- Provide technical advice where technical guidance is existing but the translation to practical implementation requires further expert interpretation of guidance
- Develop or coordinate the development of new interim consensus-driven guidance in response to a pressing technical gap
- Identify research priorities in their areas of work where additional research is required
- Collaborate in identifying knowledge management (KM) and learning needs and facilitating the subsequent development of technical KM products for practitioners as well as providing technical inputs to relevant KM products developed by others within the Alliance
- Identify and facilitate country-to-country sharing of experiences on particular technical issues where there are questions as well as collaborating in the implementation of webinars to promote intercountry/region/partner learning
- Periodically update GNC partners on their work, achievements, lessons learned and challenges
Each GTWG has an annual work plan that is developed by members of the group based on the identified technical gaps in their respective thematic areas. Workplans are updated regularly to account for emerging technical gaps. Membership consists of agencies and individuals who have strong technical expertise in the thematic area of the GTWG and significant relevant work experience in the thematic area, along with a solid understanding of the humanitarian aid sector. Each group has different processes for becoming a member and should you wish to become a member of a GTWG, please do reach out to the relevant chairs (contacts found on each GTWG page).
How do GTWGs respond to technical gaps?
Anyone can ask a technical question or request support by using the ‘Request Form found on the GNC Technical Alliance website. The Alliances’ Technical Support Team will answer the question based on relevant guidance, tools and experience after checking that existing national, regional and headquarter sources of advice have been tried. The question may be shared on en-net if appropriate. If there is a technical gap in guidance or the question pertains to a particularly challenging context where existing technical resources are not applicable, the Alliance will consult the relevant GTWG chairs to convene and answer the individual question or develop a piece of interim consensus-driven guidance to address that gap. Once this interim consensus-driven guidance or expert advice has been developed, feedback will be provided to the practitioner who posed the question and if appropriate, a summary of the question and response will be published online on our website and en-net so that the wider community can benefit.
Photo credit: © UNICEF/UN0494304/Nesbitt