UN boss appoints new fund advisory group
By Godfrey Olukya 20-9-2013
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday announced the appointment of six new members to the Advisory Group of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The Advisory Group’s newest members come from a range of countries and bring with them years of expertise in the humanitarian field.
The CERF Advisory Group provides policy guidance and advice on the use and impact of the CERF through Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, who manages the Fund’s day-to-day operations on behalf of the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General shares recommendations and conclusions from each Advisory Group meeting with Member States through the President of the General Assembly to ensure transparency and accountability. The newly-appointed members are:
Mr. Brouz Ralph Enneric Coffi (Côte d’Ivoire)
Minister Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of Côte d’Ivoire to the United Nations, New York
Ms. Jette Michelsen (Denmark)
Counsellor, Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs and Political Coordinator, Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United Nations, New York
Dr. Eltje Aderhold (Germany)
Head of Division, Task Force for Humanitarian Aid of the Federal Foreign Office
Dr. Ahmed Al-Meraikhi (Qatar)
Director of the Department of International Development, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Director-General of the Qatar Development Fund
Mr. Jozef H.L. M. Andriessen (the Netherlands)
Director of the Stabilisation and Humanitarian Aid Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Major General Dr. Julius Oketta (Uganda)
Director, National Emergency Operations and Coordination Centre, Office of the Prime Minister, Department of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management
These new members will begin their three-year term at the upcoming Advisory Group meeting, which will take place in early November. The remaining twelve of the Group’s eighteen members will continue to serve ongoing their three-year terms.
The six Advisory Group members who joined in 2010 and have now finished their terms, are: Ambassador Mikael Lindvall from Sweden (Chair), Mr. Milton Rondó Filho from Brazil (Vice-Chair), Mr. Barges Hamoud Al Barges from Kuwait, Mr. Mohameden Ould Zein from Mauritania, Mr. Marius Daniel Dogeanu from Romania and Mr. Osman Nüvit Bektas from Turkey.
“I would like to thank the outgoing Members for their wise advice and for their commitment to improving the CERF’s effectiveness. They helped to ensure that CERF will continue to be a success story for the humanitarian efforts that benefit from it, and for the Member States that created it,” the Secretary-General said.
Members of the Advisory Group serve in their individual capacity and, include government officials from contributing and recipient countries, representatives of humanitarian non-governmental organizations, and academic experts. They are carefully selected on the basis of their humanitarian expertise, with consideration given to geographical diversity and gender balance.
Since its inception in 2006, the CERF has allocated more than $3 billion to United Nations humanitarian agencies and the International Organization for Migration to assist the most vulnerable in emergencies, benefitting people caught in crises people in 88 countries and territories. Voluntary contributions of nearly $3.3 billion from more than 120 Member States, observer missions, regional and local authorities, together with other public and private donors, have made humanitarian allocations possible over the past seven years.
