UN agency with mobilising and coordinating the collective efforts of the international community, especially those in the UN system, to meet the needs of those people exposed to disasters and emergencies. It is also involved in the reduction of vulnerability and the facilitation on the transition from relief to rehabilitation and development.
Until January 1998, Office was known as the Departmemt for Humanitarian Affairs ( (UNDHA / DHA)
The OCHA Online WWW site (Replaces the former Humanitarian Crisis Web (Hcweb) service) includes: :
(a) background materials on OHCA; emergency situation reports from OCHA and emergency management information by country (comprising OCHA situation reports, appeals news, field activities, financial tracking tables, reports of landmine clearances) ; press releases; information on the IDNDR
(b) Central Register of Disaster Management Capacities Available for International Assistance: relief logistics directory, covering emergency stockpiles (locations and items held); Other directories on telecommunications, emergency response, transport and customs facilitation measures and training programmes are planned for the WWW site.
(c) Military and Civil Defence Assets in Emergency Response (MCDA): information on military and civil defence assets for relief work (including manual for use of such)
(d) Inter Regional Information Network (IRIN): reports on specific situations, including field reports, information bulletin, humanitarian assistance situation reports, information reports. arranged by country and date
(e) Reliefweb: OCHA supported site, which includes data from other agencies, inclusing situaton report. See separate entry.
(f) Demining Database: WWW site with information on demining programmes, causalities/incidents and country profiles. Also links to related services
(g) Financial Tracking Database (FTS): statistical tables tracking financial responses to complex emergencies which are or have been the subject of a UN Consolidated Appeal. See separate entry
(h) Donor Humanitarian Assistance database: database tracking humanitarian assistance reported by donors to OCHA. Data is arranged by donor country and can be tracked by year, recipient country and project. Data is available for years 1995 and 1996. Covers both financial pledges and donations in kind. See separate entry
(i) Library: holds some 4500 items. Information on service and recent acquisitions list are available on the gopher server. Searches available on request
(j) Situation reports: archived on WWW (see above) and distributed by email: listproc@unicc.org with message subscribe dha-sitreps your name. Also distributed (with reports from other agencies) by VITA (see separate entry): listproc@vita.org with message subscribe sitreps your name
(k) Humanitarian News: news bulletin with updating information on disaster appeals, natural/technological disasters, upcoming meetings. Distributed by email and fax and archived on WWW (along with the Humanitarian Bulletin, which was the previous title for this publication).