UN Emergency Fund gives US$100 million to poorly funded humanitarian crises

(New York, 21 January 2013): The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, today announced the allocation of some US$100 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to boost humanitarian operations in neglected emergencies in 12 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen.

“Millions of people continue to need help around the world after the media spotlight fades,” said USG Amos. “These allocations are about saving lives. I hope that governments and others will provide more funds to help those caught in these hidden emergencies.” The countries were selected on the basis of the severity of humanitarian need and an analysis of funding levels. CERF funds will be prioritized by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators in each country working with UN agency and NGO partners.

A second round of allocations from CERF’s underfunded emergencies window will follow in July 2013.
CERF’s underfunded emergencies facility aims to even out funding disparities and highlight ‘forgotten’ or ‘neglected’ emergencies such as the long-standing Sahrawi refugee operation in Algeria. US$3 million have been allocated to strengthen life-saving programmes in Eritrea. The facility also seeks to help those in high profile crises with critical funding gaps, such as Sudan.

Agencies working in Afghanistan will receive US$17 million to support the most vulnerable people caught up in conflict and natural disasters. In 2012, Afghanistan received less than 50 per cent of the funds needed to carry out humanitarian programmes.

A third of all CERF funds are earmarked each year for underfunded emergencies to help improve the balance of global humanitarian aid distribution. Since 2006, US$900 million have been allocated from CERF to neglected crises in more than 40 countries. Details of all countries and allocations can be found on the CERF website: http://cerf.un.org

CERF is funded by voluntary contributions from Member States, NGOs, local governments, the private sector and individual donors. For 2013, donors have so far pledged more than $383 million, bringing the total amount contributed to CERF since March 2006 to more than $3.2 billion.