UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is part of the UN Secretariat and is headed by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC). It was established in 1998 when Secretary-General Kofi Annan restructured the former Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA), which itself had been created following General Assembly resolution 46/182 (1991). That resolution remains the foundational mandate for UN humanitarian coordination, setting out principles of humanity, neutrality, and impartiality (independence was added later by GA resolution 58/114 in 2004).

OCHA's core functions include:

• Coordination of humanitarian actors in emergencies through the cluster system (introduced in the 2005 Humanitarian Reform) and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which the ERC chairs.
• Information management, including flagship products such as ReliefWeb, the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), and Financial Tracking Service (FTS).
• Humanitarian financing, managing the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) established by the General Assembly in 2005, and overseeing country-based pooled funds (CBPFs).
• Advocacy for affected populations, humanitarian access, and respect for international humanitarian law.
• Policy development on issues such as protection of civilians, civil-military coordination, and access negotiations.

OCHA produces the annual Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO), which consolidates Humanitarian Response Plans and appeals figures across crises. It maintains country offices in major emergency contexts (e.g., Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, DRC, Afghanistan) and deploys UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams for sudden-onset disasters.

OCHA does not itself deliver aid; operational delivery is carried out by agencies such as WFP, UNHCR, UNICEF, and NGO partners. Its leverage comes from convening authority, funding allocation, and information. Headquarters are split between New York and Geneva, with liaison offices elsewhere.