Standby partners can provide an important contribution for deployments especially during surge in the aftermath of disasters. Standby partners are organizations who provide additional capacity in personnel to support the Food Security Cluster in responding to emergencies. The Standby Partnership Programme (SBP) is a response mechanism designed to provide skilled and experienced human resources. It refers to partners with a mandate to provide in-kind resources to UN Agencies operating in humanitarian contexts, i.e. in general INGOs with a humanitarian mandate and a roster of trained and qualified humanitarian personnel. The SBP staff is usually requested by the CLAs’ country office through the FAO /WFP respective SBP unit/office. 

Through FAO /WFP, the gFSC has SBP agreements with several organisations:  

• FAO has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with for example the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), the Canadian Civilian Reserve Roster (CANADEM), iMMAP and RedR Australia.  
• WFP has agreements with organisations such as NorCap, RedR Australia, Irish Aid, Danish Refugee Council, CANADEM and iMMAP. 

Another form of support to the gFSC is provided by GenCap (experts specialised in Gender), CashCap (experts specialised in Cash) and ProCap (experts specialised in Protection) through secondment and/or technical support.