ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs 2014

CERF has been a major source of early funding as agencies respond where humanitarian needs spread across borders, whether health, nutrition, or shelter-related. In large-scale emergencies, where overall funding requirements stretch into the hundreds of millions and people flee across borders, it has become more important than ever that CERF grants are prioritized and timed for maximum impact, and to bolster coordination and strengthen humanitarian leadership.

To explore ways that the current system might better address large-scale regional needs, the CERF secretariat organized a panel discussion during the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment.

Chair:

Ms. Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

Panellists:

Mr. Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR

Mr. Martin Mogwanja, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF

Mr. Moustapha Soumaré, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary- General/Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Discussion:

In the current humanitarian context, broader trends are reflected in CERF allocations. First, new or worsening conflicts in countries including the Syrian Arab Republic, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR), have driven up humanitarian funding requirements to US$16.9 billion – double the $8.5 billion sought in early 2012. Second, the number of refugees and internally displaced people has also grown sharply, to more than 45 million, with humanitarian needs spreading across borders with increasing frequency. In two of the past three years, CERF allocations have exceeded the UN General Assembly mandated target of $450 million. In 2013, more than $110 million in CERF funding went to address the humanitarian consequences of conflicts in Syria, CAR and their neighbours. As of 1 June 2014, some $76 million, or 80 per cent of rapid response allocations, had gone to humanitarian operations in system-wide Level Three (L3) emergencies in South Sudan and CAR and to the addressing related needs in neighbouring countries including Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda. To read more about the panel’s discussion, click here