CERF
The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) is a humanitarian fund established by the United Nations and funded by governments, Non-government organisations and individuals to enable more timely and reliable humanitarian assistance to those affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts. The CERF allows the UN to react immediately when a disaster strikes by making funding available for life-saving activities.
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The CERF is a tool to pre-position funding for humanitarian action and 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 underfunded crises.
The CERF, managed by OCHA, has approved US$74.6 million for countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2009. Funding for immediate life-saving activities was provided in the
Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Lao PDR, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Myanmar. Sri Lanka was the biggest recipient of CERF funding in 2009 for Asia and the Pacific, having received $23.5 million. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole received 22.7% of the CERF funding provided worldwide in 2009.
Since its launch on 9 March 2006, CERF has committed more than US$1.6 billion for 1,700 projects in 76 countries and oPt, spanning the globe in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Countries in the Asia-Pacific region have played key role in ensuring that the fund can continue to enable timely and reliable assistance to those affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts, with 22 countries having committed a total of US$82 million during this period. Eleven countries in the Asia-Pacific region committed US$18.5 million to the CERF in 2010, or 5.4% of the US$345.8 million of that committed globally. This represents a 31% increase on what Asia-Pacific donors committed to the CERF in 2009. Australia has been by far the largest CERF donor in the region this year, committing just under US$11 million.