CERF Money Moves Early on El Niño Drought in South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Chad

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 29 September that the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has released money from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for three African countries facing drought and dry conditions linked in part to El Niño, with allocations of $6 million for South Sudan, $4 million for Zimbabwe and $3.6 million for Chad.

The common thread across the three allocations, as OCHA describes them, is timing: the funds are meant to move before the worst of the drought arrives rather than after harvests fail. The agency published the allocations in its daily news roundup.

Three allocations, three different stages

In South Sudan, OCHA says the $6 million from CERF will support early action against a worsening drought that Fletcher attributes in part to El Niño, and which he warned is putting lives and livelihoods at risk. The money is earmarked for food, health, nutrition, protection, water and sanitation services. OCHA notes that the country's baseline needs are already severe: more than two in every three people in South Sudan — over 10 million people — require humanitarian assistance, according to the agency.

For Zimbabwe, OCHA reports a $4 million CERF allocation for anticipatory action, described by the agency as getting food, health and nutrition support in place before the drought arrives.

The Chad allocation of $3.6 million is intended to help 350,000 people prepare for expected drought impacts that OCHA says could worsen food insecurity and undermine livelihoods. According to the agency, these funds were released automatically once pre-agreed trigger thresholds were met — a mechanism that removes the need for a fresh funding decision at the moment of crisis. That release brings total anticipatory action funding for drought in seven provinces of Chad to $8 million since the start of the year, OCHA says. The agency lists the intended uses as early warning activities, cash assistance to vulnerable households, livestock feed, malnutrition screening and treatment, disease surveillance, and the prevention and treatment of gender-based violence, complementing government efforts.

Haiti: a quieter hurricane season, a drier outlook

OCHA also flagged El Niño in its update on Haiti, where the agency says nearly 1.5 million people remain displaced and many communities are exposed during an Atlantic hurricane season that runs through the end of November. The vast majority of displaced people are now living outside Port-au-Prince, OCHA reports, many in overcrowded collective shelters, with host families or at informal sites, leaving them exposed to flooding, landslides and severe weather.

The agency says this hurricane season is forecast to be less active than average, while cautioning that a single major storm or period of intense rainfall can still have devastating consequences. Separately, OCHA says strengthening El Niño conditions are expected to bring drier and warmer weather to Haiti in the coming months, with implications for water supplies, crops and food security.

OCHA points to Hurricane Melissa last year — which it describes as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms to hit the region in a century — as an example of early preparation, saying anticipatory action and CERF funding allowed the UN and partners to pre-position emergency supplies, open evacuation shelters and issue early warnings before the storm arrived. Humanitarian partners are now working with national and local authorities on early warning, contingency planning and pre-positioning of supplies, though OCHA says insecurity and funding shortfalls limit what can be done.

The funding backdrop

OCHA describes Haiti's 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan, which seeks $880 million to support more than 4 million people, as "less than half percent funded." The agency says it urgently needs flexible funding to act before disasters strike and to protect people from both climate shocks and the consequences of violence and displacement. Readers tracking the wider picture may find our news and impacts pages useful for context on how El Niño rainfall shifts translate into humanitarian caseloads.