Page 18 - Coespu Magazine 2018-2

Humanitarian, Civil, Military & Police Coordination in
the Context of a UN Integrated Presence

With the creation of multi-dimensional peace operations and UN integrated presences,
coordination between humanitarians, civilians, police and military is of essence. In his reform
plans and the
Sustaining Peace
1
Agenda , the United
Nations Secretary-
General (UN SG)
underlines that the
UN must and will
more strongly support
local solutions. The
humanitarian-development-peace & security nexus is a central piece in bringing all actors
closer together in the effort to sustain peace. For all actors involved in crisis response this is a
unique and valuable time to strengthen coordination to capitalize on the collective effort in
responding to crises and thereby leverage the complementarity of our specific mandates.
UN Humanitarian Civil-
Military Coordination
(UN-CMCoord) Officers,
deployed through the
UN Office for the
Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), facilitate
coordination between
humanitarians and the
components of a peace
operation. Contrary to
what the title of this
function implies, the
work of the UN-CMCoord Officers goes beyond working with the military and extends to the
Police and civilian mission components. In addition to existing coordination structures at the
leadership level, UN-CMCoord Officers set up field coordination structures for humanitarian
2
organizations and relevant Mission components. This can take the shape of regular meetings
in all hubs. Discussions can include the use of armed escorts, patrol schedules, coordination

1 nd
Peacebuilding and sustaining peace, Report of the Secretary-General, General Assembly 72 Session, Agenda
item 65, 18 January 2018
2
Participation can include, amongst others, UN-CIMIC Officers, United Nations Police Officers, Protection
Advisor or Civil Affairs Officers

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