ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an attempt to examine in a little more detail how the 'institutional gap' can be overcome. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) was set up in 1992 in response to UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182. This resolution highlights, among other things, the effects of disasters and their impacts on forced migration. It also discusses the need for things, which have since become key concepts in climate change discussions, such as adaptation and mitigation measures. In another UN General Assembly Resolution, the role of the IASC was further clarified as operating 'in an action-oriented manner on policy issues related to humanitarian assistance and on formulating a coherent and timely United Nations response to humanitarian emergencies'. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) is a UN agency, the mandate of which is to be 'the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among the disaster-reduction activities'.
