UN chief calls for 1 bln USD for emergency humanitarian funding

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday asked for an expansion of the annual funding target of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to 1 billion U.S. dollars by 2018.

Addressing the CERF's annual high-level pledging conference at UN Headquarters in New York, Ban said that "today, the humanitarian landscape in which the CERF operates is vastly different than a decade ago. The scale of humanitarian deprivation is greater than at any time since the United Nations was founded."

"A one-billion-dollar CERF means tens of millions more people will receive timely life-saving food, medicine, water, shelter and protection when and where they need it most," he said.

"But, let us also recognize that a one-billion-dollar CERF is a bare minimum for the world we live in," he said.

"And let us not succumb to so-called donor fatigue," the secretary-general said. "The world has the wealth to come to the aid of every single person in dire straits."

The CERF was designed to provide fast and predictable funding to people affected by conflicts and crises, no matter where they were.

Global humanitarian needs have quadrupled since the CERF was founded in 2006, but CERF's annual funding target of 450 million dollars have remained unchanged over the past decade.

A record 130 million people need humanitarian assistance to survive, Ban said. "Together, they would form the tenth most populous nation on earth."

Sixty-five million men, women and children have been forced to flee their countries as a result of armed conflict, instability and persecution, he noted, adding that almost 5 million are from Syria.

At the same time, 40 million people are displaced within their own countries, he said.

"So let us get our funding priorities straight, and put the most vulnerable first," he said, adding that humanitarian needs now stand at a record 22.2 billion dollars. Endit