Geneva – The UN’s Humanitarian Chief and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, today released USD 25 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support front-line non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) life-saving health and water and sanitation responses to COVID-19 in Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, Haiti, Libya, South Sudan and Sudan.
This multi-country allocation will be channelled to NGOs at a country level and help address the most pressing humanitarian needs based on the in-country priorities in health (including mental health and psychosocial support), and water and sanitation outlined in the Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19. Focus will be given to gender issues, including gender-based violence, and the needs of people living with disabilities.
Mark Lowcock, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said:
“As we fight the spread of COVID-19 in countries already facing humanitarian crises, the work of front-line responders is more important than ever. Because of them, people who desperately need clean drinking water, health care and sanitation – the basics you need to fight the virus – are getting them, wherever they are.
“This allocation from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund will help NGOs in Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, Haiti, Libya, South Sudan and Sudan do that work. It lets them access humanitarian funding in the same way UN agencies do, which will help them deliver swift, cost-effective and life-saving humanitarian response operations.”
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