The Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit (JEU) is a collaborative arrangement between the United Nations Environment Programme and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It responds to environmental emergencies by coordinating international efforts and mobilizing partners to support affected countries requesting assistance.

The Emergency Response Roster (ERR) is OCHA’s central mechanism for the deploying of internal surge during the initial emergency phase. There are approximately 35 OCHA staff on the ERR who can deployat short notice, usually for six weeks but sometimes up to three months. Staff are placed on the ERR for a six-month period, with supervisors pre-clearing their possible deployment. Since 2007 the ERR has deployed 192 staff for a total of 8,701 deployment days to some 40 countries.

The global humanitarian community is facing evolving challenges to finding timely and reliable information on natural disasters and other crises. With more than 8 million unique users annually, and with a proven business model, ReliefWeb is uniquely positioned as the platform on which OCHA can grow and expand its communications with the external humanitarian community. But what does it look like to take ReliefWeb from its current state to its future vision—to serve as a “onestop shop” for the global humanitarian community?

The aim of the “cluster” approach is to strengthen partnerships and ensure more predictability and accountability in international responses to humanitarian emergencies, by clarifying the division of labour among organisations, and better defining their roles and responsibilities within the key sectors of the response.
Cluster leads are responsible for ensuring response capacity is in place and that assessment, planning and response activities are carried out in collaboration with partners and in accordance with agreed standards and guidelines.

Link: Overview of the Consolidated Appeals and similar concerted humanitarian action plans at Mid-Year 2012

With humanitarian crises increasing in number and intensity, OCHA built on the experience of responding to the Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods in 2010 to get its basic coordination functions right. Lines of accountability between field operations and headquarters were streamlined and strengthened, and rapid response capacity was enhanced and deployed. Reducing the field vacancy rate was prioritized, and all field operations focused on delivering high-quality results in OCHA’s three core areas: operational coordination, information management and humanitarian financing.

The Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit (JEU) is a collaborative arrangement between the United Nations Environment Programme and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It serves as the integrated United Nations emergency response mechanism to activate and provide international assistance to countries facing environmental emergencies.

In 2011, tens of millions of people will need emergency aid to survive. Consolidated and Flash Appeals ask for the resources needed to provide them with timely essential assistance.

ReliefWeb remains a key resource for its humanitarian audience. In 2010, we covered 157 natural disasters and 32 crises worldwide. We had over 10 million unique visits to the website and nearly 170,000 subscribers.