World: Global cholera early action framework: Getting ahead of major cholera outbreaks (As of October 2026)

Country: World Sources: UN Children’s Fund, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Health Organization Please refer to the attached file. 1. Background Cholera remains one of the most devastating yet preventable global public health threats, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations in fragile settings. The diarrheal disease, which, if untreated, can be fatal, is primarily driven by a lack of access to clean water, proper sanitation and hygiene (WASH), as well as insufficient health services. These are often compounded by conflicts, displacement, climate-related hazards such as floods, drought or cyclones, as well as other events impacting access to WASH and health services such as economic crises or earthquakes. 1 In countries where it is endemic, cholera often leads to repeated outbreaks. The waterborne disease has been experiencing an upsurge in recent years, 2 with over 600, 000 cases and more than 7, 500 deaths reported in 2025. The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) frequently provides funding to support cholera responses. Since its inception in 2006, CERF has released over $175M through allocations directly targeting the disease, while projects addressing cholera are included in many more allocations for other crises such as floods, droughts, cyclones or conflicts. Building on OCHA’s work to make the humanitarian system more anticipatory, including through CERF as the main provider of funding for anticipatory action globally, CERF is increasingly making forward-looking funding decisions based on available data and forecasts. Following this approach, OCHA has collaborated with WHO and UNICEF to develop an early action framework enabling CERF to make more proactive allocations under its Rapid Response window to help tackle cholera outbreaks. The objective of this joint framework is to provide funding to implementing partners for early action when available data suggests that a cholera outbreak of unusual severity is imminent or ongoing but before it has peaked. While eliminating cholera requires addressing its underlying causes, by acting earlier this framework provides the opportunity to prevent a further escalation of outbreaks, reduce the loss of lives and livelihoods, and enable a more (cost-)effective and efficient response. The initiative, thereby, also contributes to the Global Task Force on Cholera Control’s goals of reducing cholera deaths by 90%, eliminating cholera in as many as 20 countries, and preventing uncontrollable cholera outbreaks in fragile and conflict-affected settings, as laid out in its global roadmap to 2030. This framework presents a joint approach by OCHA, WHO and UNICEF towards getting ahead of large-scale cholera outbreaks, including a cholera early warning strategy, pre-defined funding projects and activities, funding, and linkages with anticipatory action frameworks

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