A new UN Emergency fund, championed by Ireland, is set to help aid workers respond effectively to humanitarian crises. Thousands of lives will be saved globally, explains Jan Egeland

Irish Examiner article, 12 December 2006

Timing matters, and never more so than in an emergency. Delays in assistance can spell the difference between life and death, as the residents of Beirut or the hundreds of thousands of traumatized and displaced people in Darfur know all too well. When disaster strikes, relief workers need immediate access to resources that can save lives and prevent further suffering. Thanks to the United Nations’ new Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), aid agencies now have a tool that will help them do just this. 

The Irish Government was at the forefront of contributors to the CERF. It was instrumental in highlighting to other Governments the positive effects that an enhanced fund could bring to improving humanitarian response. This means that lives can be saved through speedy access to funding which is allocated in a fair manner. In 2006 Ireland contributed a substantial €10 million to this fund.

On my recent visit to Ireland, I was delighted to hear from Minister Conor Lenihan that Ireland will double its contribution in 2007 to €20 million. I know that Minister of State Lenihan has shown personal commitment in ensuring that Ireland steps up to the mark in humanitarian response and that the pledges made are honoured in full. He has seen for himself - in Sudan, in Sierra Leone and in Kashmir after the earthquake -- the difference that Irish Aid funding can and does make, and, significantly, where the CERF itself can make a difference.

Given the increased number of global disasters, the CERF – and Ireland’s commitment to increase its contribution -   could not come at a better time, or serve a more useful purpose. From violence in the Middle East to droughts in Africa and the quake in Pakistan, recent crises have underscored the need for a more effective, timely and predictable global humanitarian system.

The CERF is an important step in this direction. Its goal is simple: within 72 hours, provide aid workers with sufficient funding to jump-start lifesaving relief operations when most lives are on the line and resources most needed.  The CERF also seeks to inject a much-needed element of equity into the “aid lottery” by allocating one-third of funds to humanitarian crises the world has forgotten or ignored. To date, 76% of the CERF’s rapid response funds and 99% of CERF allocations for neglected crises have supported relief efforts in Africa, where humanitarian needs are greatest.

The CERF’s rapid turnaround time is critically important. In an emergency, most lives are lost in the earliest moments, particularly after a natural disaster. Funds are needed in these early days to catalyze large-scale aid operations. But the wheels of even the best-intentioned donor bureaucracies do not turn quickly or cut checks overnight, leaving aid workers high and dry at precisely the moment when monies might do the most good. Historically, even UN “flash” appeals, launched immediately after a sudden crisis, fail to attract timely funding, with only 16% of funds provided during the critical first 30 days of a crisis. Often it takes much longer.

The Sahel’s locust crisis last year is a prime example of how timely funding can save lives. It can also save money; prevention, as we all know, is cheaper than the cure.  A UN agency appealed to donors for $9 million in March 2005 to spray the locust larvae and prevent them from hatching. Had the CERF been up and running, the money would’ve been provided and the problem solved. In reality, however, no funds materialized. The larvae soon hatched, and locust swarms ate their way across 12 African nations. The U.N. then was forced to launch a new $100 million appeal -- more than 10 times the original amount -- to pay for food aid.

Speed of funding is an issue even in high-profile crises where donor pledges often turn up late, or not at all. The cost of late funding is paid in lives. Take Darfur. Seven months after the UN launched its work plan for Sudan, only 47% of humanitarian requirements in Darfur are funded, with health, water and sanitation sectors averaging much less. When the food pipeline serving two million displaced people in Darfur threatened to close this spring on the eve of the lean or ‘hungry season’, the CERF helped fill the gap with a quick injection of funding to stave off immediate malnutrition. A further $1 million from the CERF enabled a UN agency to vaccinate livestock, which serve as the primary source of income for displaced, destitute communities. 

Launched five months ago, the CERF has provided more than $189 million to 10 organizations for more than 280 projects in 26 countries. Most importantly, the Fund has helped save lives and alleviate the suffering of millions of people caught in the throes of conflict or affected by natural hazards.

From the earliest days of the war in Lebanon, for example, CERF funds have played a critical role. A $5 million CERF grant in late July allowed aid agencies to buy desperately needed medicines for hospitals, and to mount a coordinated logistics operation that is helping aid agencies and NGOs reach those in gravest need from among the 800,000 people affected by the conflict.

In East Timor, $4 million in CERF funds were available immediately, in advance of bilateral aid, for the provision of emergency food, shelter, clean water and sanitation when some 133,000 people were displaced by civil strife this spring.

For crises like the Democratic Republic of Congo that have fallen off the world’s collective radar, CERF funds of nearly $38 million have contributed much-needed hope and healing. Perhaps nowhere in the world is the gap between humanitarian needs and available resources as large or as deadly as in the DRC, where 1,200 people die each day from disease, hunger and displacement. CERF monies have supported urgent food, health, water and sanitation services in some of the hardest-hit areas. 

To be sure, the CERF is not a panacea. Nor is it a substitute for regular, sustained donor contributions to the UN’s Humanitarian Appeals. Even if fully funded, the CERF still represents only 4% of total humanitarian funding in 2006. But that 4% has exponential impact in jumpstarting relief efforts, and provides the best possible return on investment: that of saving a life. 

With $297 million in current pledges from 52 nations, local governments and private sector groups, the CERF is the world’s only truly multilateral fund, created by all nations for the benefit of all nations. To that end, the CERF depends on broad-based support from all Member States to reach its total funding goal of $500 million as quickly as possible.

Ireland’s reputation for compassion and generosity has set the standard for other donors. I would hope for Ireland’s continued commitment to leading the way in doubling its contribution to €20 million next year is significant, and we are grateful for Ireland’s leadership as one of the highest-per-capita donors to the Fund.

On December 7th the United Nations will host a donor pledging conference for the CERF. We hope other governments, as well as the private sector, will step forward, as Ireland has, with commensurate generosity.

As we saw last year, no country, rich or poor, is immune from disasters. Now more than ever, the world needs an effective, timely and reliable humanitarian system. I urge all governments and citizens to support the CERF annually. To my mind, there can be no better use of our nation’s resources, and no better demonstration of our common values. 

Jan Egeland is the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator