The General Assembly upgraded CERF in December 2005 from a revolving loan mechanism of US$50million to a Fund composed of the existing loan mechanism and an additional grant element with afunding target per year of $450 million. It was upgraded to enable more timely and reliable humanitarianfunding to be channelled rapidly and effectively to humanitarian partners for response to natural disastersand complex emergencies. The Fund also serves as an integral part of humanitarian reform as itcontributes to reinforcing humanitarian leadership and coordination through the Resident/HumanitarianCoordinator (RC/HC) and the cluster approach.
The rapid response window serves to address sudden onset crises and time-critical requirements. Inresponding to sudden onset crises, the Fund aims to support humanitarian response to natural disastersand new complex emergencies, or rapid deterioration of existing complex emergencies. Grants that fulfiltime-critical requirements are typically slow onset crises, such as drought or locust infestation. In suchcases, rapid funding is required because a time-critical intervention will prevent escalation of the disasterand reduce the overall costs and impact. All rapid response projects must be implemented within sixmonths.