UN Relief Chief: If CERF falters, people who need emergency aid will suffer

Linda, a small farmer in Sofala Province, Mozambique, shows her land planted with beans. She received support from the Food and Agriculture Organization and funding from the Global Emergency Response Fund or CERF that helped her recover from drought. Photo: FAO/María Legaristi Royo

Remarks at the High-Level Pledging Event for the Central Emergency Response Fund by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

New York, 9 December 2025

As delivered

Thank you for joining us, 20 years since the creation of this remarkable fund, and so this is an important milestone, but not one that we can rest on. Twenty years ago, the year YouTube was invented as well. It shows how much the world has changed in that time, and of course, the CERF has changed as well.

My thanks to the boss, to the Secretary-General, for setting the tone so powerfully, and for his leadership of the CERF, his commitment, his personal commitment to the CERF, and, of course, to our friends and leaders – Ireland and the Philippines – co-hosting today, for being such powerful champions of this fund.

As the [Secretary-General] said, yesterday, we launched our global humanitarian appeal. We are looking to save 87 million lives next year. That’s more than the entire number that were killed across the Second World War. And to do that, we need US$23 billion, working across 50 countries, and with the CERF more aligned than ever with those life-saving priorities.

As you’ve heard and as you know, the brutal cuts that we’re experiencing have forced us to make brutal choices, a ruthless triage of human survival. This is, as Lakshimi reminded us, what it means when we put power before solidarity and compassion.

I’ve seen this just in the last few weeks, spending six days in Darfur, the epicentre of human suffering. People fleeing with nothing. Children carrying other children to safety. All of it made worse because we don’t have the funding to meet them when they escape these atrocities.

And that’s why the Humanitarian Reset matters: not a slogan, but a challenge to us all. A mission, but also a survival strategy for the work we do and for so many people. It’s about being smarter, faster, closer to the communities we serve, more honest about the difficult trade-offs that we face. Making every dollar count for those we serve.

And the CERF is at the centre of that Humanitarian Reset.

We’ve heard from Liam Neeson – and if you’re not terrified by the voice of Liam Neeson, I don’t know who we have to bring along next year to force up the contributions – but this fund acts when others hesitate. It steps in quickly when needs exceed a country’s ability to respond. We’ve just heard from Her Excellency [Theresa P. Lazaro, the Philippines’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs] what that has meant in the Philippines. It shines a light on the many, many crises that the world is currently neglecting, and it delivers a climate-smart response before disasters strike.

This is innovative humanitarian action, and CERF must not now stand still. As we look ahead 20 years, we must also think how to adapt, how to innovate, how to push the system forward, propelling UN collective action and proving what we can do when we move together.

As we heard, everything connects. And as Neale [Richmond, Ireland’s Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora] said, CERF is about powering that global shift to anticipatory action. Through that Climate Action Account, it’s helped more than half a million people to shore up their resilience against increasingly punishing climate shocks.

So we’ve got to double down on what the CERF does best, aligned with the Humanitarian Reset and the Secretary-General’s leadership of UN80. Pushing support faster out of the door – [Director of OCHA’s Financing and Outreach Division] Lisa [Doughten]’s team got one allocation out in two minutes, the record, just a few months ago – and where possible before crises peak. Putting local partners in the driving seat and acting as a force multiplier for other funding.

Today, I’m also announcing an allocation of $100 million for the world’s most underfunded emergencies. That’s about a quarter of our projected income for 2025.

It’s not just about plugging gaps – it's about who gets help, when and why. Deeper engagement with those local communities and getting cash directly into people’s hands. And also vital, vital – especially in this cultural moment in which we find ourselves: ensuring that women and girls – so often those at greatest risk – are at the heart of the response.

But a brutal truth: this is, of course, a moment of celebration – two decades, extraordinary work by so many people in the room today – but it’s also a moment of reckoning, because CERF is at its lowest projected income in a decade.

So when we’re needed at full strength, the warning lights are flashing. It’s not just a funding gap – it's an operational emergency. And if the CERF falters, then the world’s emergency service will falter. And the people who rely on us will suffer.

So 20 years: close to $10 billion allocated, millions of lives saved. And as the [Secretary-General] said, this is one of the greatest collective achievements of UN Member States.

But an anniversary, a birthday, is not just a moment to look back. It has to be a moment to look forward and also to honour the commitments that we all made for a fully funded CERF at a billion dollars.

Not a symbolic, out-of-reach goal, but an essential target. Every dollar urgently needed and will be – and hold us to account for this – spent effectively to deliver aid when lives hang in the balance.

We have to imagine, even now, in this tough moment for humanitarian funding, what the next 20 years could look like with a fully funded CERF. A fund that makes the UN faster, smarter, more cost-effective, greener, more anticipatory, more inclusive. A fund that amplifies the voices of communities and proves that solidarity still works. Backed by a movement of citizens who believe in that solidarity.

So that’s the moment that we’re asking you to meet to make that vision real.

We urge you to help us meet the Secretary-General’s target of a billion dollars this year – not next year, not someday in the future. Let’s do it now.

Because every dollar you pledge is a lifeline tomorrow. So, let’s use today’s meeting to step up.

Thank you.