Emergency fund grants WHO $1.7 million for urgent programmes

The United Nations has granted just over US $1.7 million from the newly created Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) for life-saving programmes in the Horn of Africa.

"The WHO and partners will work to strengthen immunisation campaigns, epidemiological surveillance and training of health professionals in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia," a statement from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday.

The CERF - launched in March and aimed at helping create quicker, more predictable UN funding for crises - aims to have a total of $500 million in grants and loans ready for UN agencies to use within three to four days of the start of an emergency.

The individual distribution of the latest disbursement per country amounts to $70,000 for Djibouti, $450,000 for Eritrea, $350,000 for Ethiopia, $430,000 for Kenya, and $404,540 for Somalia.

"When we think of life-saving aid, vaccinations are often the first thing that comes to mind. In major emergencies such as the drought now affecting East Africa, diseases that cost less than one dollar to prevent, kill," said Margareta Wahlström, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator. "Immediate funding for immunisations and surveillance will help us prevent unnecessary deaths."

An estimated 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are facing severe food shortages as a result of several failed rainy seasons.

At the end of the first quarter of 2006, $254,277,611 had been pledged to the CERF by 39 Member States, Japan's Hyogo Prefecture and the Disaster Resource Network. The grant to WHO's Horn of Africa programmes is the second disbursement to be made from the new CERF's grant-giving mechanism - the first grant, worth $200,000, was made to WHO in Côte d'Ivoire.