Each member of the ETC has a specific role.

OCHA, as the process owner, is responsible for:

• coordinating with service providers, other sectoral leads, other agencies and UNDAC;
• ensuring emergency telecommunications standards are established and applied;
• consolidating lessons learned and refining process definitions;
• managing assessment missions and requesting the intervention of the service providers whenever appropriate;
• managing the establishment of initial emergency telecommunications services until a TCA is appointed (relying on the operational capacity of UNICEF and WFP or other partners for the actual implementation and provision of the initial services);
• establishing collaboration tools, Web pages, repositories, links and templates;
• fund raising and ensuring the availability of funding for standby equipment and staff through preparation of appeals and discussion with donors;
• advocating for the emergency telecommunications sector;
• ensuring preparedness so that sufficient staff, stock and funds are on standby for emergency deployments, training and contingency planning;
• establishing inter-sectoral linkages and alignments to develop sustainable common response and deployment strategies with other humanitarian common services.

WFP and UNICEF as the service providers within their respective service scopes (security telecommunications and data communications), are responsible for:

• supporting OCHA, the process owner in the development of standard operating procedures, technical standards, the definition of ET services and training modules, fundraising and advocacy
• maintaining equipment stock and standby personnel to ensure a pre-defined level of inter-agency readiness for emergencies, as requested by the process owner
• providing senior ICT emergency managers to conduct assessments and act as the head of the local ETC
• accepting the role of TCA when appropriate