height of the shelter).
• Gently sloping land for drainage, outside flood-prone areas, at a distance from front lines and borders.

Planning is done in community modules: shelters grouped in blocks around nearby services (water points, sex-segregated latrines, lighting), to preserve social ties and safety. Space is kept for extensions and new arrivals.

2Profiling and registering the population

You can only manage well what you know. There are three levels of data:

• Rapid estimation and counting on arrival (shelter count × average household size, aerial survey, satellite imagery).
• Profiling: number of households, breakdown by sex and age, persons with specific needs (older people alone, persons with disabilities, unaccompanied children, female heads of household), places of origin and return intentions.
• Individual registration by household, carried out by the authorities or by UNHCR in refugee contexts, which determines access to distributions and documents.

The IOM DTM (Displacement Tracking Matrix) produces, site by site, data on population, needs and movements, shared with all clusters. Personal data remain protected: minimal collection, consent, secure storage, aggregated sharing only.

3Monitoring services and identifying gaps

Site monitoring regularly compares, often monthly, the actual situation with the standards: litres of water per person per day (at least 15 l according to Sphere), number of people per latrine (20 maximum), distance to the water point (500 m maximum), lighting, access to health and education, condition of shelters.

Results are presented in a dashboard with colour codes by sector and by block. Each gap is passed on to the service provider concerned and to the cluster, with a follow-up date. The principle: observe, report, follow up, escalate if nothing changes.

4Coordinating actors: meetings and the 4W matrix

The site coordination meeting, chaired by the site manager, brings together service providers, residents' representatives and local authorities every week or every month. It tracks gaps, allocates tasks and checks on commitments made.

The 4W matrix (Who does What, Where, When) lists interventions by block and by sector. It avoids duplication (two distributions to the same block) and reveals neglected areas. It must be kept up to date and shared with the CCCM cluster, which consolidates it for all sites.