All Commitments made by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA)

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort. 

OCHA’s mandate stems from General Assembly (GA) resolution 46/182 of December 1991, which states: “The leadership role of the Secretary-General is critical and must be strengthened to ensure better preparation for, as well as rapid and coherent response to, natural disasters and other emergencies.” To this end, it also establishes the role of the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), who works with the Secretary-General and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) in leading, coordinating and facilitating humanitarian assistance. OCHA is the office that provides support to the ERC and the Secretary-General to meet the leadership and coordination responsibilities charted in GA resolution 46/182.

Read more: https://www.unocha.org/

People with disabilities in Humanitarian Contexts
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OCHA commits to appoint a dedicated focal point to foster the inclusion of persons with disabilities in our mandated activities.
Timeframe and/or implementation plan: Immediate

OCHA will:

  • in full cooperation with all concerned, establish a road map to include issues of persons with disabilities in our coordination tools and mechanisms.
  • continue to support the finalization of the IASC guidelines; after their launch, we will advocate for their use at field, regional and global level and coordinate their implementation
  • conclude a strategic partnership with Humanity & Inclusion and work closely with DPOs to provide advice and support to make our own programs more inclusive

Timeframe and/or implementation plan: Road Map and conclusion of the strategic partnership: by end 2018 – Roll-out of IASC guidelines on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action: from 2019 – Make our own programs more inclusive: by 2020   

OCHA will, by end 2018:

  • establish a dedicated Fellowship, to work with partners (UNICEF, Humanity & Inclusion, IDA and others, including DPOs) to improve standard frameworks for humanitarian data collection and analysis
  • give visibility to the need for disability disaggregated data on the HDX platform and through one event.
  • build awareness-raising materials on the analysis and use of the Washington Group Short Set of questions.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan: The Fellowship will be established within the OCHA Center for Humanitarian Data in The Hague for an initial duration of 2 months. Its Terms of Reference and possible extensions will be agreed with concerned partners. Building on existing projects and gaps, the Fellow will, among others, review humanitarian indicators, identify measures to strengthen disaggregated data collection and analysis, and, time permitting, support the creation of a specific data tool kit for UN Agencies.

Theme: Conflict and Humanitarian Contexts
Year: 2018