OCHA Minimum package of services on access

Background Humanitarian access refers to humanitarian actors’ ability to reach people affected by crisis, as well as, the affected population’s ability to access humanitarian assistance and services.
Rapid and unimpeded access is a fundamental prerequisite for effective humanitarian action. Access is critical to establish operations, assess needs, monitor assistance, move goods and personnel where needed, and enable affected people to benefit from assistance and access basic services.
Facilitating and coordinating efforts to establish and maintain access is central to the mandates of the Emergency Relief Coordinator1 (ERC),
Humanitarian Coordinators2 (HCs) and therefore OCHA.
This mandate translates into the following priorities for OCHA:3 • Strengthen the global normative framework;

• Foster collaboration amongst humanitarian actors to promote a coherent and coordinated approach;

• Support humanitarian advocacy and negotiations, and promote compliance with and respect for humanitarian principles and IHL;

• Facilitate efforts to monitor access trends and developments in order to identify constraints and their implications for people in need;

• Build the capacity of humanitarian partners and relevant stakeholders on access and humanitarian negotiations