Foreword
In 2016, the number of forcibly displaced people reached a historic level. More than 65 million people are internally displaced, refugees or asylum seekers and more people are displaced within countries and across borders every day due to conflict violence persecution and natural disasters. Nearly half of these people are children. More than half are internally displaced – an invisible majority.
The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) continues to be a critical enabler of effective, timely and life-saving humanitarian action, helping front-line partners on the ground to kick-start or reinforce emergency activities. As the humanitarian needs of displaced people have increased, CERF has responded by helping partners quickly provide shelter, protection, health care, food, water, sanitation and livelihoods support, as well as integrated services for displaced people. Over the past two years, close to 70 per cent of CERF’s total contributions have been to operations targeting displaced people and the communities hosting them.
Ten years after its creation, CERF has become an indispensable tool to support global humanitarian action. While the world’s humanitarian needs have dramatically increased, CERF’s resources have largely remained unchanged. Therefore, to ensure that CERF keeps pace with the escalating needs and remains an effective tool able to address the growing scale, complexity and range of crises, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for CERF’s funding level to be doubled to US$1 billion by 2018.
A $1 billion CERF is neither an ambition nor a convenient target; it is an absolute bare minimum for a world in which more than 130 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance and 24 people are forced from their homes every minute. A strong CERF able to deliver on its mandate is every Member State’s responsibility and a step forward to our commitment to leave no one behind.
Mr. Stephen O‘Brien
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator