Upon receipt of information from the duty officer, and depending on the magnitude of the disaster, OCHA Geneva may activate an emergency operations team to coordinate aspects of disaster response.  These interdisciplinary emergency teams may include information management, technology, operations, logistics, administration and communications capacity to coordinate all aspects of response. 

OCHA's Emergency Services Branch (ESB), based in Geneva, supports the USG/ERC by developing and maintaining OCHA's emergency response "toolkit" - the expertise, systems and services that aim to improve humanitarian assistance in emergencies.  While the geographic oversight of response operations is the function of desk officers in the Coordination and Response Division (CRD), based both in New York and Geneva, it is the responsibility of ESB to develop, mobilise, and coordinate the deployment of international rapid response and management capacities, covering the range of disasters and emergencies. Thus, when a natural disaster occurs, it is OCHA Geneva that mobilises assistance teams, assets and resources to begin coordinating international response.  These response tools are described in the section on Tools and Services.