In-Country Coordination Structures

Humanitarian coordination structures differ from crisis to crisis depending on the country-specific context. An affected state's government is primarily responsible for providing humanitarian assistance. When the State is unwilling or unable to provide aid, humanitarian organizations may assist.

Most international humanitarian organizations have offices and organizational structures at three levels:

Global/strategic level (headquarters)

National/country/operational level (regional and country offices)

Sub-national/tactical level (field offices)

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC) oversees all emergencies requiring United Nations humanitarian assistance. The ERC leads the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), an interagency forum for coordination, policy development and decision-making, including humanitarian civil-military coordination. They also act as the central focal point for governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental relief activities.

UN-CMCoord (primarily within OCHA) at the country level interacts with the Humanitarian Coordination (HC), the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), Inter-cluster Coordination (ICC) and the Clusters/Sectors such as Logistics, Protection, Camp Management and Camp Coordination (CCCM).

When the national or foreign military is present and engages in any form of humanitarian action, the UN-CMCoord officer becomes a critical link between the humanitarian, development and peace & security actors.