OCHA’s 3W Purpose, Target Audience, Scope and Products

OCHA’s Who’s Doing What Where (3W) is believed to have been first created in the late 1990’s
when there were no conceptions or expectations of such a product. Since that time, the concept
has morphed and has varied radically amongst OCHA/HIC offices and even with clusters. Some
instances included a time element which then was often referred to as a 4W. An attempt to
create an OCHA standard 3W, starting in 2005, covering all humanitarian situations proved over
complex and lacked sustained funding. As a result, OCHA offices continued to create ad hoc
process and tools to support the 3W concept and produce related products. In the regional
Information Management Officer (IMO) workshop in South Africa in January 2013, it was
recognized that no document existed that clearly outlined the actual purpose of, target audience
of, scope of, and products derived from a 3W. This paper aims to set out initial thoughts on
these topics as well as attempt to begin applying standard language to the 3W and its products.