This is a collection of impact stories from OCHA’s pooled funds: the global Central Emergency Response Fund and the Country-based Pooled Funds.
The Country-based Pooled Funds
In 2023, the CBPFs allocated more than US $1.11 billion to ensure life-saving assistance for some 34.4 million people caught in crisis.
The Country-based Pooled Funds and the two regional funds support local humanitarian efforts.
The CBPFs use funds strategically to strengthen the humanitarian response, including by providing critical assistance ahead of predictable hazards (in Nepal, humanitarian agencies acted pre-emptively to prepare vulnerable communities before floods arrived); and, where possible, to empower people with cash assistance to make their own spending decisions, for example in Ethiopia, Lebanon, and Sudan.
Central Emergency Response Fund
The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) is an essential enabler of global humanitarian action. A global fund that is truly “for all, by all,” it supports both sudden onset emergencies and chronically underfunded crises.
In 2023, CERF allocated $667.9 million to support relief efforts worldwide – assisting some 32.8 million people.
Through its Rapid Response window, CERF money allows responders to immediately kick-start relief efforts when a new crisis happens.
With its Underfunded Emergencies window, CERF supports longer-term relief operations when no other funding is available, thus avoiding critical gaps.
- CERF helped humanitarian organizations respond to the global food security situation by allocating over $170 million to help people in 34 countries, including Sudan and Ukraine.
- CERF assists people whose lives have been up-ended by weather-related disasters – like El Niño floods in Somalia and hurricanes in Honduras.
- CERF strengthens assistance for the world’s most vulnerable populations – for example, by supporting a humanitarian response to child abuse in Malawi and to gender-based violence in Colombia.
THE COUNTRY-BASED POOLED FUNDS
- Facing up to El Niño with CERF support
Timor-Leste | 2024 | CERF “There was no rain, the soil became dry, and the crops couldn’t bear fruit because there wasn’t enough water.” - Farm supplies help people keep going
Sudan | 2024 | CBPF “With the money I will earn from selling a bit of surplus produce I can start reinvesting in my farm.” - Locally-led solutions protect children now and tomorrow
Central African Republic | 2024 | CBPF “I had no way to support my children, and they left school to join armed groups. It felt as though I had lost them.”
