Financing mechanisms
Central Emergency Response
Fund (CERF)
Common humanitarian funds
(CHFs)
Emergency/humanitarian
response funds (ERFs)
Peacebuilding Fund (PBF)
Multidonor trust funds (MDTFs)
Global Fund for Disaster Risk
Reduction (GFDRR)
Disaster Relief Emergency Fund
(DREF)
WHAT WE DO
We collect and analyse data on the income
and expenditure of various pooled financing
mechanisms both at a global and country level
in order to provide a detailed picture of
humanitarian financing. We do this by:
• analysing donor contributions to the
various humanitarian and reconstruction
pooled funds
• highlighting NGO access to pooled funds to
assist others in lobbying for increased
involvement
• assessing the advantages and
disadvantages of using pooled funds
alongside an assessment of the
advantages and disadvantages of bilateral
funding
• looking at disaster risk reduction,
peacebuilding and recovery pooled funds
as well as those with a purely humanitarian
mandate
• paying close attention to the humanitarian
reform process and monitoring the
progress made in the areas of
coordination, leadership, accountability and
financing.
Photo: Stealth Foto Ninja
Pooling resources for a
coordinated response
It’s not just about amounts of FAST FACTS
money.
• The formal humanitarian reform process
By coordinating the response to funding humanitarian started in 2005 and resulted in the creation
emergencies and post-conflict activities, the of specific global and country-level pooled
humanitarian community aims to greatly increase the funding mechanisms.
effectiveness of action taken to address the needs of
• The UN’s Central Emergency Response
crisis-affected communities. Pooled funding
Fund (CERF) allows donor governments
mechanisms, such as the CERF, CHFs and ERFs,
and the private sector to pool their financing
provide donors and humanitarian actors with the tools
on a global level to enable more timely and
to for doing this. Their goal is to increase the flexibility
reliable humanitarian assistance to those
and speed of funding to recipients whilst reducing the
affected by natural disasters and armed
costs of humanitarian financing. In addition, it could be
conflicts.
argued that pooled funding mechanisms play a key role
in providing small and new donors ways of channelling • Common humanitarian funds (CHFs) are in-
funding in support of responses to humanitarian crises. country pooled mechanisms. Funding
received is totally unearmarked. This allows
Pooled funds are not only used in emergency
money to be allocated on the basis of needs
situations. Increasingly, MDTFs are being established
(as defined in the emergency’s humanitarian
alongside humanitarian pooled funds to provide money
action plan).
for reconstruction and development following a conflict
or natural disaster. The emergence of these funds • Emergency response funds (ERFs) are also
could help to narrow the transitional gap between country-level mechanisms. They vary from
humanitarian situations and long term development in CHFs in that they have the facility to provide
many affected countries. finance to small-scale projects, allowing
more national NGOs to access resources
We look at the volumes and trends in donor directly rather than via UN agencies.
contributions to these pooled funds – as well as how
pooled funding is spent – and are exploring ways of
assessing the funds’ impact.
GLOBALHUMANITARIANASSISTANCE.ORG
 FAST FACTS
• Multidonor trust funds (MDTFs) are
individually designed, country-specific
financing mechanisms. They are managed
by either the World Bank or UN
Development Group (UNDG) with the role of
administrative agent normally being fulfilled
by UN Development Programme (UNDP).
• The Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) was
established in response to a growing
demand for a mechanism that would assist
the process of peacebuilding. As a global
fund, its objective is to provide assistance to
those countries that are recently emerging
from conflict and support interventions of
direct and immediate relevance to
peacebuilding.
• The State and Peacebuilding Fund has been
established by the World Bank to address
the needs of state and local governance,
and peacebuilding in fragile and conflict-
prone and conflict-affected situations. It aims
to do this by improving governance and
institutional performance as well as
reconstructing and developing countries
prone to/in/emerging from conflict, thereby
bridging the gap between humanitarian relief
and development activities.
DREF Peacebuilding Fund
2009
0 200 400
Source: data from FTS, World Bank and fund websites
FURTHER READING
• GHA Update, February 2010, Global Humanitarian
Assistance.
• NGOs and Humanitarian Reform Project (2010)
Good Practices in Humanitarian Financing:
Afghanistan's CERF Underfunded Allocation 2010.
• NGOs and Humanitarian Reform Project (2009)
Synthesis Report: Review of the engagement of
NGOs with the humanitarian reform process.
• Nicole Ball and Mariska van Beijnum (2009)
Review of the Peacebuilding Fund.
• Abby Stoddard (2008) International Humanitarian
Financing: Review and comparative assessment of
instruments.
• Greg Hansen (2008) Evaluation of the Expanded
Humanitarian Response Fund, Iraq, conducted for
the Technical Review Committee, Iraq ERF.
• Martin Barber et al (2008) CERF two year
evaluation.
• Barnaby Willitts-King, Tasneem Mowjee & Jane
Barham (2007) Evaluation of Common/Pooled
Humanitarian Funds in DRC and Sudan.
• Development Initiatives (2006) UNDG/ECHA
Review of Multi-Donor Trust Funds.
State and Peacebuilding Fund ERF
600 800 1000 1200
US$ millions
Hannah Glanville, Programme Officer | Keward Court, Jocelyn Drive, Wells, BA5 1DB, UK
Tel +44 (0) 1749 671343 | Fax: +44 (0) 1749 676721 | gha@devinit.org
April 2010
IN NUMBERS
• Contributions to pooled funding
mechanisms (CERF, CHFs and ERFs)
amounted to US$687 million in 2009 –
almost US$200million less than in 2008.
• In 2008 the donor governments of the
Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
channelled 7.2% of their humanitarian
assistance through pooled funds (CERF,
CHFs and ERFs). This is 0.8% less than in
2007.
• In 2009 the United Kingdom was the
largest contributor to both the CERF and
the CHFs. Sweden was the largest
contributor to the ERFs.
• Of the ERFs, the fund in Ethiopia received
the most income – US$40 million in 2009.
• Of the CHFs, the fund in DRC received the
most income – US$111 million in 2009.
• The ERF in Haiti received US$76 million in
the first two months following the
earthquake in 2010.
• Up until March 2009 the Afghanistan
Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) spent
66% of its expenditure on agriculture and
rural development.
• The European Commission and Japan are
the top contributors to the MDTF in Iraq.
CHF CERF MDTFs
1400 1600 1800