Saltar al contenido principal

The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated $3 million USD to provide humanitarian assistance in the departments of Chocó, Antioquia, and Valle del Cauca (Colombia)

Países
Colombia
Fuentes
UNCT Colombia
+ 1
Fecha de publicación

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Martin Griffiths, announced the allocation of three million dollars from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), directed to address the most urgent needs of the population affected by violence and armed conflict in 13 municipalities in Chocó, Antioquia, and Valle del Cauca.

This time, the CERF funded response will include a series of actions that have been previously consulted and agreed with the National Government. These actions will be led by UNHCR, PAHO/WHO, and WFP; and will be focused on providing response directed towards the communities most affected by confinements and forced displacements, who will receive assistance in the sectors of Health, Food Security and Protection.

It is important to highlight that the allocated CERF funds respond to the critical situation that the population of the 13 target municipalities face, given that during 2022 an increase in the hostilities between Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) caused the large-scale confinement of at least 185 indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, mainly in the department of Chocó, but also in Antioquia and Valle del Cauca.

‘Given the humanitarian situation that deteriorates day by day, affecting thousands of people - particularly in the Colombian Pacific coast-, the humanitarian community persists in its efforts to accompany these communities and relieve the impact of the armed conflict. These CERF funds will allow to implement priority actions identified together with the National Government and will be carried out to palliate some of the identified urgent needs’, commented Mireia Villar Forner, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Colombia.

The response actions will be managed by the Humanitarian Local Coordination Teams in the three departments together with local administrations. In the midst of these activities, interagency field missions will be held, allowing to increase the synergy between communities, institutions, and humanitarian actors. Humanitarian assistance will be provided to the affected indigenous and Afro Colombian people. The response will be directly provided to 45,000 people and will indirectly benefit more than 111,400. The planned actions are an essential part of the Pacific Strategy of the Humanitarian Country Team that seeks to mitigate the suffering and save lives in the most affected communities by the armed conflict during 2022.

Since 2020, Colombia has received $12,5 million dollars from CERF to mitigate the most urgent needs of the affected population caused by the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, large-scale natural disasters, violence, and armed conflict. We are grateful for the constant and generous support of the donor community that has provided the funding to rapidly and effectively reach the people who most need it.

‘Likewise, we recognize that humanitarian needs in the country surpass the current available resources for the emergency response and we are thankful for all the additional support and financing that donors might offer to strengthen these actions in the country’, added the Resident Coordinator.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.