CERF Advisory Group holds inaugural session; elects Chair and Vice-Chairs

(New York: 23 May 2006): The Advisory Group on the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) today held its inaugural session at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The twelve members of the Advisory Group, who serve in their individual, expert capacities, were appointed by the Secretary-General in conformity with General Assembly resolution 60/124 of 15 December 2005. The Advisory Group provides periodic policy guidance and expert advice on the use and impact of the CERF to the Secretary-General, through the Under-Secretary-General.

Welcoming the Advisory Group members into their new positions was Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, following the opening of the session by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland.

As its first order of business, the Advisory Group elected Marika Fahlen, Special Envoy/Advisor on the Horn of Africa for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as Chairperson. Barbara Carby, Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management of Jamaica, and Sipho George Nene, Deputy Director-General of the Multilateral Branch of the Department for Foreign Affairs of South Africa, were elected Vice-Chairs. The chair and two vice-chairs will serve one-year terms and are limited to two consecutive terms.

After the elections, Mr. Egeland briefed the members on how the CERF has been used since its 8 March 2006 launch. To date, more than $261 million has been pledged to the CERF by 41 Member States and two private sector organizations. Allocations have been or are being considered for fifteen emergencies, including the use of rapid response funds for Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Sudan, Suriname, and the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia), as well as the use of resources set aside for underfunded emergencies in Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Haiti, Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia.

The CERF will save lives by providing quick initial funding for life-saving assistance and rapid response in sudden onset emergencies, rapid deteriorations, and neglected emergencies. It will be used to help redress the existing imbalance in global aid distribution, as a result of which millions of people in so-called neglected or forgotten crises remain in need, while others benefit from better-funded programmes.

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 917 892 1679; Kristen Knutson, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 9262; Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int.