CERF March Newsletter 2007

First anniversary of the CERF

Since its launch one year ago, the upgraded CERF received US$ 399.4 million and is being supported by 73 partners, including Member States, one local government, non-governmental organizations, and individuals through the UN Foundation. Out of the amount received, US$ 376.1 million was allocated to 361 projects that addressed humanitarian needs in 40 countries.

Pledges & contributions

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is pleased to acknowledge the receipt of five new contributions totalling US$ 8,972,000 for 2006 and 2007 (as of 1 March). The contributions received during February were made by Brunei (US$ 50,000), Croatia (US$ 20,000) and Denmark (US$ 8,8 million) for 2007 and by Djibouti (US$ 2,000) and Greece (US$ 100,000) for 2006. New pledges were made by Egypt (US$ 15,000) and the Philippines (US$ 5,000) for 2007. OCHA encourages all Member States to turn their pledges into contributions as soon as possible.

Country highlights

In February 2007, the Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) approved a total of almost US$ 32 million in grants from the CERF. Details on each allocation can be found below or on the CERF web site at http://cerf.un.org

In Chad... Over 115,000 internally displaced persons (IDP) require assistance after the humanitarian situation in eastern Chad rapidly deteriorated in February. Their number has more than doubled since October 2006 due to increased rebel activity, combined with a sharp rise of inter-ethnic violence and incursions by armed militias. The CERF grant of US$ 5.9 million will help to jump-start several life-saving activities.

The World Food Programme (WFP) will provide food assistance to 25,000 new IDPs with a grant of more than US$ 1 million. In addition, the UN agency will increase its humanitarian air services in order to avoid an interruption of flight activities. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will distribute seeds, tools and vaccines to 5,000 households. The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR will distribute non-food items as well as profile IDPs and monitor their human rights situation. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) will ensure access to latrines for 45,000 people and provide water storage and hygiene facilities for 60,000 persons. In addition, the same UN agency will provide health services, including the vaccination of 50,000 children.

In Guinea... The CERF allocated US$ 2.7 million for urgent humanitarian activities in the aftermath of the general strike.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is providing urgent trauma and surgical care for those wounded during the protests, while UNICEF is strengthening the medical services of 14 hospitals and 21 health centres. WFP is increasing the agencies' telecommunications capacity and running the common humanitarian air service.

In Indonesia... Torrential rains triggered serious floods in Jakarta in early February. About 75% of Jakarta was inundated, and more than half a million people had to leave their homes.

With a CERF grant of US$ 360,000, UNICEF is supplying essential non-food items and ensuring their effective distribution in affected areas. US$ 110,000 was made available to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to procure, transport, and distribute essential non- food items like blankets, mats, clothing, family and cleaning kits. In addition, the grant will facilitate clean up operations.

The WFP is providing ready to eat food to 40,000 of the worst-affected flood victims with an allocation of US$ 250,000. The WHO will use its grant of US$ 535,000 for integrated life-saving emergency health services in the flood-affected areas.

In DPR Korea... In mid-February, the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea acknowledged that the country is facing significant measles outbreaks. Some 3,000 cases, including 4 fatalities, were reported across 30 counties. The CERF allocated US$ 3.1 million to UNICEF to conduct an emergency national vaccination campaign.

In Liberia... A CERF grant of US$ 2.2 million to FAO is aimed at addressing the needs of 80,000 waraffected farming families in 13 counties through the purchase of 2,000 metric tonnes of quality rice seeds. The data shows that the existing supplies will not meet needs during the 2007 planting season, which started as early as February in some regions.

In Mozambique... The CERF allocated close to US$ 9.6 million for life-saving activities after severe flooding displaced some 142,000 people.

US$ 2.8 million will be made available to the WFP for food aid and more than US$ 2 million for logistics and communications activities. UNICEF will receive US$ 1 million for water and sanitation projects, US$ 464,000 for protection activities, and nearly US$ 420,000 to ensure access to education for 47,000 children aged 5 to 14. The FAO will benefit from US$ 1.1 million to support the restoration of food production by small farmers. Meanwhile, with grants totalling almost US$ 1.7 million, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF and the WHO will be able to cover health care needs of people displaced by the flooding.

And in Sri Lanka... In view of recent violence, a CERF grant of US$ 210,000 will enable the UN department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) to aintain its enhanced security management capacity.

The allocation will allow for additional UNDSS staff, funded through the CERF in 2006, to support humanitarian workers in safely implementing their humanitarian operations, including assistance to over 200,000 displaced persons.

71% of grants to Africa in 2006

Between March and December 2006, the ERC allocated US$ 259.3 million through the CERF to 331 urgent humanitarian projects in 35 countries: US$ 182.4 million helped jump-start humanitarian response in rapid onset crises or sudden deteriorations of existing crises in 24 countries; US$ 76.9 million were committed to underfunded crises in 17 countries. The majority of funds - US$ 183.9 million (or 70.9%) - went to Africa; the continent also received 99% of total funds for underfunded emergencies.

Natural disasters (droughts, flooding, typhoons) received 54% of the funding within the rapid response window, while the remaining 46% was allocated to new or rapidly deteriorating complex emergencies. The top three sectors funded in 2006 were food (30.3%), health (21.6%) and multi-sector activities related to refugee assistance (19.8%).

In 2006, eight UN agencies (FAO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNOPS, WFP, WHO) and the IOM received CERF grants, with the WFP being the primary recipient (US$ 108 million), followed by UNICEF (US$ 58.8 million) and UNHCR (US$ 34.2 million).

Training-of-trainers workshop

In January 2007, the CERF organized a training-of trainers workshop in New York attended by 22 representatives from UN agencies and OCHA. The seminar highlighted the need to explain in greater detail the various UN coordination mechanisms and the relationship between the CERF and the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP).

Erin Tettensor, humanitarian programme officer with UNICEF, was the first agency representative to be deployed on a training mission. She recently travelled to Chad to assist the UN Country Team with their application for a CERF allocation. "This kind of training helps bridge the gap between the requirements of the CERF Secretariat and the knowledge of CERF procedures in the field. If we can speed up the application process, then these trainings are a huge success," she said.

Plans are underway to conduct two additional training of- trainers workshops in Geneva and Africa in the first half of 2007.

Contacts

For more information, please contact

Mr. Rudolph Muller (programme) (+1-917-367-4116 or mullerr@un.org) or Ms. Shoko Arakaki (contributions) (+1-917-367-3498 or arakaki@un.org).