Media Advisory: High-Level Pledging Event for the Central Emergency Response Fund in 2024

WHO: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Member States

WHAT: High-Level Pledging Event for the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in 2024

WHEN: Wednesday, 6 December 2023 (10:00 am - 1:00 pm EST)

WHERE: ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters, New York

The event will be webcast on UN Web TV and livestreamed on X and YouTube.

The High-Level Pledging Event aims to galvanize greater financial commitments so that CERF can remain fit to respond to the increasing scale and complexity of global humanitarian needs.

CERF was established by the General Assembly in 2005 as the Organization’s global emergency response fund. Since then, it has received generous contributions from Member States, observers, international organizations, the private sector and others. To date, the Fund, which has an annual funding target of US$1 billion, has helped hundreds of millions of people with nearly $9 billion in more than 110 countries and territories.

In 2023, CERF has allocated more than $640 million to support millions of people in need of urgent assistance in some 40 countries and territories. This included kickstarting urgent humanitarian operations in Gaza and Sudan, as well as swiftly responding to the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.

To address rising hunger this year, CERF funding helped to combat food insecurity, as well as the risk of famine, while also allocating a record $271 million in 2023 to help keep life-saving operations running in underfunded crises across 26 countries.

The Fund continued to help people take action ahead of predicted shocks and disasters in 19 countries, including in Central America, where the resurgence of El Niño could result in severe drought. CERF has led the way in innovative finance solutions to climate-related emergencies, including through the introduction of the CERF Climate Action Account at the ongoing Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai.

Since CERF was established, global funding needs through humanitarian appeals have increased tenfold – from $5.2 billion in 2006 to assist 32 million people to nearly $57 billion in 2023 to help 245 million people in need.

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