UN OCHA Working and Webinar Visit

“I am impressed with the work and professionalism at the CCOE”, says UN OCHA’s Josef Reiterer, Chief of CMCS.

In the world of Civil-Military Interaction, there is certainly no other organization like the Civil-Military Coordination Section of UN OCHA. It is the one United Nations entity mitigating and facilitating between humanitarian relief organizations and all domestic and foreign Military assets existing in, or being deployed to natural disasters, as well as to complex emergencies. At the time of this visit, 140 crisis scenarios had been identified around the globe with 80 % of those involving civilian and Military actors alike.

Thus, the August 14th visit of Josef Reiterer, Chief of CMCS at UN OCHA in Geneva, marked a particularly important day for the CCOE. As the custodian of CMI on the side of NATO, the constant development of this relationship between these two key caretakers from both sides always remains a top priority for the Directorate of the CCOE.

Already, both institutions are cooperating in training and education, jointly conducting since 2014 the “Supporting Humanitarian Action in Responding to Emergencies and Disasters (SHARED)” course at the CCOE. On the occasion of this visit, Josef Reiterer received an update on recent CMI products and civilian side outreach projects at the CCOE, opening avenues for further cooperation. In return, the CMCS chief briefed CCOE Director R Been and his senior staff on his perspective on the results and recommendation from the World Humanitarian Summit in Singapore earlier this year.

In the true spirit of the CCOE as the ‘network campus’ of CMI, Josef Reiterer also conducted a live Webinar with civilian and Military stakeholders on “The Future of Humanitarian Relief and the Role of Civil-Military Interaction.” The first such Webinar hosted by the CCOE, attracted over 50 participants from all over and beyond Europe, pulling in experts, academics students and field operators from as far as the United States and South Africa. Advanced conferencing technology enabled participants to directly address Mr. Reiterer on topics ranging from the MINUSMA mission in Mali, to UNDAC and the job opportunities of students in international and humanitarian studies with relief organisations.

An edited and broken down version of the Webinar, which lastet 90 minutes in total, will be published on the CCOE Youtube channel shortly.