New York:The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund will provide almost 85million dollars to help 15 countries cope with under-funded emergencies.

"While each of these allocations represents but a fraction of the overallrequirements in the individual emergencies, as a whole they help us pursueprincipled humanitarian action in which those who require aid the most areidentified based strictly on need and assisted accordingly," the Acting UNEmergency Relief Coordinator said.

The funds are drawn from the Office for the Coordination of HumanitarianAffairs (OCHA)-managed CERF, which was launched in March 2006 and is financedby voluntary contributions.

This year, 50 donors, including 47 member states, have pledged almost 350million dollars to the CERF. CERF has furnished USD 162 million since itsinception.

One third of CERF's resources are put aside expressly for use in under-fundedemergencies to reverse imbalances in global aid distribution which result inmillions suffering in so-called neglected or forgotten crises.

The 15 countries receiving this round of funds are: Angola,Bangladesh, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti,Myanmar, Namibia, Somalia,Sudan and Zimbabwe.

The amount individual countries will receive range from less than 500,000 toalmost 40 million million.

Funding data collected by the Financial Tracking Service, recommendations fromUN agencies, inter-agency discussions and opinions of Humanitarian and ResidentCoordinators determine the specific amount of CERF funds individual countriesreceive.