CERF announces new findings in latest Results Report

Claudia Hargarten June 26, 2018

A new Results Report takes stock of how a US$439 million humanitarian investment from more than 50 donors delivered life-saving assistance to over 22 million people facing the consequences of natural disasters and conflict around the world.

“CERF is a collective achievement that we all can be proud of. CERF is always the first to come when we have an emergency, and the last to leave when situations are forgotten,” United Nations Secretary- General, António Guterres is quoted in the report.

The report provides a detailed account of how UN agencies and partners at the front lines of emergency response in 47 countries provided life-saving aid, wherever and whenever it was needed the most – from natural disasters such as a 7.8 earthquake in Ecuador to disease outbreaks including yellow fever in Angola to man-made crises such as conflict in Libya and Iraq.

Based on 68 reports from UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinators (RC/HCs) on behalf of hundreds of relief organizations operating in crisis-affected countries, the report demonstrates the strategic use of 2016 grants implemented in 2016 and 2017. (CERF-funded Rapid Response projects must be completed within six months and Underfunded Emergencies projects within nine months).

Building on the first CERF Results Report which was published last year, this edition has been further improved based on inputs and suggestions from donors and recipient agencies. New features include a section linking donor contributions to key results, a comprehensive overview of achievements for each UN agency and their partners and a special section on the impact of CERF-funded assistance for people displaced by humanitarian crises.

Here are five highlights from the report:

Almost 16 million people received critical health care, 4.2 million received food assistance, 3.9 million gained access to water and sanitation, 3 million benefited from protection interventions, 2.7 million were helped with agriculture assistance, 2.1 million received shelter or basic relief items, 1.8 million benefited from nutrition support, and hundreds of thousands benefited from camp management, early recovery interventions, education, and mine action assistance. CERF-funded projects prioritized support for people who need it the most, especially women and girls caught up in crises. Twenty-three projects focused on reproductive health services, 22 projects in the protection sector focused on gender-based violence and 43 projects provided supplementary food specifically to pregnant and lactating women. An estimated 6.8 million displaced people received life-saving aid through CERF-funded projects around the world. Of these, 2.3 million were refugees in 17 countries and 4.5 million were IDPs in 24 countries. An estimated 3.4 million people in communities hosting displaced people also received critical support. From responses to extreme temperatures in Mongolia to Tropical Cyclone Winston in Fiji and droughts in Angola, Djibouti and Guatemala, $119 allocated by CERF in 19 countries was instrumental in addressing the humanitarian needs of millions of people affected by the consequences of El Niño. The report confirms CERF’s important role in strengthening global humanitarian response beyond being a source of stand-by emergency funding: 97 per cent of RC/HCs assessed that CERF-funding improved coordination, 93 per cent indicated that CERF funds helped respond to time-critical needs, 84 per cent felt that CERF funding led to faster implementation of humanitarian response and 74 per cent said that access to CERF funding improved resource mobilization from other sources.

The report represents a major step forward for CERF's accountability and performance reporting and is a true testament of the collective achievements of all humanitarian partners involved in implementing CERF grants. The CERF Secretariat wishes to thank all partners involved and all donors to the fund who have made this work possible.

Read the full report here.