UN
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday,  February 4, 2010

SECRETARY-GENERAL’S REPORT ON GAZA TO GO TO
GENERAL ASSEMBLY

• In response to
  questions, the Spokesperson said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will
  transmit a report to the General Assembly by Friday, in response to the General
  Assembly’s request to him in
  
  resolution 64/10 of 4 November 2009.  That resolution concerned
  the implementation of the recommendations of the Goldstone report on
  Gaza.
   

• The Secretary-General’s
  report will be available in the coming days as a General Assembly
  document.
   

• [The General Assembly Spokesman later announced
  that the once the report is sent to Member States, it will be posted on
  the following website: http://www.un.org/ga/president/64/]
   

• The Spokesperson added
  that he did not have any information at present on whether the General
  Assembly will schedule any meetings to discuss the Secretary-General’s
  report.
   

• Nesirky declined to
  describe the report’s contents in advance of its issuance, but he noted
  that the Secretary-General had received submissions from the Israeli
  Government, the Swiss Government and the Palestinian Authority prior to
  the report’s finalization.
   

• Asked about efforts to
  foster reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the Spokesperson said
  that the Secretary-General was following developments closely.
   

• The Secretary-General, he added, views in a
  positive light all efforts to bring people together and to move the
  peace process forward.
   

• Asked about U.S. envoy
  George Mitchell’s efforts in the Middle East, Nesirky said that the
  Secretary-General was staying in touch on Mitchell’s work.
   

• In addition, the
  Secretary-General had spoken by phone in recent days with Palestinian
  President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as part
  of his own effort to encourage the peace process.

HAITI: SOME
700,000 QUAKE SURVIVORS NEED PROPER SHELTER AS W.F.P. FEEDS MORE THAN A
MILLION PEOPLE

• In Haiti, shelter, sanitation and food are the key
  priorities right now, according to the Office for the Coordination of
  Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
   

• The distribution of shelter material and the
  establishment of planned settlements remain among the main priorities
  for assistance.
   

• Some 700,000 people are estimated to be living in
  temporary shelter sites in Port au Prince. Immediate shelter solutions
  are being fast-tracked, while more durable solutions are developed.
   

• Sanitation is becoming a major concern at many of
  the temporary sites.  In general, OCHA says that latrine construction is
  now a priority and that 25,000 portable toilets and 7,000 additional
  latrines are needed.
   

• Concerning food distribution, the World Food
  Programme (WFP)
  says that all sixteen fixed distribution sites in Port au Prince are now
  working within its systematic food distribution programme.
   

• WFP has now reached well over a million people (1.1
  million) since the earthquake struck - over 460,000 have been reached
  through the new distribution system in the past 4 days - including over
  121,000 yesterday.
   

• The Flash Appeal is now 87 percent funded and a
  revised appeal will be launched in mid to late February, says OCHA. The
  revised appeal will extend the planning and budget horizon to 12 months
  and will include preparations for the hurricane season.
   

• Concerning security, the situation across the
  country remains generally calm.
   

• The UN and Haitian police have increased patrols in
  some areas of Port au Prince.
   

• The UN Mission in Haiti,
  
  MINUSTAH, says that reinforcements are on the way and will help the
  mission achieve additional tasks. Troop contributing countries such as
  Brazil, Japan, Korea, Guatemala, Peru, and others have begun to step
  forward to provide additional forces to MINUSTAH following the UN
  Security Council’s authorization of an extra 2,000 military and 1,500
  police personnel. Once deployed, these reinforcements should help
  MINUSTAH meet the surge of needs caused by the earthquake.

UNICEF
APPEALS FOR $1.2 BILLION TO HELP CHILDREN IN CRISES

• The number of children affected by humanitarian
  disasters and crises increases significantly around the world, and the
  critical role of partnerships in assisting them and their families is
  the focus of the
  
  UN Children’s Fund’s flagship
  
  Humanitarian Action Report – which was
  
  launched today. 
   

• The
  
  Report is subtitled “Partnering for children in emergencies,” and
  emphasizes the critical role of partnerships in assisting vulnerable
  children and families. 
   

• It also appeals to donors for nearly $1.2 billion
  in funding for emergency-response efforts to support a greater emphasis
  on emergency preparedness, early warning, disaster risk reduction and
  rapid recovery.

BAN KI-MOON
STRESSES NEED FOR STRONGER COORDINATION
 AS ONE OF KEY REQUIREMENTS FOR ENHANCED SYSTEM-WIDE COHERENCE

• Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, this morning,
  addressed the General Assembly during informal consultations on
  System-wide coherence.
   

• He stressed the need for strengthened coordination
  among all the major UN entities, better preparation for key meetings and
  stronger consensus to implement intergovernmental decisions that can
  impact UN development activities.
   

• The Secretary-General said there are real
  opportunities this year to make concrete progress on women’s empowerment
  and the Millennium Development Goals.  He said these areas are
  closely-linked and the drive to strengthen system-wide coherence will
  play a key role in each. 
   

• He added that his recommendations for the creation
  of a new entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment would give a
  strong unified voice to women and girls on the world stage.

 OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

TALKS ON WESTERN SAHARA TO TAKE PLACE NEXT WEEK: 
Asked about the upcoming talks on Western
Sahara, the Spokesperson said that a round of informal consultations, under
the auspices of the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross,
would take place in Armonk, NY, on 10-11 February. Those informal talks
would be held with the aim of moving towards negotiations at a later stage.

STAKEOUT BY SENIOR GREEK FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL: 
At 3:45 p.m., there will be a stakeout opportunity with the Alternate
Foreign Minister of Greece, Mr. Dimitris Droutsas. This will take place on
the first floor of the Temporary North Lawn Building, at our new stakeout
position.

PRESS CONFERENCES/MEDIA
OPPORTUNITIES TOMORROW
 

Tomorrow, following the meeting of the Security
Council,  Mr. Kanat Saudabayev, Chairman-in-Office for the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, will speak to correspondents at the
Security Council Stakeout.

At 1:15 p.m. tomorrow, there will be a briefing on the
CARICOM Initiative on Non-Communicable Diseases, in partnership with the
World Health Organization.

Dr. Donatus St. Aimee, Permanent Representative of the
Mission of Saint Lucia will moderate the briefing. The other panelists
include Dr. Ala Alwan, Assistant Director-General of the World Health
Organization; Dr. Alafia Samuels, Epidemiologist at the University of the
West Indies; and Dr. Deborah Malta, from the Ministry of Health in Brazil.

*** The Guest at the Noon Briefing was Jordan
Ryan, the Assistant Administrator of UNDP, who briefed on the
“cash-for-work” programme that UNDP is running in Haiti.