The United States has announced more than $240 million in humanitarian and disaster response assistance to Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Senior Bureau Official, State Department Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response, Ryan Shrum made the announcement in Rome, Italy, alongside United States Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch; Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN Agencies in Rome, Lynda Blanchard; CRS Vice President for Humanitarian Response, Jennifer Poidatz, and Secretary General, Caritas Internationalis, Alistair Dutton.

This assistance to CRS is the first in a series of global State Department awards to trusted and vetted implementing organisations.

These awards will focus on the rapid deployment of time-bound, life-saving assistance in response to crises around the world, with implementers able to respond within 24 hours.

This approach to assistance is complementary to the Department’s historic memorandum of understanding and $3.8 billion in assistance provided through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reduces bureaucratic grant management burdens on staff and reinforces efforts to make humanitarian assistance faster, more efficient, and more accountable to United States taxpayers.

CRS works through an extensive network of local partners, including over 160 Caritas chapters around the globe, ensuring that assistance reaches the most vulnerable populations efficiently and effectively.

For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, CRS demonstrated the capacity to provide assistance in challenging political environments, such as Cuba, where its local partnerships enabled humanitarian assistance to reach those in need without regime interference.

CRS will use this funding to provide multi-sectoral assistance across the food, nutrition, health, water and sanitation, and shelter sectors, among others, in countries with significant levels of humanitarian need, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nigeria, and Sudan. CRS already has offices and staff on the ground in the DRC supporting Ebola response efforts. This funding will supplement CRS’s Ebola response activities and its work to address other humanitarian needs throughout the country.

This contribution will also support a CRS global rapid response fund, which will allow CRS to immediately activate its extensive network of local partnerships, including Caritas organisations, to deliver assistance where it’s needed most, whether responding to sudden-onset disasters or addressing surges in needs within ongoing complex emergencies. With funds already on hand, CRS can respond immediately, bypassing lengthy procurement processes.