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U.N. Emergency Fund Doles Out $100 Million for Aid Operations

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 23 2015 (IPS) - The U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has earmarked about $100 million to boost life-saving relief work in Syria and 11 other countries where humanitarian needs are high but financial support is low.

U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, said despite critical funding gaps, humanitarian workers remain committed to helping every vulnerable Syrian they can.

“This allocation from CERF will help ensure they can continue their life-saving work,” she added. In less than four years, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria has gone from one million to over 12 million. Millions more have fled to find refuge across the border.

Some $77.5 million of the first of two rounds of CERF funding in 2015 to support underfunded emergencies will go to countries affected by the Syria crisis. The highest single allocation will go to Syria ($30 million), and the remainder will go to humanitarian agencies in Egypt ($3.5 million), Iraq ($8 million), Jordan ($9 million), Lebanon ($18 million) and Turkey ($9 million), according to a U.N. press release last week.

Another $14 million will support aid operations in three countries in the Great Lakes Region in Africa, where the long running conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to have disastrous effects. Aid agencies in DRC ($9 million), neighbouring Burundi ($2.5 million) and Rwanda ($2.5 million) will receive funds to provide urgent assistance for people displaced by violence and the vulnerable communities that host them.

Additionally, humanitarian partners in Colombia ($3 million), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ($2 million) and Djibouti ($3 million) will receive support to sustain long-standing, but critically underfunded humanitarian operations, including the delivery of food and basic health services.

“We thank our donors who have already pledged $418 million for CERF in 2015. This underfunded emergencies allocation of $100 million from that pool will help millions of people who are caught in crises where the scale of needs has outpaced contributions,” said Amos.

Grants from CERF’s underfunded-emergencies window provide a temporary lifeline for people caught in crises where current donor contributions fall short but needs are extreme and major assistance is required.

When CERF was established in 2006, global humanitarian appeals sought $6 billion. That amount has more than tripled to $19 billion.
To help humanitarian partners keep pace, in both 2013 and 2014, the Fund allocated more than $175 million through its underfunded-emergencies window. CERF also provides rapid response funding for new or rapidly deteriorating emergencies and has allocated more than $3.7 billion for humanitarian agencies operating in 88 countries and territories since its inception.

 
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