UN special event: tenth anniversary of the High Level Pledging Conference on the Central Emergency Response Fund

NZ congratulates the Central Emergency Response Fund on its many achievements during its first ten years of operation. 

CERF has helped to make humanitarian assistance more predictable, timely, impartial and effective.  It is hard to imagine an effective international humanitarian system without a strong, centralised funding mechanism - such as CERF.

NZ has been a strong supporter of CERF since its establishment. I am pleased to confirm that NZ will continue this support by contributing $3 million NZD for the 2016 calendar year. 

Our contribution is not the largest. But it is significant in view of NZ’s overall humanitarian budget, and our strong focus on disaster response in the Pacific region.

Mr President,

Much has changed since CERF was established. 

• The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has doubled.
• The amount of funding requested for UN-led humanitarian responses has increased six-fold.
• A much greater range of actors are now involved in humanitarian response. 

CERF must be able to adapt if it is to continue to play a major role in meeting needs in this changed landscape.  

NZ is firmly in favour of CERF retaining a strong focus on providing life-saving assistance.

That said, we also support increased flexibility in CERF’s split between under-funded and rapid-onset funding windows.  

We welcome discussion on how CERF’s funding decisions might be used to reduce disaster risk. 

Mr President, 

In order to attract increased contributions, CERF will need to continue to position itself as an effective and efficient funding option - for example through greater transparency in funding decisions, and better measurement of the impact.

Humanitarian financing will be a critical feature of the discussion at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul next May. 

We look forward to the report of the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, whose analysis will be important in developing concrete outcomes from the WHS. 

These conversations must include discussions on enhancing CERF, to ensure that it can continue to play a critical role in enabling quick and effective humanitarian responses to emergencies today and into the future.

Thank you.