As Typhoon ‘‘Agaton’’ made land fall in the country right on the first day of 2018, the United Nations has said that it would allocate $100 million under its Central Emergency Response Funds to nine unfunded emergencies countries, including the Philippines.
In a statement, UN secretary-general António Guterres said the allocation was made after 36 donors pledged to contribute $383 million (P19.15 billion) to the UN-CERF, a pool of funding that supports critical relief operations in crises around the world.
“There is no sign of a let-up in humanitarian needs,” Guterres said in his recent remarks.
Aside from the Philippines, the recipients of the $100 million are Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameron, Mali, Eritrea, Haiti, and Pakistan.
The pledges is in line with Guterres call a year ago for an expansion of CERF’s annual funding target from $450 million to $1 billion.
“$1 billion is an ambitious but achievable goal. A strong United Nations needs a strong CERF,” he said.
The initial pledges also came in the backdrop of swelling humanitarian needs, which have increased from $5.1 billion in 2005 to over $24 billion in 2017.
Guterres said that a $1-billion CERF will help bolster contingency financing.
He warned that in 2018, protracted crises are likely to continue, while the impact of climate change is likely to grow and intensify.
“Protracted conflict and the impact of natural disasters, compounded by structural fragility and chronic vulnerability, mean that more people than ever before survive on the brink of disaster,” he said.
He noted that the global humanitarian funding gap stands at $11 billion as of November 30, 2017 and humanitarian response plans are funded at an average of just 60 percent.
CERF, created in 2005 and managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reached a record high income of $504 million for 2017 through additional commitments made by donors.
In 2016, CERF has funded life-saving work, allocating nearly $130 million to help prevent famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
The fund also supported relief responses in other places, including for Palestine refugees in Gaza, for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and those affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Caribbean.
Following the Secretary-General’s remarks, a panel discussed the role of CERF in improving the humanitarian community’s ability to assist people affected by conflict and crises.
“CERF is unmatched in its speed, global reach and scale of impact in enabling the humanitarian community to respond to people most in need in crises,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said.