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The principle executive organ of the Unit is the UN Strategic Disaster
Management Team for Ethiopia - a committee chaired by the Resident
Co-ordinator and comprising the heads of all the operational UN
agencies active in Ethiopia. The SDMT is responsible for preparing
contingency plans designed to ensure a co-ordinated UN relief
response, provide a strategy for resource mobilization, including
the use of locally available resources and compile data on
preparedness measures. The SDMT is also responsible for providing
early warning information and alerting the UN Emergency Relief
Coordinator and the headquarters of member agencies to signs of an
impending crisis and for recommending appropriate preventative and
preparedness measures.
UN OCHA-Ethiopia acts as both the secretariat and operational
(albeit limited) arm of the SDMT, collecting and analyzing
information on relief needs in the country, providing background
briefings, discussion papers and general field reports as well as
advice and guidance on the use and deployment of available
resources, supporting inter-agency collaboration and in providing
a linkage to the NGO and donor community on humanitarian issues.
In this capacity, the office hopes to further enhance
the already exceptionally high level of UN co-ordination and
inter-agency co-operation that exists in the country and add
substance to the concept of linking relief to development.
Through
the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator, who is also the UN Resident Co-ordinator
and Resident Representative of UNDP, OCHA reports
to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (Head of the Office of
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) in New York. In this respect
its responsibilities are to maintain a flow of information on the
relief situation in the country and to alert OCHA to any
particular resource requirements.
With good working relations and the free exchange
of information being at the centre of inter-agency co-ordination,
the office recognises the importance of its continued
active participation in a whole range of both regular and ad hoc
committees responsible for relief and rehabilitation policy, field
operations and co-ordination. It therefore works closely with a
wide range of government, NGO and UN partners both in Ethiopia and
elsewhere in the region.
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