Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations

A/RES/66/119View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 70a Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations, published in 2012.

What other versions does this mandate have?

30 versions · 1996–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/140

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2024	A/RES/79/140	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations	10,870	92%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/119	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations	10,024	91%Compare
2022	A/RES/77/28	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations	9,324	94%Compare
2021	A/RES/76/124	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations	8,836	87%Compare
2020	A/RES/75/127	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations	7,788	100%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

41 reports · 2005–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2025	A/80/384	Central Emergency Response Fund report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/140
2025	A/80/75	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/140
2024	A/79/327	Central Emergency Response Fund report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/119
2024	A/79/78	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/119
2023	A/78/365	Central Emergency Response Fund report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/28

What subjects does this mandate have?

17 subjects

Budget Contributions Coordination Within UN System Country Teams Disaster Preparedness Disaster Prevention Displaced Persons Emergency Relief Freedom of Movement Funds Gender Mainstreaming Gender-Based Violence Humanitarian Assistance Reconstruction Recruitment Relief Personnel Resident Coordinators Security Management

What’s in this document?

36 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the outcome of the fourteenth humanitarian affairs segment of the Economic and Social Council at its substantive session of 2011;⁹

⁹See A/66/3, chap. VI. For the final text, see Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 3.

Requests the Emergency Relief Coordinator to continue her efforts to strengthen the coordination and accountability of humanitarian assistance and leadership within the United Nations humanitarian response system, including through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, and calls upon relevant United Nations organizations and other relevant intergovernmental organizations, as well as other humanitarian and development actors, to continue to work with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat to enhance the coordination, effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian assistance;

Also requests the Emergency Relief Coordinator to improve dialogue with Member States on the relevant processes, activities and deliberations of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee;

Calls upon the relevant organizations of the United Nations system and, as appropriate, other relevant humanitarian actors to continue efforts to improve the humanitarian response to natural and man-made disasters and complex emergencies by further strengthening humanitarian response capacities at all levels, by continuing to strengthen the provision and coordination of humanitarian assistance at the global and field level, including through existing cluster coordination mechanisms, and in support of national authorities of the affected State, as appropriate, and by further enhancing efficiency, transparency, performance and accountability;

Recognizes the benefits of engagement and coordination with relevant humanitarian actors to the effectiveness of humanitarian response, and encourages the United Nations to continue to pursue efforts to strengthen partnerships at the global level with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, relevant humanitarian non-governmental organizations and other participants in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue strengthening the support provided to United Nations resident/humanitarian coordinators and to United Nations country teams, including by providing necessary training, identifying resources and improving the identification of and the selection process for United Nations resident/humanitarian coordinators, and enhancing their performance accountability;

Calls upon the Chair of the United Nations Development Group and the Emergency Relief Coordinator to enhance their consultations before presenting final recommendations on the selection process for resident coordinators in countries likely to require significant humanitarian response operations;

Reaffirms the importance of implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters,3 and takes note with appreciation of the midterm review of the Hyogo Framework for Action,¹⁰ the outcome of the third session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Geneva from 8 to 13 May 2011, and the 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction;¹¹

¹⁰Available from www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/18197.

¹¹Available from www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/19846.

Calls upon Member States and the international community to increase resources for disaster risk reduction measures, including by providing effective, predictable, flexible and adequate funding, where possible, for prevention, mitigation and preparedness for effective response and contingency planning in order to, inter alia, further strengthen national and local capacities to prepare for and respond to humanitarian emergencies, and furthermore encourages closer cooperation between national stakeholders and humanitarian and development actors in this regard;

Urges Member States, the United Nations and other relevant organizations to take further steps to provide a coordinated emergency response to the food and nutrition needs of affected populations, while aiming to ensure that such steps are supportive of national strategies and programmes aimed at improving food security;

Expresses concern about the challenges related to, inter alia, safe access to and use of fuel, firewood, alternative energy, water and sanitation, shelter and food and health-care services in humanitarian emergencies, and takes note with appreciation of initiatives at the national and international levels that promote effective cooperation in this regard;

Encourages the international community, including relevant United Nations organizations and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to support efforts of Member States aimed at strengthening their capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters and to support efforts, as appropriate, to strengthen systems for identifying and monitoring disaster risk, including vulnerability and natural hazards;

Welcomes the initiatives at the regional and national levels related to the implementation of the Guidelines for the Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance,¹² adopted at the Thirtieth International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, held in Geneva from 26 to 30 November 2007, and encourages Member States and, where applicable, regional organizations to take further steps to strengthen operational and legal frameworks for international disaster relief, taking into account the Guidelines, as appropriate;

¹²Available from www.ifrc.org.

Encourages States to create an enabling environment for the capacity-building of local authorities and of national and local non-governmental and community-based organizations in order to ensure better preparedness in providing timely, effective and predictable humanitarian assistance, and encourages the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to provide support to such efforts, including, as appropriate, through the transfer of technology and expertise to developing countries and through support to programmes aimed at enhancing the coordination capacities of affected States;

Calls upon United Nations humanitarian entities, other relevant humanitarian organizations, development partners, the private sector, donor countries and the affected State to enhance cooperation and coordination and to continue to utilize and develop appropriate tools with a view to planning and delivering humanitarian assistance in ways that are supportive of early recovery as well as of sustainable rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts;

Encourages the United Nations system and humanitarian organizations to continue their efforts to mainstream early recovery into humanitarian programming, acknowledges that early recovery should receive further funding, and encourages the provision of timely, flexible and predictable funding for early recovery, including through established humanitarian instruments;

Takes note of the efforts of Member States, the United Nations system and the international community to strengthen preparedness and local, national and regional humanitarian response capacity, and calls upon the United Nations and relevant partners to continue support in this regard;

Encourages efforts to provide education in humanitarian emergencies, including in order to contribute to a smooth transition from relief to development;

Calls upon relevant United Nations organizations to support the improvement of the consolidated appeals process, inter alia, by engaging in the preparation of common needs assessments and common humanitarian action plans, including through a better analysis of gender-related allocations, in order to further the development of the process as an instrument for United Nations strategic planning and prioritization, and by involving other relevant humanitarian organizations in the process, while reiterating that consolidated appeals should be prepared in consultation with affected States;

Requests Member States, relevant humanitarian organizations of the United Nations system and other relevant humanitarian actors to ensure that all aspects of humanitarian response, including disaster preparedness and needs assessments, take into account the specific needs of the affected population, recognizing that giving appropriate consideration to, inter alia, gender, age and disability is part of a comprehensive and effective humanitarian response, and in this regard encourages efforts to ensure gender mainstreaming in the delivery of humanitarian assistance;

Calls upon United Nations humanitarian organizations, in consultation with Member States, as appropriate, to strengthen the evidence base for humanitarian assistance by further developing common mechanisms to improve the quality, transparency and reliability of, and make further progress towards, common humanitarian needs assessments, including through improved collection, analysis and reporting of sex-, age- and disability-disaggregated data to assess their performance in assistance and to ensure the most effective use of humanitarian resources by these organizations;

Calls upon the United Nations and its humanitarian partners to enhance accountability to Member States, including affected States, and all other stakeholders, and to further strengthen humanitarian response efforts, including by monitoring and evaluating the provision of their humanitarian assistance, incorporating lessons learned into programming and consulting with the affected populations so that their needs are appropriately addressed;

Calls upon donors to provide adequate, timely, predictable and flexible resources based on and in proportion to assessed needs, including for underfunded emergencies, to consider providing early and multi-year commitments to pooled humanitarian funds and to continue to support diverse humanitarian funding channels, encourages efforts to adhere to the Principles and Good Practice of Humanitarian Donorship,¹³ and in this respect encourages the private sector, civil society and other relevant entities to make relevant contributions, complementary to those of other sources;

¹³A/58/99-E/2003/94, annex II.

Welcomes the important achievements of the Central Emergency Response Fund in ensuring a more timely and predictable response to humanitarian emergencies, and stresses the importance of continuing to improve the functioning of the Fund in order to ensure that resources are used in the most efficient, effective, accountable and transparent manner possible;

Takes note with appreciation of the findings of the five-year evaluation of the Central Emergency Response Fund carried out in 2011,¹⁴ in this regard decides to reduce the size of the loan element of the Fund to 30 million United States dollars, and requests that the balance of any funds, including interest earned, above 30 million dollars be placed in the grant element of the Fund and used for that purpose;

¹⁴Available from http://ochaonline.un.org/cerf/WhatistheCERF/EvaluationsandReviews/tabid/5340/language/ en-US/Default.aspx.

Decides to authorize, in exceptional circumstances and on a time-bound basis, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and relevant operational agencies under the leadership of the Coordinator to utilize the loan element of the Central Emergency Response Fund to enhance, within their respective mandates, rapid response coordination where insufficient capacity exists at the field level;

Calls upon all Member States and invites the private sector and all concerned individuals and institutions to consider increasing their voluntary contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund, and emphasizes that contributions should be additional to current commitments to humanitarian programming and should not be to the detriment of resources made available for international cooperation for development;

Reiterates that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs should benefit from adequate and more predictable funding, and calls upon all Member States to consider increasing voluntary contributions;

Reaffirms the obligation of all States and parties to an armed conflict to protect civilians in armed conflicts in accordance with international humanitarian law, and invites States to promote a culture of protection, taking into account the particular needs of women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities;

Calls upon States to adopt preventive measures and effective responses to acts of violence committed against civilian populations in armed conflicts and to ensure that those responsible are promptly brought to justice, in accordance with national law and their obligations under international law;

Urges all Member States to address gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies and to ensure that their laws and institutions are adequate to prevent, promptly investigate and prosecute gender-based violence, and calls upon States, the United Nations and all relevant humanitarian organizations to improve coordination, harmonize response and strengthen capacity, with a view to reducing such violence and ensuring support services to victims of such violence;

Recognizes the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement¹⁵ as an important international framework for the protection of internally displaced persons, encourages Member States and humanitarian agencies to continue to work together, in collaboration with host communities, in endeavours to provide a more predictable response to the needs of internally displaced persons, and in this regard calls for continued and enhanced international support, upon request, for the capacity-building efforts of States;

¹⁵E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, annex.

Calls upon all States and parties in complex humanitarian emergencies, in particular in armed conflict and in post-conflict situations, in countries in which humanitarian personnel are operating, in conformity with the relevant provisions of international law and national laws, to cooperate fully with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies and organizations and to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel, as well as delivery of supplies and equipment, in order to allow such personnel to efficiently perform their task of assisting affected civilian populations, including refugees and internally displaced persons;

Welcomes the progress made towards further enhancing the security management system of the United Nations, and supports the approach taken by the Secretary-General to focus the security management system on enabling the United Nations system to deliver on its mandates, programmes and activities by effectively managing the risks to which personnel are exposed, including in the provision of humanitarian assistance;

Requests the Secretary-General to report on actions taken to enable the United Nations to continue to strengthen its ability to recruit and deploy staff quickly and flexibly, to procure emergency relief materials and services rapidly, cost-effectively and locally, where applicable, and to quickly disburse funds in order to support Governments and United Nations country teams in the coordination of international humanitarian assistance;

Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, through the Economic and Social Council at its substantive session of 2012, on progress made in strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations and to submit a report to the Assembly on the detailed use of the Central Emergency Response Fund.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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