The CERF hailed as a success at
7 December 2006 High-Level Donor Conference

“We may save, if not the world, then at least its conscience”, donors said.

“The UN can and must reform. The CERF is an example of the how and why”, Jan Egeland, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said at the High Level Donor Conference in New York yesterday.

“We realised the idea of the CERF in few months and are today receiving an unanimous expression of confidence in the Fund, with participation from 100 delegations, from the north and south, east and west”, Jan Egeland said.

Sweden, one of the top-five donors to the CERF, concurred: “Few could have predicted the enormous success of CERF in saving lives and bringing hope”, Joakim Stymne, the Deputy Minister for International Development Cooperation of Sweden, said.

The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) is a stand-by fund established by the United Nations to enable more timely and reliable humanitarian assistance to victims of natural disasters and armed conflicts. The CERF was approved by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 2005 to achieve the following objectives: promote early action and response to reduce loss of life; enhance response to time-critical requirements; strengthen core elements of humanitarian response in under-funded crises.

A total of US$ 343 million was pledged by 51 donors for 2007. The top five donors are the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland. Thirty-five donors who had also contributed in 2006 were joined by 16 new donors, many of whom are emerging donor countries.

Member states, donors and recipients alike, congratulated the work of the ERC and the CERF Secretariat and called for continued and increased support to the CERF: “We may save, if not the world, then at least its conscience,” the Hungarian permanent representation at the UN noted.

Over the last two weeks, the ERC approved a total of US$ 55.8 million to Afghanistan, Colombia, Gaza, Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya), Myanmar, and the Philippines.

Click here for the CERF High-Level Conference in December 2007.

[Last Update: 8 December 2006]

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