The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is a strategic and operational decision-making and oversight forum in each country facing a humanitarian crisis, established, led and chaired by the Humanitarian Coordinator. It is composed of representatives from the UN, international NGOs and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement at the highest level in the country concerned.
The overall objective of the HCT is to ensure that inter-agency humanitarian action alleviates human suffering and protects the lives, livelihoods and dignity of people in need. Aid agencies that are also Cluster leads should represent the clusters as well as their organizations. The Humanitarian Country Team is responsible for agreeing on common strategic issues related to humanitarian action in a country.