UN allocates $110 million from CERF as global humanitarian funding falls to record lows

A United Nations spokesperson announced Tuesday that $110,000,000 has been allocated from the Central Emergency Response Fund to boost life‑saving assistance in 10 of the world’s most underfunded crises across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The funding targets urgent needs in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, Honduras, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela and Zambia, the spokesperson said. The UN also said the Afghan Humanitarian Fund will provide an additional $30,000,000 to support immediate priorities in Afghanistan.

Why it matters: UN humanitarian officials warned that global needs are rising while donor funding is dropping, forcing agencies to reprioritize programs and reduce services in some places. “There is enough money in this world,” the spokesperson said. “What we need is solidarity being demonstrated by increasing humanitarian assistance.”

The briefing highlighted Afghanistan as an acute example of the funding squeeze. The UN said more than half of Afghanistan’s population — about 23,000,000 people — now require humanitarian assistance, one of the highest totals globally and second only to Sudan. During the first quarter of the year nearly 15,000,000 people were expected to experience high levels of acute food insecurity; nearly 3,500,000 children under age 5 and more than 1,000,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women were expected to become acutely malnourished,…