The gFSC Global Support Team (GST) is the main mechanism through which FAO and WFP deliver on their IASC-defined responsibilities. In other words, the GST is the cluster’s implementation unit. 

The team is led by the two Global Co-Coordinators, who together with the GST, are housed at WFP and FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy, and composed of staff from WFP and FAO , along with administrative support. Whenever required, the GST can be supported through secondments of staff from global partners (for instance GenCap, ProCap, CashCap or NorCap).

The GST provides support to country-level FSCs. This includes technical, coordination, information management and other identified support for country clusters through surge, preparedness, and capacity building as well as regular support on standards and policy-setting, on strengthening of response capacity, and operational support in line with the FSC Strategy (see 2.7).

At the same time, the GST works to: 

1. Ensure progress is made on implementing gFSC activities under the recognised priority areas.
   • For example, in the form of practical tools and guidance, webinars on particular priority areas (for example, the development of the “cooked food guidance" or the “good practices on the use of multi-purpose cash in the food security sector” or “webinar to improve the design of CVA to contribute towards nutrition objectives”). The gFSC also developed guidance during COVID-19 available here.
2. Support the work of the gFSC in alignment with the accepted Principles of Partnership approach; and supporting the broader food security community, rather than promoting the interests of specific cluster partners.
3. Facilitate communication among gFSCstakeholders, including: the coordination and management of annual/bi-annual meetings with global partners, observers, and associates to jointly review progress. 
   • For example, through the global partners meeting and technical working group (TWG) meetings. 
4. Ensure broad participation by gFSCpartners and observers in the cluster activities.
   • The broad participation in cluster activities can be seen in the form of the TWGs, supported by gFSC members with a gFSC focal point for each TWG. These TWGs work on technical issues based on requests from gFSC members. They are both created and deactivated according to the gFSC partners’ request. See more below. 
5. Strive for and maintain the multi-institutional nature of the gFSC reflecting the multi-faceted nature of food security, and the range of responses.
   • As seen below, multiple partners and observers are involved at global level and provide key inputs on the work of the cluster. This is seen through the global partners meeting but also through the work of the global TWGs and associated task teams. 
6. Foster an integrated approach and synergies with other IASCglobal clusters with specific emphasis on related sectors and mainstreaming people-centred approach.
   • This can be seen in the form of joint training and/or (“Integrated") joint programming – see more in 4.3.3 (coordination with other clusters) and 10.2.3 (the FSC and the nexus).

The GST provides advice and support to country-based Cluster Coordinators and Information Management Officers on policy, operational and strategic issues, communication and advocacy. While support is mostly demand-driven, the team is also pro-active in monitoring the work of clusters in- country to raise any challenges faced by FSC country teams to the attention of the GCCs and stakeholders, when relevant, and share any global discussions. This includes representation, through the FSC GCCs at Global Cluster Coordination Group (GCCG) level, of the interests of country clusters in the discussions on policy and new approaches introduced on for example the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC), localization, the Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus (HDPN) etc. It also provides details on peers’ thinking at global level to support countries, taking part in performance reviews of the country cluster system and providing/recommending solutions.

Examples of Regular GST Tasks and Support to Country FSCs: regular calls, remote support for key cluster outputs (on cluster coordination and information management), operational support through backstopping, deployments and surge missions, support on HR issues as needed, interaction/coordination with WFP/FAO regional desks in HQ/regional desks on country specific issues, and compilation of relevant reports for dissemination.