About Us
 - Tuesday, November 24, 2009   
 OCHA in Chad Minimize

 

The Role of OCHA

 

 

 

Coordination
Develop common strategies in collaboration with the agencies of the United Nations, Government and the humanitarian community;

Organise coordination meetings at each level with the various sectorial actors;

 

Mobilise resources throught the Global Consolidated Appeal Process to respond to immediate needs; 

 

 

 

 

 

Advocacy

Promote respect for the international humanitarian principles
Mobilise the humanitarian community to xxxx political and financial support;
Sensitise the local popultion to ensure they are better able to understand the situation and the humanitarian questions;

 

Facilitation
Analyse the situation and evaluate the humanitarian needs;
Develop a plan of action to respond to those needs;
Resolve the principal humanitarian gaps which fall between the mandates of the various agencies.

 

Inform
OCHA manages several information services to ensure the availability of analysis and accurate information to decision makers and the humanitarian community 

  • ReliefWeb (www.reliefweb.int): an online source of information regarding humanitarian crises.  It contains situation reports updated by OCHA, maps and information regarding the funding status of the crisis.
  • OCHA On-line (http://ochaonline.un.org): The official OCHA website making available information regarding OCHA and its activities.
  • The OCHA Central Registry of disaster management capacities (Www.reliefweb.int/cr): an operational tool to support the expeditious delivery of humanitarian emergency assistance.  It includes:  Military and Civil defence assets, Search and Rescue Directory, Stockpiles of Disaster Relief Items, Rosters of Disaster Management Expertise, technologies for Disaster Response and contact informaiton of major donors for humanitarian response.
  • Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) (www.irinnews.org): with offices in Nairobi, Abidjan, Johannesburg and Islamabad make available regional informaitn and analysis of issues relating to humanitarian action.
  • Humanitarian Information Centres (HIC): Field based Centres to facilitate the sharing of available information and datasets.
  • The best known tool developed and implemented by OCHA is the CAP, the Global Consolidated Appeals Process.  The CAP is the mechanism by which the humanitarian community creates a framework within which to undertake strategic plan towards the Common Humanitarian Action Plan to mobilise donor support for complex humanitarian crises. 

 

 

 

For more information on OCHA's activites, visit OCHA On-line.

  
 A Brief History of OCHA Minimize

In December 1991, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 46/182, designed to strengthen the United Nation's response to both complex emergencies and natural disasters.  In addition it aimed at improving the overall effectiveness of the UN's humanitarian operations in the field. 

The resolution also created the high level position of Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC).  This new function would combine into a single UN focal point the functions carried out by representatives of the Secretary-General for major and complex emergencies, as well as the UN's natural disaster functions carried out by the UN Disaster Relief Coordinator, UNDRO. 

Soon after, the Secretary-General established the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) and assigned the ERC the status of Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Humanitarian Affairs with offices in New York and Geneva to provide institutional support.

Resolution 46/182 also created the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) and the Central Emergency Revolving Fund (CERF) as key coordination mechanisms and tools of the ERC.

As part of the Secretary-General's programme of reform in 1998, DHA was reorganized into the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA.  Its mandate was expanded to include the coordination of humanitarian response, policy development and humanitarian advocacy.

OCHA carries out its coordination function primarily through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which is chaired by the ERC.  Participants include all humanitarian partners, from UN agencies, funds and programmes to the Red Cross Movement and NGOs. The IASC ensures inter-agency decision-making in response to complex emergencies.  These responses include needs assessments, consolidated appeals, field coordination arrangements and the development of humanitarian policies.

Budget and staffing

The core functions of OCHA are supported by 860 staff members in New York, Geneva and in the field.  OCHA's budget for 2007 is $165,000,000, of which about 10 percent or $11,141,561, comes from the regular UN budget and the remainder (more than $99 million, including projects and field activities) from extra-budgetary resources donated by Member States and donor organizations. 
See OCHA in 2006 for more details.

Emergency Relief Coordinator

The functions of the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) are focused in three core areas:

(a) policy development and coordination functions in support of the Secretary-General, ensuring that all humanitarian issues, including those which fall between gaps in existing mandates of agencies such as protection and assistance for internally displaced persons, are addressed;

(b) advocacy of humanitarian issues with political organs, notably the Security Council; and

(c) coordination of humanitarian emergency response, by ensuring that an appropriate response mechanism is established, through Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) consultations, on the ground.

John Holmes of Britian was appointed by the Secretary-General to replace Jan Egeland of  Norway as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.  Mr. Holmes took up his post in March 2007.
  
This website was developed with the assistance of Thematic Funding from the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission in 2004 and 2005