CERF Funds Help UNFPA Deliver

As documented in its 2011 Annual Report, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund was the largest single donor to UNFPA humanitarian efforts in 2011.

CERF is a humanitarian fund established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 to enable more timely and reliable humanitarian assistance to those affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts. The fund is replenished annually through contributions from governments, the private sector, foundations and individuals and constitutes a pool of reserve funding to support humanitarian action.

Following floods in Pakistan, some $1.3 million in CERF funds were used to support emergency primary health care for flood-affected people. They were also used to address gender-based violence and and support reproductive health services for internally displaced people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Area.

With CERF grants of $1.2 million, UNFPA Zimbabwe helped improve emergency obstetric and newborn care in areas with high maternal deaths and high prevalence of obstetric fistula.
CERF funds also helped address gender-based violence in places where humanitarian emergencies put girls and women were at risk.