UNITED NATIONS CENTRAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND ALLOCATES $41 MILLION TO 9 UNDERFUNDED CRISES

(New York: 16 July 2010) - The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, today allocated some $41 million to underfunded humanitarian operations in nine countries across the globe where people are suffering the effects of hunger, malnutrition, disease, and conflict.

The funds made available today will be granted to United Nations humanitarian agencies and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and through them to partner organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to cover funding gaps in key humanitarian projects in the affected countries. Countries were selected to receive grants based on an analysis of the funding levels of their aid programmes, and the severity of the humanitarian needs.

Humanitarian actors in Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo received the largest individual portions of some $8 million apiece. Agencies working in Yemen will receive $7 million, while the humanitarian country team in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have been allocated some $5 million. Humanitarian agencies in the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Eritrea and the Republic of Congo will each receive $3 million in funding. Finally, CERF will allocate $2 million to help the United Nations Country Team in Nepal to address humanitarian needs there.

This is the second round of allocations from CERF's window for underfunded emergencies in 2010. Some $ 97 million was made available to humanitarian agencies in 13 countries in January, when the first round of underfunded allocations was made. As mandated by the General Assembly, CERF commits one-third of all funds each year to redress imbalances in the global aid distribution by supporting neglected crises. Accordingly, over $480 million has gone to chronically neglected crises in roughly three dozen countries.

CERF was established in 2006 to help agencies respond rapidly to new or deteriorating humanitarian situations. CERF is funded by voluntary contributions from Member States, nongovernmental organisations, local governments, the private sector and individual donors. Since its establishment, more than 116 Member States and dozens of private sector donors have contributed nearly $2 billion to CERF, which is administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Fund has disbursed more than $1.7 billion to help millions of victims of natural disasters and conflict in more than 76 countries and territories since 2006. Nearly $415 million has been pledged for the Fund for 2010.

For further information, please call: OCHA-New York: Stephanie Bunker, 1 917 367 5126, mobile 1 347 244 2106, bunker@un.org; Nicholas Reader +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org;

OCHA-Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs,+41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org.

OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int

For more information about CERF, please see http://cerf.un.org