The activities proposed hereafter are still subject to the adoption of the financing decision ECHO/WWD/BUD/2013/01000
- CONTEXT
Since 2009 the Directorate-General Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (DG ECHO) has responded to small-scale disasters with humanitarian consequences via an earmarked contribution to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). DG ECHO's participation in the DREF was motivated by the need to ensure a quick reaction capacity with minimal administrative burden for the parties concerned. The first 2 funding decisions in support of the DREF were ECHO/DRF/BUD/2008/01000 (adopted on 17/12/2008 for EUR 2 million) and ECHO/DRF/BUD/2010/02000 (adopted on 01/06/2010 for EUR 1.5 million and modified on 25/10/2010 with a budgetary increase of EUR 1.5 million). The first decision was used to co-finance 30 operations worldwide, whilst the second was used to co-finance 37 operations worldwide. During the implementation period of the 2008 contribution agreement, DG ECHO's replenishments represent 14% of the total amount of grants made by the DREF, whilst for the 2010 contribution agreement they represent 24%. All disasters listed in section 2 "Humanitarian Needs" under "Affected people/potential beneficiaries" are ones which have received DREF assistance and are likely to recur in future. Similarly, all sectors and types of support described under "Description of the humanitarian needs" are those which have been covered by DREF operations. In 2011 the financing of humanitarian Actions in the form of a contribution to the DREF was covered by Specific objective 4 of Decision ECHO/WWD/BUD/2011/01000, and in 2012 it was covered by Specific objective 3 of Decision ECHO/WWD/BUD/2012/01000. In 2013 it will also be covered by Specific objective 3 of decision ECHO/WWD/BUD/2013/01000. In each case a contribution agreement with IFRC was concluded for EUR 3 million, with an implementation period of 16 months (ECHO/DRF/BUD/2011/91001 and ECHO/DRF/BUD/2012/91001). As of 31/08/2012, this ongoing agreement has supported 22 DREF operations with over EUR 1.6 million. This support provided to IFRC's DREF is part of DG ECHO's "Extended Emergency Toolbox", together with the Epidemics HIP and the Small-scale response HIP.