A survival kit is a collection of essential, multi-sectoral life-saving items selected by the Shelter NFI, WASH, Nutrition and FSL Clusters that are meant to improve people’s ability to survive in field locations where they are cut off from access to basic items. The survival kit modality of response was created in order to intervene in volatile locations where needs and protection risks are high and where humanitarian access to populations has been denied for long periods of time. The kits are lightweight, easy to transport to the field and for beneficiaries to carry with them if they are still on the move. Survival kit operations are managed by IOM with support from FAO, the Logistics Cluster, OCHA and UNICEF.
As the purpose of this modality is to make the best use of access windows of opportunity that have the potential to close, making more robust response unfeasible, the Shelter NFI Cluster and OCHA have conducted a review to see if the operations have been used in this manner and whether they remain a useful modality. Information on the access and security issues around locations where survival kit operations were conducted are presented in the document below.