Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA): This account provides the resources necessary to protect, support and resettle refugees and internally displaced people.  43.7 million people have been uprooted worldwide – their lives shattered by conflict and disaster. This funding enables the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) to fulfill its mission to provide protection, ease suffering, and resolve the plight of persecuted and displaced people around the world by providing life-sustaining assistance and promoting best practices in humanitarian response.

 Refugees International calls on Congress to provide, at a minimum, $1.875 billion in MRA funding for the Fiscal Year 2013.

 Refugees International urges Congress to fully replenish the ERMA account.

Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA): This is a revolving fund established to ensure that resources are available for unanticipated emergency humanitarian crises that result in large-scale displacement and unforeseen refugee emergencies. The ERMA account provides an important “safety valve” option during emergencies and is capped at $100 million. Currently, only $52.1 million remains in the account.  Escalating violence and instability in many parts of the world including Somalia, Kyrgyzstan, and Sri Lanka, and more frequent and severe natural disasters like those that occurred in Haiti and Pakistan in 2010, have placed increasing demands on this emergency draw down account.

International Disaster Assistance (IDA): This account funds the United State’s emergency response to humanitarian crises, enabling USAID’s Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) to immediately react to natural and man-made disasters such as earthquakes, conflict, floods and famines. While responding to disasters around the world, including the famine in the Horn of Africa, the earthquake in Japan and political violence in Côte d’Ivoire, OFDA must also be prepared to respond to places like Sudan or Syria where conflict generates large-scale forced displacement and potential shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies.

Refugees International recommends an FY13 appropriation of at least $1.1 billion for the IDA base budget and additional funding for cash-based food assistance budget.

Refugees International supports fully funding U.S. dues to UN peacekeeping operations and asks that Congress appropriate $2.164 billion to the CIPA account.

Contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA): These funds support the UN’s vital peacekeeping missions around the world. RI calls on Congress to pay the U.S. share of UN peacekeeping costs in full and on time. A U.S. contribution of $2.145 billion is required to pay our peacekeeping dues in full. By helping to support these operations, the U.S. leverages the contributions of other countries to cost-effectively further U.S. foreign policy objectives in volatile countries like Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti.

Peacekeeping Operations (PKO): This account helps fund the African Union Mission in Somalia and the Multinational Force and observers mission in the Sinai. PKO funds technical assistance to professionalize military forces, particularly with respect for the rule of law in the aftermath of conflict, including those in South Sudan, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and Cote d’Ivoire. Professional militaries that respect human rights and understand international norms regarding humanitarian law have the potential to reduce conflict related displacement.

Refugees International urges Congress to provide $249.1 million to the PKO account.

Refugees International calls on Congress to provide $56.5 million for the CSO account for the Fiscal Year 2013.

Conflict Stabilization Operations (CSO): This account funds the Department of States ability to build a civilian capacity to prevent and respond to internal violent conflict, weak or failed governance, and humanitarian emergencies, which the QDDR stated as the central security challenge for the United States. The funds will be used to help expand the capability for the Department of State to train and deploy civilians as part of the Civilian Response Corps into the field to respond effectively to these situations. The CRC has already been used to help prevent the re-emergence of violent conflict in South Sudan surrounding the referendum on self-determination.