As of 31 July 2016, UN-coordinated Humanitarian Response Plans (HRP), Flash Appeals and Regional Refugee Plans as covered by the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) require US$21.9 billion to meet the needs of 96.9 million people affected by humanitarian crises in 40 countries. The appeals are funded at $7.2 billion, with unmet requirements totalling $14.7 billion. Overall, donors have contributed $13.7 billion towards humanitarian operations in 2016 and pledged a further $814.4 million.
On 20 July, humanitarian partners launched an urgent appeal for $284 million to prepare for the humanitarian impact of the military operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). It is vital that this amount is received promptly so that minimum preparedness measures can be put in place. In a worst-case scenario, nearly $1.8 billion may be required to assist up to 1.5 million people considered to be at risk.
Contributions are also urgently required to allow organizations to scale up or sustain operations in Syria and the region. Although the London conference earlier this year saw record-level pledges and $4.8 of the $ 6 billion pledged has been allocated, some donors have not yet allocated the funds pledged. The Syria Humanitarian Response Plan and the Syria Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) are funded at 27 and 43 per cent respectively.
Additionally, UN country teams in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria are seeking to scale up operations. These countries require $559 million to meet the emergency needs caused by the Lake Chad Basin crisis. Additional and timely donor support will be critical to mounting an effective response. Please see icon overleaf for information on other urgent funding needs.
For El Niño, globally Government or Humanitarian Country Team plans call for approximately $5 billion. The funding gap is about $3.3 billion. Over $600 million is required for Ethiopia alone and $2.7 billion for Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. The Southern Africa Regional Inter-Agency Standing Committee (RIASCO) launched a regional El Niño response plan which has three pillars: humanitarian, resilience and macro-financial. To address priority humanitarian needs, partners require $1.2 billion, of which $237 million has been contributed to date.
Meanwhile, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has received $273 million for 2016 as of the end of July, most of which have been directed to 35 countries for life-saving activities. In July alone, $21.6 million were disbursed to emergencies in seven countries - Iraq, Bangladesh, DRC, Malawi, Rwanda, Nigeria and Sudan. The second round of underfunded-emergencies window allocation of $50 million will be announced in August. Currently, the CERF secretariat anticipates a funding gap of $50 million of the $450 million annual target for 2016. New contributions are urgently required to secure adequate funding for future response.
So far in 2016, 17 Member States have contributed $385 million to country-based pooled funds (CBPFs). In turn, $301 million has been allocated to frontline responders: 20 per cent to national NGOs; 46 per cent to international NGOs; 33 per cent to UN agencies; 1 per cent to Red Cross / Crescent. OCHA manages 18 CBPFs in some of the world's worst crises, including Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Allocations are decided upon through an in-country consultative process based on humanitarian needs and priorities.