Continued financial support for the CERF in 2012

Photo courtesy of Flickr.com/401K

At the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)’s sixth high-level conference on 15 December in New York, donors pledged a record high for 2012, reaffirming their support for the global humanitarian pooled fund.  So far a total of 47 donors have promised US$375 million for 2012, an increase of 4.7% from last year when 59 donors pledged US$358 million.

Paid contributions in 2011 reached an all-time high since the inception of the fund in 2006, with 75 donors having given US$448 million to date, US$90 million more than the total pledged at last year’s high-level conference. All but one of the top ten donors have contributed a larger sum than was originally pledged. This could be partially attributed to exchange rate fluctuations which are applied on the day of the donor transaction; however it is likely that the increased contributions are primarily in response to the on-going crisis in the Horn of Africa. The United Kingdom, for example, contributed an additional £20 million in June, the equivalent of US$32.3million.

With this pattern in mind, we might expect to see a similar increase on this year’s pledges, next year, which would again represent record levels.

Yet continued economic instability and the eurozone debt crisis could cause some major donors to make more modest contributions. Evidence of this can already been seen with Italy pledging 50% less than their 2011 contribution and Greece and Spain yet to pledge.

We will continue to monitor contributions. For more information on the CERF please refer to this detailed profile.