Mr. Under-Secretary-General, distinguished delegates, ladies and
gentlemen,

Thank you for the opportunity to make a brief comment on the
evolution of the CERF after little over two years of operations and
add the voice of an Organization directly engaged in its
implementation. As the recent evaluation has shown, the CERF has
become a valuable tool for the humanitarian community's response
activities effectively complementing other humanitarian financing
mechanisms. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is
among the organizations eligible to receive CERF resources and as
such we would like to highlight the relevance and usefulness of the
CERF as a flexible response mechanism, for organizations such as
IOM, operating with a minimal core or assessed budget, to fill an
important gap between sudden emergencies and timely availability of
cash flows.  IOM appreciates the contributions it has received
from the CERF, which amount to date to some USD 38.7 M – a
modest sum perhaps – but an amount representing a critical
mass of resources which has enabled the Organization to jump start
humanitarian response operations in 64 crises around the world, 31
of which during this past 11 month in 2008, not a small
achievement.

As the CERF faces competing demands from the adverse affects of
climate change and the food crisis, we welcome this pledging event
as well as Member States' consideration for an increase of
additional contributions to the CERF.

We would like to take this occasion to inform you about some of
IOM's emergency interventions due in no-small part to funding from
the CERF. In response to the devastating effects of tropical storms
Gustav and Hannah in Gonaïves, 10,000 individuals were
displaced and faced with life-threatening situations.  Because
of the support of the CERF, IOM was able to support Haiti's civil
protection authorities by providing immediate shelter relief at
approximately 25 main temporary shelter sites within and the in the
immediate vicinity of Gonaives.  This was carried out in
collaboration with partner NGOs and local community groups in order
to ensure coordinated implementation of its project
activities.  In Myanmar, $1.2 million from the CERF allowed
IOM to jumpstart its NFI/shelter activities providing life-saving
assistance to some 120,000 cyclone victims throughout the affected
region.  Additional funding from the CERF provided some 5,000
household kits to households in the most affected areas of Bogale
and Pyapon. In total, IOM has now distributed non-food items to
over 50,000 households in the Irrawaddy Delta.

Mr. Chairman,

The CERF indeed has a relevance and usefulness as a flexible
response.  The "life-saving criteria" of the CERF received
substantial acknowledgement in the evaluation, and we welcome a
revisiting of these criteria to recognize the particularly
vulnerable situations of displaced persons and stranded migrants
who require humanitarian assistance.  As it has been recalled
this morning, the CERF is a key but one element in the broader
enhancement of humanitarian response capacities and must be
accompanied by a set of complementary measures. For its part, since
the CERF inception, IOM has trained over 300 of its field staff to
strengthen the Organization's emergency capacity, and in
conjunction with our cluster responsibilities, hundreds of partners
from NGOs, national authorities and UN colleagues. The evaluation
rightly highlighted the link between the CERF and the cluster
system, and in this regard we encourage CERF funding of activities
which are essential to the Camp Coordination and Camp Management
cluster, which IOM leads in cases of natural disasters.

To conclude, Mr. Chairman, IOM is focused on enhancing
collaboration and coordination to assist those uprooted and forced
to migrate in times of crisis and the CERF has indeed supported
this coordination process in numerous responses over the past two
years. We express here our deep appreciation to donors and to our
partners, in particular the CERF Secretariat and OCHA for their
excellent cooperation and the commitment to the improvement of
financing for humanitarian responses.

Thank you.