In response to the General Assembly's expressed desire to strengthen coordination among UN bodies providing humanitarian assistance, the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali established the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) in 1992. The newly-formed department incorporated the former Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator, the UN emergency units for Africa, Iraq and Southeast Asia and the Secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). DHA's mandate is to coordinate the response of the UN system to complex humanitarian emergencies and to sudden natural and technological disasters. The department also promotes action to improve prevention and preparedness. The Under-Secretary-General of DHA is based in New York where overall policy planning and coordination are performed and where the Department's Complex Emergency Division is located. DHA's Geneva Office concentrates its activities on providing operational support during emergencies and on coordinating international disaster relief activities, as well as all activities related to disaster prevention and mitigation.
Effective international assistance in response to major emergencies requires planning, logistics, diplomacy and fund-raising, as UN humanitarian relief activities are almost exclusively funded from voluntary contributions. In 1994, DHA coordinated international response to 75 natural disasters, issuing 214 emergency situation reports, organizing 33 relief shipments from its warehouse in Pisa, Italy, to 19 countries and taking part in 14 disaster relief field missions. In 1994, DHA also issued 14 UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals for complex emergencies in 16 countries such as Rwanda, Haiti and many countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States. More than 70 per cent of the US $2.76 billion sought for humanitarian assistance was obtained from the international community. Through the IDNDR secretariat, DHA was also instrumental in matters relating to prevention and preparedness against disasters at the local level. The World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction organized in Yokohama in May 1994 adopted a Plan of Action stressing the need to integrate disaster reduction into sustainable development and to focus on the protection of vulnerable communities.
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who serves concurrently as UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, is the UN system's principal policy advisor, coordinator and advocate on issues pertaining to humanitarian emergencies. Working with the heads of the system's operational agencies and major NGOs, as well as with governments and intergovernmental humanitarian organizations, the Coordinator advises the Secretary-General on emergencies and recommends action to be taken.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator chairs the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) whose members are the heads of UN operational agencies engaged in humanitarian relief-UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, FAO, and WHO-and major humanitarian organizations such as IOM, ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Relevant NGOs are also invited to participate in the IASC. IASC formulates system-wide responses to specific emergencies, determining priorities and aims to support activities to strengthen in-country capacities.
Other examples of cooperation include a Disaster Management Training Program that DHA and UNDP run jointly, which has provided country-specific training to some 1,500 people from more than 40 countries, and a Central Register of Disaster Management Capacities, which includes registers of emergency stockpiles that humanitarian organizations and Governments run. DHA and UNEP recently established a joint environmental unit under DHA's management in Geneva.
