PH responds to UN’s humanitarian call, pledges USD 200K
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L Locsin, Jr. delivers the Philippines’ pledge during the CERF event (Photo from NYPM
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, 09 December 2021 — Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. participated in the pledging event on 08 December 2021 for the Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), a humanitarian fund administered by the United Nations for people in emergency situations. The Secretary announced that the Philippines will contribute US$200,000 to CERF. He also encouraged others, including the Fund’s beneficiaries, to contribute.
Secretary Locsin said that “for the last 20 months, humanity has endured a crisis of a scale in pain, loss, and economic destruction never seen in our lifetime. COVID has taken more than 5 million lives and the grim reaping goes on. Tens of millions of people, already vulnerable without the pandemic, have been so pounded from all sides that only a lifeline decides if they live or die. The Central Emergency Relief Fund is such a lifeline.” The Secretary highlighted that CERF served that function for the Philippines when it was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. It also tided over tens of thousands of Filipinos after jihadists took Marawi. It is the speediest and most flexible funding mechanism in the UN or anywhere else.
The Philippines has been a recipient of CERF since its inception in 2006. The Philippines was recently selected as a pilot for the implementation of CERF Anticipatory Action (AA) for Tropical Cyclone with an allotted $7.5 M for a possible activation of the AA framework.
In his Opening Remarks, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that 2021 has been one of the most difficult years for humanitarian actors but CERF has stepped up to the challenge. CERF is fast, flexible, principled, impartial, independent and the help it provides is driven by need alone. In 2020, CERF helped close to 69 million people – twice as many as the year before. According to the Secretary-General, “the scale of today’s crises demands a strong CERF with the resources it needs to rise to the challenge of responding swiftly at the onset of an emergency. This year, despite the generosity of donors, the $1 billion goal was not reached. But it can be done if Member States allocate just a small percentage of their humanitarian funding through CERF each year.”
The CERF Pledging Event was organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to galvanize greater commitments and ensure that CERF remains fit to respond to the increasing levels and complexities of global humanitarian needs. The event also marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of CERF by the UN General Assembly. END.
For more information, visit https://www.un.int/philippines/ and https://web.facebook.com/PHMissionNY