Mr. Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator - Remarks at Central Emergency Response Fund High-Level Pledging Event for 2025, 10 December 2024

New York, 10 December 2024

As delivered

Thank you for joining us for this year’s High-Level Pledging Event.

Sincere thanks to the SG [Secretary-General], to the boss, for his inspiring opening remarks, and of course, to Aya [Farhat, a displaced child] from Lebanon for showing us why this matters so much.

So just a few days ago, I launched our global humanitarian appeal for 2025. We are asking for US$47 billion to help 190 million people across 72 countries. Big numbers, daunting numbers, but my top priority is to ensure this appeal is well-funded, and to ensure that our movement, your movement, is ready to meet the critical needs of those we are here to serve, and CERF is absolutely vital to that mission.

I saw this four days into the job when I traveled to Sudan, to Chad, at the end of November.

I met people whose lives have been ripped apart by conflict. I witnessed the extraordinary generosity of host communities. I saw humanitarians working with courage, with ingenuity and with expertise.

And I saw in the midst of that response how CERF provides a critical boost to the humanitarian response.

The same is, of course, true of numerous humanitarian crises across the world, and that response is thanks to all of you.

In 2024, your support made this Fund instrumental in responding to El Niño-induced drought in Southern Africa; to hurricanes and typhoons in Jamaica, the Philippines, Vietnam; to violence and displacement in the Sahel, among many other crises.

I’ve learned in my first 21 days that CERF is so much more than the funding it provides. It is also about how it acts.

Here are three reasons why CERF is so incisive:

One, it’s fast.

When hostilities surged in Lebanon in September, CERF released funds within hours of the launch of the Flash Appeal. This provided quick support to displaced families and people trapped in conflict areas.

Two, CERF provides a lifeline to people in ‘neglected’ and underfunded crises.

This year, it injected $200 million into underfunded humanitarian responses in 17 countries.

Much went towards supporting local responders and strengthening interventions for the most vulnerable.

In places like the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo], CERF helped deliver essential support to survivors of gender-based violence.

And CERF’s allocations to underfunded emergencies help shine a light on neglected crises and inform wider donor decision-making.

Three, CERF drives innovation, maximizing the impact of every dollar that you give.

Thanks to your support for the new CERF Climate Action Account, CERF allocated $10 million for innovative climate-smart humanitarian action in 9 countries.

This not only saved lives it also helped communities to build resilience against future climate shocks, including projects to build flood-resistant vegetable gardens and install solar-powered water pumps.

CERF also expanded its support for anticipatory action to more than $100 million.

Ready to deploy at a moment's notice, anticipatory action empowers humanitarians to support communities before a disaster strikes.

For instance, in Nepal in September, under the framework, CERF released $3.4 million within six minutes – that’s not a typo, within six minutes – of flood warnings. This enabled people to prepare, and countless lives were saved.

As the SG has said, CERF is a UN [United Nations] success story. But more importantly, it’s a success story for the humanitarian movement.

But imagine what more we could do together if it was fully funded.

As we approach the 20th anniversary of CERF and as we face unparalleled global challenges, what better or more important time to hit that $1 billion target set by Member States in 2016?

So I want to thank all those who supported CERF this year and over the years, and like the SG, I call on others now to step forward and to join us.

Your support to provide fast, flexible humanitarian action is absolutely indispensable as we respond to this global humanitarian crisis.

And these are investments in climate adaptation, in resilience and in self-respect and human dignity.

They are investments in a reset of our relationship with those in greatest need. They are the first wave of a reset in global solidarity and compassion. The CERF represents as the “fund for all, by all.”

That is why it is so important. That’s why I urge you to donate generously today and to take this movement forward together.

Thank you.