Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is a organisation under the United Nations which originated in December 1991 with the General Assembly Resolution 46/182. The resolution was designed to strengthen the UN response to complex emergencies and natural disasters by creating the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA). OCHA was the result of the 1998 reorganisation the DHA and was designed as the UN focal point on major disasters. The OCHA mandate was expanded to include the coordination of humanitarian response, policy development and humanitarian advocacy.
The OCHA has some 860 staff, distributed in New York, Geneva and in the field. Its 2005 budget is some USD 110 million, most of it directly from UN member states. The OCHA is headed by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, currently Mr. Jan Egeland.
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Categories: United Nations specialized agencies