Humanitarian aid

The humanitarian assistance of the United Nations comprises emergency relief and long term assistance through a complex interaction of UN bodies, other international and national organizations, governments and the affected population.

The scope of humanitarian activity ranges from humanitarian crises resulting from war and violent conflict to natural and technical disasters. Complex emergencies with multiple causes that require a broad and comprehensive assistance approach have become increasingly important.

Humanitarian aid by topic

UN programmes, funds and agencies involved in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief

UN body

Full name

More information in DagDok

FAO

Food and Agriculture Organization

FAO

OCHA

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

OCHA

OHCHR

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Human Rights

UNAIDS

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

UNAIDS

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

UNDP

UNHCR

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNHCR

UNICEF

United Nations Children's Fund

UNICEF

UNRWA

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

UNRWA

UNV

United Nations Volunteers

UNV

WFP

World Food Programme

WFP

WHO

World Health Organization

WHO

WMO

World Meteorological Organization

WMO

UN documents and publications in catalogues and databases

  • United Nations Digital Library offers UN documents and open access publications, UN voting data and speeches, UN maps, Content in 6+ languages. Replaces the traditional online catalogue UNBISnet.
  • UN iLibrary UN publications online covering different topics.
  • ODS full-text UN documents published from 1993 onward and scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993 in the official languages of the UN.
  • Daily list of documents (ODS). Documents published for the day, with full text links, can be found in the United Nations full text database ODS.
  • UNBIS Thesaurus a multilingual database of the controlled vocabulary used to describe UN documents.
  • Index to proceedings is an annual bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the major UN organs. The index includes:
    • a list of all documents
    • a comprehensive subject index
    • an index to speeches
    • a voting chart of resolutions
  • United Nations Documents Index (United Nations Digital Library) References to all documents by subject area are published. A collection of indexes is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld and Law Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva.
Last modified: 2023-11-23