Guidance Note on Developing Country Specific Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination Guidelines

In the past decades operational environments have emerged in which humanitarian organisations
deliver assistance and implement activities under previously unseen conditions. The traditional
distinction between a ‘pure’ natural disaster context and a complex emergency has been supplanted
by increasingly multifaceted and unique contexts. This, coupled with the shift in the configuration of
multidimensional missions, called for the need to better contextualise, understand and tailor
humanitarian civil-military coordination policy and guidance to contexts that no longer fit ‘traditional
classifications’, nor are fully contemplated by existing generic civil-military coordination guidance.
This trend has prompted the humanitarian community to increasingly opt for the development of
country or emergency specific Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination Guidelines.

Developing country specific Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination (UN-CMCoord) guidelines
allows for a greater tailoring to the context and operationalisation of existing global Humanitarian
Civil-Military Coordination guidance and of humanitarian principles; to ensure a consistent and
coherent approach to and interaction by the humanitarian community with military actors; to
highlight that UN-CMCoord is a shared responsibility, critical at the operational level; and to
emphasize that UN-CMCoord benefits civilian, humanitarian and military actors in the course of their
work, as well as the affected people receiving assistance.