Pooled Donor Funds Save Lives, Secretary-General Says at Launch of 2021 Annual Reports

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the virtual launch of the annual reports of the Central Emergency Response Fund and the Country-based Pooled Fund for 2021, today:

Today, over 300 million people in the world are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection — a grim record.  With our partners and donors, the United Nations is working on reaching the most vulnerable with help and hope.

This enormous task takes a dedicated humanitarian workforce.  It takes expertise, policies, skills, and tools.  And it takes financial resources.

As High Commissioner for Refugees, I saw how the Central Emergency Response Fund was one of the fastest ways to help people in urgent need — often within hours of a disaster.  The Country-based Pooled Fund is also getting resources fast to organizations on the ground, in 20 hard-hit countries around the world.  I thank all donors for last year’s record contribution of $1.7 billion to these funds.

Fast and flexible, impartial and independent, the support they provide is driven by need alone.

Pooled funds help fight hunger in a world on the brink of a food security catastrophe due to conflict and climate events.  They bolster anticipatory and early action, most recently in the Horn of Africa, where people are facing the worst drought in four decades.  And, on the first day of the war in Ukraine, a rapid response allocation from Central Emergency Response Fund enabled the United Nations and our partners to get help quickly to over 1.5 million people.

Thank you for backing the Central Emergency Response Fund and our pooled funds.  Your support saves lives.  And it is needed now, more than ever.