II. Fundamentals
2.5. Other Actors
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation (IO).
The UN is involved in peacekeeping and political missions and may, therefore, operate in theatres similar to those of NATO. The UN System comprises a multitude of principal organs, programs and funds, specialized independent agencies, departments and offices.
The primary responsibility of the UN Security Council is to maintain international peace and security. The General Assembly and the Secretary-General, along with other UN offices and bodies, play important and complementary roles.
Figure 2.5 - UN Framework for the UN Peace Building and Peace Keeping
UN CIMIC
UN CIMIC personnel are responsible for conducting the following core tasks:
-Development of a current and accurate comprehensive civilian operational picture.
-UN-CIMIC supports the establishment and maintenance of a coherent, real-time,
operational understanding of the civilian situation in the mission area to support
the mission's planning and operations efforts.
-Provide analysis, early warning, risk, and threat assessment of the civil operating environment.
-Contribute to the overall planning effort in close collaboration with the relevant military branches,
UN Police(UNPOL), mission components, and integrated mission partners.
-Identify risks and opportunities. Provide mission leadership with an enhanced understanding of
trends and changes in the civilian operational landscape and associated risks and
opportunities with respect to the safety and security of HN civilians. Furthermore,
related in-mission training requirements can be developed based or identified gaps and needs.
-Coordinate and liaise to share, gather, verify and analyses information on
the civilian operational environment
UN CIMIC is a military staff function, primarily operated by the UN CIMIC military staff. Its purpose is to facilitate communication and coordination between all the UN parties involved in the mission, including civilian and military components, to achieve the aims set forth. While some tasks may differ between the UN military and civilian entities of the UN mission, coordination is crucial to increase the effectiveness of the separated areas of responsibilities. Interaction is also open to non-UN bodies.
UN-CMCoord
The UN Civil-Military Coordination (UN-CMCoord) is a civilian function, led by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) and operated by the UN civilian staff, of establishing dialogue to achieve all the aims described below. The interaction is more focused to involve focused on external UN bodies (non-UN bodies), such as local Governmental authorities, national and international humanitarian organizations, and international and national military and security forces parties. Coordination is crucial to always increase the effectiveness of the separated area of responsibilities and to increase the effectiveness of the separated area of responsibilities, to reach common stability in the area. Please note that some tasks to protect and promote humanitarian principles are belonging to the UN civilians but also to the military, specifically if we are operating in the same UN mission and/or working in the CIMIC domain approaching the civil dimension.
UN-CMCoord aims to protect and promote humanitarian principles.
Humanitarian organisations , State security forces and non-state armed groups increasingly operate in the same space in emergencies, whether caused by conflict, extreme weather events or other human-made disasters.
Effective dialogue between these entities is critical to obtaining and maintaining humanitarian access to people in need and ensure their protection.
UN-CMCoord formalizes this essential dialogue and interaction to protect and promote humanitarian principles, avoid competition, minimize inconsistency and, when appropriate, pursue common goals.
This interaction ranges from coexistence to cooperation. Good coordination between the humanitarian community and the military requires information sharing and a clear sense of the division of tasks.
UN-CMCoord can also help to reduce the risk of misunderstanding or conflict between military and civilian personnel and ensure that humanitarian assistance is provided in a way that is coordinated and consistent with international humanitarian law.
Documents/ websites available:
-Humanitarian//Military Dialogue website.
-UN-CMCoord Guide for the Military 2.0.
-IASC Non-Binding Guidelines on the "Use of Military or Armed Escorts for Humanitarian Convoys.”
-Oslo Guidelines on The Use of Foreign Military and Civil Defence Assets In Disaster Relief.
-OCHA on Message: Civil-Military Coordination.
-United Nations Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination (UN-CMCoord) eCourse.
The Cluster Approach is used for coordinating in humanitarian emergencies. NGOs may be unwilling to interact with the military, but they are still required to communicate with the UN cluster. This makes it easier for CIMIC personnel to identify those who may not be willing to work with them. Humanitarian organisations have agreed to lead certain clusters at the global level and have defined a cluster structure for humanitarian responses at the country level, where cluster leadership should ideally mirror global arrangements. Clusters are often co-led with the government and/or co-chaired with NGO partners.
The cluster system spreads accountability for the delivery of services (health, shelter, etc.) across different cluster lead agencies so that no single agency is accountable for the entire response. In each country's situation, overall accountability for coordination and delivery rests with the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC).
Clusters are groups of humanitarian UN and non-UN organisations in each of the main sectors of humanitarian action (water, health, shelter, logistics, etc.). The IASC designates them and have clear responsibilities for coordination; they are time-bound bodies that are meant to fill a temporary gap. They aim to build the capacity of the national systems to respond to humanitarian situations with a protection and accountability lens and progressively hand over coordination to national and local entities.
Global Cluster Lead Agencies
Figure 2.5 – UN Cluster Approach
All clusters have lead organisations , known as Cluster Lead Agencies, which operate at the global and country levels.
At the country level, the HC leads inter-agency cluster-based responses through the Cluster Lead Agencies.