Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - OCHA

OCHA is the coordinator of the United Nations Transformative Agenda. It seeks to integrate and coordinate all the UN agencies in the humanitarian sphere.

OCHA’s intervention in the aftermath of a disaster only takes place when the affected State requests its participation. In such situations, OCHA’s work consists of pondering the needs, transferring the request for humanitarian aid to other entities and organizing the donors’ meetings and follow-up mechanisms.

Colombia in OCHA

OCHA has an office in Colombia since 2003. Its mandate is to mobilize and coordinate an effective humanitarian response from international actors, within the framework of humanitarian principles. This is done through the execution of tasks related to coordination, information management and resource mobilization. Furthermore, it has the mission of reinforcing the work of the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), composed by UN agencies and international NGO’s present in the country.

The Humanitarian Country Team has 7 priorities:

1. Support to the national and local capacity building for humanitarian response.

2. Promotion of early recovery, sustainable solutions and transition to development.

3. Complementary humanitarian response to conflict emergencies and emergencies from natural disasters.

4. Reinforcement of information management and situation analysis.

5. Incorporation of gender focus.

6. Contribution to civil protection.

7. Victims’ visibility and advocacy.

With regards to geographic priority, based on an analysis of needs, the main zones of HCT intervention are the following departments: Norte de Santander, Antioquia, Arauca, Choco, Nariño, Putumayo, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Cordoba and Meta.