Cut the red tape: fundamental flaw of UN emergency fund must be put right
Children caught up in crises around the world are being forced to wait for life-saving emergency relief because the introduction of the UN's emergency fund has created an extra hurdle for aid agencies.
Monday 1 January 2007
Children caught up in crises around the world are being forced to wait for life-saving emergency relief because the introduction of the UN's emergency fund has created an extra hurdle for aid agencies striving to reach those most in need.
Research released today by Save the Children UK says that the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which was created almost a year ago, is inefficient and actually reduces the amount of money going directly to work on the ground.
The fundamental flaw of the CERF mechanism is that non-UN aid agencies, like Save the Children, are not allowed to receive direct funding, despite the fact they are usually first on the ground and deliver more than half of all emergency relief.
Amelia Bookstein, Save the Children's Head of Humanitarian Policy, said: "Excluding aid agencies from accessing this important source of funding directly is a fundamental flaw. The system has proved to be clumsy and inefficient and is wasting time and money. Children who are suffering without access to humanitarian relief deserve better."
Save the Children welcomes the UN's efforts to improve the international emergency response but the current CERF system is preventing non-UN aid agencies from taking timely meaningful action in a crisis.
The new system is also less cost-effective. Instead of giving funding directly to aid agencies, many donors, including DFID, now channel a large part of their funding through the CERF or other UN funds. Money is then distributed to UN agencies, which then finally distribute it to aid agencies.
This extra red tape means an increase in administrative costs and less of the donor money actually reaching those in need.
Both UN agencies and the aid agencies carrying out project work are entitled to take a 7% cut of donor funding to pay for overheads and support. Save the Children's research finds that, if both the UN agency and the implementing aid agency take overheads, only 86p per pound reaches the beneficiaries compared to 93p if non-UN agencies were given funding directly.
Save the Children is calling on the UN, and specifically the CERF board members, to cut out the middle-man and change the rules to allow aid agencies to access the fund directly in the same way as UN agencies.
