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The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is responsible for the coordination of the humanitarian action among the different United Nations Agencies. It has two headquarters: in New York, where is generally located the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs/Emergency Relief Coordinator; and in Geneva, with a more operational competence, such as natural disasters, field office management, coordination, as well as the elaboration of Consolidated Appeals Processes (CAP), inter-agencies coordination (IASC, “Inter-agency Standing Committee”), and connection with multilateral institutions in Europe.

Moreover, OCHA represents the driving force behind the UN reform of the humanitarian sector, a process that started in 2005 and still ongoing. The Cluster Approach, a system aiming at coordinating the programmes of different UN agencies in specific fields (e.g. health, shelter, logistics) during crises; the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a pooled fund for emergency response on the onset of an emergency and the “Humanitarian Country Teams, national groups coordinating humanitarian intervention in affected countries are among the main initiatives promoted by OCHA with the above reform.

With regard to its role of coordination among the different humanitarian agencies, OCHA often organizes in-depth meetings in Geneva, on specific topics and briefings concerning the humanitarian situations in crisis contexts. In some circumstances, and on annual basis, it also holds specific “pledging conferences”.

Italy has established different channels to engage with OCHA: it provides funding for crises through the Fund for emergency actions and humanitarian rescue operations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and regularly contributes to the CERF. In addition, Italy cooperates with OCHA on global emergencies through the provision of qualified staff, logistics and technical support and promotes its role through awareness raising campaigns, the organization of conferences as well as the establishment of specific partnerships, in order to strengthen the international humanitarian system. Italy also provides a dedicate warehouse in Brindisi where OCHA can store humanitarian goods and supplies to enable its prompt response to humanitarian emergencies at the global level, the so called “United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot” (UNHRD).

Furthermore, Italy takes part in the ODSG (OCHA Donor Support Group), the group that gathers all the main donors around the Unite Nations system and that establishes the guidelines and policies of the sector.

Since 18th November 2024, Tom Fletcher has been nominated Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of OCHA, becoming the twelfth person to hold such a position since the founding of the Agency.

Websitewww.unocha.org