UN / CENTRAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND

Launching the annual Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) High-level Pledging Event, Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock, said, “extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow we do need to reach the goal we set in 2016 for a billion-dollar CERF.” UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:27
• Production Date: 8 December 2020
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: MARK LOWCOCK
• Corporate Name: OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS - OCHA
• Subject Topical: DISEASES; FINANCE; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE; HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: BURKINA FASO
• MAMS Id: 2590618
• Parent Id: 2590618
• Alternate Title: unifeed201208c

Description

STORY: UN / CENTRAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND
TRT: 01:27
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 08 DECEMBER 2020, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Close up, UN flag

08 DECEMBER 2020, NEW YORK CITY

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Andrew Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow we do need to reach the goal we set in 2016 for a billion-dollar CERF.”

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

3. Close up, UN flag

09 JUNE 2020, NEW YORK CITY

SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Andrew Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“I spoke the other day to Adama, a 42-year old widow in Burkina Faso whose village was attacked by government last year, leaving her husband and other family members dead. In a place like Burkina Faso, where conflict and displacement are increasing faster than anyone can keep up, the CERF is a critical tool. Quick CERF funding helps humanitarian partners scale up and meet the needs of people like Adama and her children.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY

5. Close up, UN flag

08 DECEMBER 2020, NEW YORK CITY

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Andrew Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year. That’s 40 percent more compared to what we projected this time last year, and it’s almost entirely down to COVID-19. In 2020 the CERF’s value particularly stood out in four areas, first, thanks to staunch support from its donors, CERF has seen a consistent increase in funding over recent years. Last year, record contributions brought us close to our one billion-dollar target. That enabled CERF to tackle huge humanitarian challenges of a scale never seen before, with unprecedented impact.”

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

7. Close up, UN flag

Storyline

Launching the annual Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) High-level Pledging Event today (8 Dec), Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock, said, “extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow we do need to reach the goal we set in 2016 for a billion-dollar CERF.”

Lowcock, said he had recently spoken to Adama, “a 42-year old widow in Burkina Faso whose village was attacked by government last year, leaving her husband and other family members dead.”

He said, “in a place like Burkina Faso, where conflict and displacement are increasing faster than anyone can keep up, the CERF is a critical tool. Quick CERF funding helps humanitarian partners scale up and meet the needs of people like Adama and her children.”

Lowcock, who heads the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said, “235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year. That’s 40 percent more compared to what we projected this time last year, and it’s almost entirely down to COVID-19.”

He said, “CERF has seen a consistent increase in funding over recent years,” coming close to the one billion-dollar target last year, which “enabled CERF to tackle huge humanitarian challenges of a scale never seen before, with unprecedented impact.”

Since CERF was established in 2006, global funding needs through humanitarian appeals have increased sevenfold from US$5.2 billion to assist 32 million people in 2006 to some $37 billion to support over 106 million people
in need in 2020. In 2016, the General Assembly endorsed the Secretary-General’s call to more than double CERF’s annual funding target to $1 billion.