When Being a Groupie Is a Good Thing

There are many organizations and groups around the world that dedicate themselves to helping other people in need. One of these is the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA for short. Here’s what the agency does:

OCHA coordinates humanitarian action to ensure crisis-affected people receive the assistance and protection they need. It works to overcome obstacles that impede humanitarian assistance from reaching people affected by crises, and it provides leadership in mobilizing assistance and resources on behalf of the humanitarian system.

And here is a key tenet of its operations: “OCHA believes that the diversity of humanitarian actors is a key asset and that all stakeholders have a role in saving and protecting lives and alleviating human suffering.”

OCHA also has a specific agenda for humanity:

• To foster political leadership to prevent and end conflicts
• To uphold the norms that safeguard humanity
• To leave no one behind
• To change people’s lives by activities that range from delivering aid to ending need
• To invest in humanity

On its Agenda for Humanity webpage, it lays out specific ways to act on and achieve change via the five core responsibilities. It’s quite a daunting list. Under “Leave No One Behind,” for example, OCHA is working to obtain commitments from countries, NGOs, communities, and other stakeholders to

1. address displacement (including that caused by climate change),
2. address migration,
3. end statelessness,
4. empower and protect women and girls,
5. ensure education for all in crisis,
6. empower young people, and
7. include the most vulnerable.

At its last World Humanitarian Summit, OCHA obtained commitments on “Leave No One Behind” responsibilities from 1,201 attendees, with the most votes going to “Address Displacement” and “Empower and Protect Women and Girls.” That number was only twenty-four percent of the total attendance. Saying we have a long way to go is more than an understatement. On the positive side, though, we are definitely not starting from scratch.

OCHA’s latest relief efforts are focused on helping those affected by the cyclone-caused floods in Zimbabwe. Other than signing up to volunteer as a relief worker where that’s possible, the only way for most of us to support these efforts is to donate money. OCHA manages a number of country-based pooled funds (CBPFs) that operate in this manner:

Resources are pooled and un-earmarked, empowering donors both big and small to support humanitarian organizations in providing lifesaving aid to those who need it most. Through the CBPF, funding is provided to national and international NGOs, organizations of the Red Cross / Red Crescent, and UN agencies and IOM. Those experienced aid agencies are familiar with context and needs, and can make informed decisions on the ground as to how funds should be spent.

While not everyone has money to spare for such causes and those who do can be bewildered by the wide gamut and large number of humanitarian choices, to me this kind of broad-brush approach seems likely to achieve the greatest good.