CERF High-Level Pledging Event

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Greetings to you all.

I would like to thank the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for convening this important event, and to acknowledge the opening remarks made by His Excellency António Guterres.

2023 has seen drastic spikes in humanitarian need across a number of contexts. With funding for humanitarian action failing to keep up, we must acknowledge the humanitarian system is under incredible pressure as it attempts to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain the dignity of affected communities.

In such trying times, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has continued to demonstrate the critical role it plays in supporting an effective and efficient global humanitarian system.

The CERF’s global reach enables donors like New Zealand to contribute effectively to a range of humanitarian crises we would not be able to support directly. We are proud to support the CERF and remain committed to being a predictable and reliable donor.

Today, New Zealand is pleased to pledge a further 3 million New Zealand Dollars for 2024, as part of our current multi-year funding commitment to the CERF.

New Zealand welcomes recent efforts by OCHA and its partners to ensure the CERF is as impactful as possible.

We recognise that anticipatory humanitarian action can save lives, save costs, and enable affected communities to recover faster. As such, we welcome the critical role played by the CERF in supporting the establishment of anticipatory action frameworks across the globe. We are particularly pleased to see this work reach the Pacific, with the new anticipatory framework for tropical cyclones in Fiji.

In closing, we thank Martin Griffiths for his continued leadership of the CERF and of the UN humanitarian system. We thank and commend all humanitarian workers for their continued dedication to serving populations in need, and call for all humanitarian workers to be protected.

The humanitarian system can count on New Zealand for continued support.