Ban appoints six new members to advisory board of UN humanitarian fund

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appointed six new members to the advisory group that provides policy guidance and expert advice to the United Nations-managed emergency response fund.

Twelve of the 18-member Advisory Group to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will continue to serve, helping to preserve it institutional memory, according to a press release issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The group provides policy guidance and expert advice on the use and impact of the CERF through the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, who manages the day-to-day operations of the fund on behalf of the Secretary-General.

The new members are: Carlos Eduardo Zavalla Argentina, Jan Vandemoortele of Belgium, Stephen Salewicz of Canada, Saadatou Mallam Barmou of Niger, Biya Han of the Republic of Korea and Sue Wardell of the United Kingdom.

Members of the Advisory Group serve in their individual capacity. They include government officials from contributing and recipient countries, representatives of humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academics, all selected on the basis of their humanitarian expertise, as well as geographical and gender balance.

Since it was launched in 2006, CERF has allocated nearly $2.2 billion to UN agencies and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to assist the most vulnerable in sudden-onset disasters and neglected emergencies worldwide. Eighty-three countries and the occupied Palestinian territory have benefited from funding from CERF.

Some 123 Member States and observers, as well as scores of private individuals and organizations, have contributed more than $2.4 billion to CERF since its inception.