UN Emergency Fund gives $100 million for aid operations in Syria and other poorly funded crises
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(New York, 23 January 2014) – The United Nations humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, has allocated some US$100 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to boost life-saving relief work in Syria and 11 other countries where humanitarian needs are high but financial support is low.
“Despite critical funding gaps, humanitarian workers remain committed to helping every vulnerable Syrian they can. This allocation from CERF will help ensure that they can continue their life-saving work,” said the Emergency Relief Coordinator. In less than four years, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria has gone from one million to over 12 million. Millions more have fled to find refuge across the border.
Some $77.5 million of the first of two rounds of CERF funding in 2015 to support underfunded emergencies will go to countries affected by the Syria crisis. The highest single allocation will go to Syria ($30 million), and the remainder will go to humanitarian agencies in Egypt ($3.5 million), Iraq ($8 million), Jordan ($9 million), Lebanon ($18 million) and Turkey ($9 million).
Another $14 million will support aid operations in three countries in the Great Lakes Region in Africa, where the long running conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to have disastrous effects. Aid agencies in DRC ($9 million), neighbouring Burundi ($2.5 million) and Rwanda ($2.5 million) will receive funds to provide urgent assistance for people displaced by violence and the vulnerable communities that host them.
Additionally, humanitarian partners in Colombia ($3 million), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ($2 million) and Djibouti ($3 million) will receive support to sustain long-standing, but critically underfunded humanitarian operations, including the delivery of food and basic health services.
“We thank our donors who have already pledged $418 million for CERF in 2015. This underfunded emergencies allocation of $100 million from that pool will help millions of people who are caught in crises where the scale of needs has outpaced contributions,” said Ms. Amos.
Grants from CERF’s underfunded-emergencies window provide a temporary lifeline for people caught in crises where current donor contributions fall short but needs are extreme and major assistance is required.
When CERF was established in 2006, global humanitarian appeals sought $6 billion. That amount has more than tripled to $19 billion. To help humanitarian partners keep pace, in both 2013 and 2014, the Fund allocated more than $175 million through its underfunded-emergencies window. CERF also provides rapid response funding for new or rapidly deteriorating emergencies and has allocated more than $3.7 billion for humanitarian agencies operating in 88 countries and territories since its inception
For further information, please contact:
Amanda Pitt, OCHA New York, +1 212 963 4129, +1 917 442 1810, pitta@un.org
Tomas de Mul, CERF secretariat, +1 917 367 6013, +1 917 250 8400, demul@un.org