CERF Newsletter 2007
Press Releases 2007
- Contributions to Central Emergency Response Fund exceed $1 billion, 13 December 2007 [full text]
- Germany Doubles Support to UN Emergency Fund, 13 December 2007
[full text]
- Spain Increases Support to Emergency Fund by Over 40% , 13 December 2007 [full text]
- Western Union Becomes First Corporate Donor to UN Emergency Fund , 13 December 2007 [full text]
- United Nations allocates $8.7 million for Sudan floods, 20 August 2007
Amid continued devastation caused by floods in the Sudan, John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), has approved a grant of US$ 8.7 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), to support the ongoing humanitarian response. [full text]
- UN willing to provide up to $20 million for floods in South Asia, 10 August 2007
The United Nations is offering to step up its support to governments across South Asia as they respond to the enormous needs created by floods from heavy monsoon rains. Floods in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh have affected over 45 million people, causing over 2,200 deaths and damaging over 4 million hectares of crops, according to respective government figures. [full text]
- Humanitarian community seeks $18.9 million to address Lesotho's worst drought in thirty years, 30 July 2007
The humanitarian community has launched an appeal for $18.9 million to assist the Government of Lesotho, which declared a state of emergency on 9 July after the country was hit by the worst drought in thirty years. [full text]
- UN Humanitarian Aid Fund Grants $201 million in the first half of 2007, 17 July 2007
From getting medical treatment, building material and food to Afghan refugees to providing helicopters for distributing food in Sudan, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has given almost $201 million for life-saving aid activities in the first half of 2007. The largest amounts of rapid response funding from the CERF during this period went to Mozambique ($11.2 million), Guinea ($9.8 million) and Chad ($7.2 million). [full text]
- OCHA holds two-day CERF workshop for French-speaking West Africa, 31 May 2007
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Regional Office for West Africa has organized the first workshop in French on the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), from 31 May to 1 June 2007 in Dakar, Senegal. [full text] [full text in French]
- Advisory Group commends progress of the Central Emergency Response Fund, 24 May 2007
The Advisory Group to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) endorsed several recommendations to further improve and strengthen the capacity of the CERF to save lives. [full text]
- Italy pledges $1.3 million to Global Response Fund, 15 May 2007
The Government of Italy yesterday announced a pledge of $1.3 million for the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The pledge marks Italy’s first contribution to the CERF, and brings the total number of Member States contributing to the Fund to 71 with a total of more than $345 million in pledges and contributions for 2007. [full text]
- UN Aid Fund grants $130 million in first three months of 2007, 3 April 2007
From getting food, clothing and shelter to flood survivors in Southern Africa and South America, to ensuring security for ongoing operations in Sri Lanka and Somalia, to providing urgently needed vaccines and medicines for outbreaks of cholera and meningitis in West Africa, the CERF has funded some $130 million in life-saving aid activities in the first three months of 2007. [full text]
- At one year, $376 million provided by Emergency Fund, 9 March 2007
In the year since its official launch on 9 March 2006, $376.1 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has been used to provide life-saving humanitarian aid in 40 countries through 361 individual projects. [full text]
- UN Gives $7.6 million to Mozambique for flood victims, 23 February 2007
The United Nations has made more than $7.6 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) available for life-saving activities in Mozambique, where severe flooding has displaced some 142,000 people since the beginning of February. [full text]
- $2.35 million to Guinea from Global Emergency Fund, 16 February 2007
The United Nations has made $2.35 million available from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for urgent humanitarian activities in the West African country of Guinea. [full text] [French]
- United Nations assists flood-stricken Indonesia, 9 February 2007
The Acting United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Margareta Wahlström, has decided to make available up to $2 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for urgent humanitarian relief in Indonesia, in the wake of the severe flooding that has affected the capital of Jakarta and surrounding areas.[full text]
- United Nations gives $85 million to underfunded crisis, 7 February 2007
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affaris (OCHA) today announced that just under $85 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will be used to fund life-saving programmes in 15 countries, in the first of two annual rounds of allocations for underfunded emergencies. [link] [full text]
- United Nations Emergency Fund helps 31 countries in 2006, 10 January 2007
The United Nations has committed $241 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to more than 328 projects in 31 countries during the first nine months of the Fund’s existence. [link] [full text]
- Sir John Holmes has been appointed Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, 3 January 2007
On his second day in office, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed John Holmes to succeed Jan Egeland as the next Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Sir John Holmes is currently the British Ambassador in Paris, a post he has held since October 2001.[full text]
CERF in the News 2007
- Canada Allocates $192 Million to the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund, 13 December 2007 (CIDA) [full text]
- IRIN News, 20 November 2007 (IRIN)
In a January report, Save the Children UK - one of the more vocal non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on humanitarian financing reforms - criticised the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for being “clumsy and inefficient” in its distribution of funds to NGOs. However, by September this year their view had shifted. “I’m fairly optimistic that things are moving in the right direction,” said Amelia Bookstein, head of humanitarian policy at Save the Children UK (Save UK). [full text]
- Urgent international action needed to boost UN Humanitarian Fund, 9 March 2007 (Oxfam) [download Briefing Paper]