UNITED NATIONS, NY: Countries in the region stand to benefit from the a landmark US$500 million fund launched by the United Nations on Thursday. The Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) is designed to jump-start relief operations in future natural and man-made disasters and save thousands of lives that would otherwise be lost to delay under the current under-funded mechanism. “It is indeed an increasingly rare event at the United Nations to see both rich and poor countries pledging increasingly scarce resources for humanitarian causes, before a major catastrophe has occurred,” said Ambassador Dr. John W. Ashe, Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United Nations, who participated in Thursday’s event. “And I am particularly pleased to see that, to date, some 36 countries have pledged $256 million to the Central Emergency Response Fund, which is more than half of the initial target of the fund” he said. While the CERF was a key reform sought by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ensure swifter responses to humanitarian emergencies, with adequate funds made available within three to four days as opposed to up to four months or more under current arrangements, its basic elements are similar to those proposed by Wilmoth Daniel, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Works, Transportation and the Environment, who called for the establishment of such a fund during his address to the Ministerial segment of the thirteenth session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in April 2005. Mr Annan said that “The CERF will provide a ready pool of resources that better empower the United Nations in funding immediate relief efforts in the aftermath of disasters… for the international community, the CERF is not simply a fund; it is a statement of principle. It is a statement that in a world of plenty, unnecessary and avoidable suffering is inexcusable. It is a statement that suffering anywhere is a threat to humanity everywhere.” UN officials have indicated that plans are already underway to make the first disbursements from the Fund, with the two first allocations going to the Horn of Africa and Kenya drought, and to Côte d’Ivoire for humanitarian work and the civilian population. Also at the launch, speakers from over 60 Member States, many of them representing states or regions that are frequently hit by natural disasters, warmly welcomed the setting up of the CERF, emphasizing how important it was to get rapid assistance to emergency situations and the critical need for funds. The Caribbean region was represented by Dr Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, who reminded the audience of the recent experiences within his own country which was devastated by two successive hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, respectively. “The Caribbean is among the regions in the world most vulnerable to natural disasters. The survival of our economies is dependent on the frequency and magnitude of these events. Together, we have an estimated population of 15.6 million inhabitants and a 2004 estimated GDP of US $39,580 million... [Despite this] several decades of progress can be wiped out in a matter of hours, as was evident when Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada in 2004, resulting in catastrophic damage to the island,” he said. Ambassador Dr. John Ashe said that the Fund will be overseen by the UN Office for the Coordination Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which plans to allocate up to two thirds of the funds to rapid response measures, with the other one third devoted to addressing under-funded emergencies. “In his role as manager of the Fund, on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, the head of OCHA will be guided by an Advisory Group of 12 independent experts. The general public will be able to keep track of how and where the money is being spent by means of a dedicated CERF website,” Dr. Ashe outlined. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com