Clusters are activated only in those humanitarian emergencies where there is an identified gap in the enabling environment warranting clusters’ activation and when justified around an identified need. Cluster activation is based on the following four criteria:

• Trigger event in the form of a new large-scale emergency or sharp deterioration and /or significant change in an existing humanitarian situation;
• Evaluation of national response and coordination capacity and/or national response to appropriately meet needs;
• Where humanitarian needs justify a multi-sectoral approach that the existing coordination and response mechanisms can no longer adequately address;
• The size of the operational presence (the number of actors and complexity of response) requires a sector-specific coordination mechanism if this does not already exist.

Clusters are activated if all the above criteria are applicable and are deactivated when all the activation criteria are no longer fulfilled.

Below is the list of all protection clusters currently activated.