The United Nations Civil-Military Coordination (UN-CMCoord) Officer Field Handbook has been elaborated around the core chapters of Transportation and Logistics; Security, Safety and Medical Services; as well as Communications and Information Management, developed through a series of technical workshops, made possible through the generous financial contribution by the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (DG ECHO).

Some 30 international UN-CMCoord trained experts with extensive field experience attended the workshops, ensuring a realistic and hands-on approach to civil-military coordination in major humanitarian emergency operations, while adhering to humanitarian principles and concepts. Additional chapters on major developments in the humanitarian community and practical deployment aspects and mechanisms were added, and the draft Handbook was subsequently circulated among field personnel and partners for further scrutiny. The final product was presented to the Consultative Group on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets (MCDA) at its annual meeting in Geneva on 29 November 2007 and jointly launched by OCHA and DG ECHO in Brussels on 10 March 2008.

This Field Handbook is designed to assist the Humanitarian UN-CMCoord Officer in the performance of the key tasks identified in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) endorsed UN Humanitarian CMCoord Concept. It assumes a solid working knowledge of the United Nations structure and the roles of the various funds, agencies and programmes in humanitarian response.

All principles and concepts referred to in the Handbook are taken directly from existing and endorsed documents on civil-military coordination, with relevant reference to these. This follows the request in particular by the practitioners in the field for a practical, easy-to-read handbook. Our thanks go to all those who contributed with their time, experience, drafting and comments, to make this possible.