Our funding

We bring together humanitarian entities to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. We mobilize and coordinate effective humanitarian action in partnership with national and international entities, advocate the rights of people in need, promote preparedness and prevention, and facilitate sustainable solutions. 

OCHA cannot deliver its mandate without donor support. It receives voluntary contributions from a diverse set of donors, whose generous contributions and constant support allow us to deliver services and develop innovative ways to meet or address the challenges confronting the global humanitarian community. OCHA highly values its donors’ funding year after year and counts on their continued support during a time of unprecedented humanitarian need.

• If you are a Government, corporation or foundation and would like to support OCHA and/or our Humanitarian Funds, email: ocha.donor.relations@un.org
• If you are an individual and wish to make a donation, visit https://cerf.un.org/donate

OCHA relies heavily on voluntary contributions, mostly from Governments, to fund its activities. Only a small percentage of OCHA’s programme budget is funded from the UN Regular Budget. 

Created by Member States in 1998 as a “group of friends,” originally with seven members, the OCHA Donor Support Group (ODSG) included 30 members by the end of 2021, with no new members joining during the year. The group is a sounding board on issues related to policy, programme and finance. 

The membership criteria include a commitment to provide continued financial support to OCHA and willingness to provide political support to implement General Assembly resolution 46/182. ODSG members provide nearly all of OCHA’s income.

The ODSG is chaired by one of its members on a yearly rotating basis.

Donors can choose to fund humanitarian projects that are implemented by third parties (UN partners and NGOs). These Specially Designated Contributions (SDCs) are not included in the annual budget plan as they do not have a direct link to OCHA’s activities. OCHA channels this income to third parties in the form of grants. The most common SDCs are:

• Country-Based Pooled Funds.
• United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) Mission Accounts: Member States deposit funding with OCHA, which is then used to deploy their nationals on UNDAC missions.
• Protection Standby Capacity and Gender Standby Capacity projects: This covers the Norwegian Refugee Council’s management and deployments of senior protection officers and senior gender advisers, as well as related training programmes.

To enable the allocation of funds where and when they are needed, contributions must be flexible. Therefore, an important part of OCHA’s resource mobilization strategy is to secure a healthy balance between earmarked and unearmarked funding from donors and, where possible, to secure those commitments on a multi-year basis for greater predictability. OCHA also works with its partners to sustainably and meaningfully diversify its donor base.

Some donor policies allow, or favour, the allocation of unearmarked funding to humanitarian organizations in return for corporate-performance commitments, and an expectation that funds will be internally allocated where they are most needed, including during a sudden-onset emergency. This results in greater operational flexibility and security while allocating funding, especially at the start of each year.