SECRETARY-GENERAL/FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT
This morning, the Secretary-General spoke at the High-Level Event on Financing for Development which he convened alongside the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness.
The Secretary-General said that, unless we act now, the COVID-19 pandemic will cause unimaginable devastation and suffering around the world. He added that we need to respond with unity and solidarity, and this includes financial support for many developing countries who lack the means to fight this pandemic.
The Secretary-General outlined the six areas of action to be discussed during the meeting which include global liquidity, debt relief and a better recovery.
He stressed that all our efforts must go towards building sustainable and resilient pathways that enable us not only to beat COVID-19, but to tackle the climate crisis, reduce inequality and eradicate poverty and hunger.
 
SECURITY COUNCIL
This morning, the Security Council held a virtual annual meeting on strengthening the partnership with the European Union (EU).
Council members were briefed by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
 
YEMEN
In a joint statement issued earlier today, the principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee - the highest humanitarian forum of UN and International NGOs - expressed alarm about the situation in Yemen as COVID-19 is spreading rapidly amid unabated conflict and lack of funding for humanitarian programs.
Against a backdrop of mounting humanitarian needs, official COVID-19 case figures as of today stand at 253 cases and 50 deaths. But as in many other countries, testing kits in Yemen are in short supply, and official reports are lagging far behind actual infections.
More than five years of war have devastated Yemen’s health infrastructure, subjected Yemenis to repeated disease outbreaks and malnutrition, and substantially increased vulnerabilities.
The principals said humanitarian agencies are responding to the pandemic including scaling up public health measures; actively promoting personal hygiene and physical distancing; mobilizing life-saving supplies and equipment; and maintaining essential health and humanitarian services.
In addition to the COVID-19 response, aid agencies in Yemen are still delivering the world’s largest relief operation, assisting more than 10 million people every month.
The principals indicated that of 41 major UN programmes in Yemen, more than 30 will close in the next few weeks if additional funds are not secured. It is estimated that aid agencies will need up to $2.4 billion to cover essential activities from June through December, including programmes to counter COVID-19. They called on donors to pledge generously and pay pledges promptly.
 
LATIN AMERICA
The World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean could potentially leave around 14 million vulnerable people in severe food insecurity this year.
WFP said that it is vital and urgent to provide food assistance to the growing number of vulnerable people in the region, as well as those who depend on informal work.
The estimate suggests that an additional 10 million people could be pushed into poverty and hunger in 11 countries in the region, including the small island developing states in the Caribbean.
WFP urged countries to provide additional support to beneficiaries of national social protection programmes and to expand its coverage to more groups, such as migrants and people without formal employment.
WFP also launched the #MissingThisMeal campaign, an opportunity for individuals to show solidarity with the people most vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic.
 
ASIA-PACIFIC/HUNGER
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today warned that, while the world fights to slow the spread of COVID-19, countries in South Asia are simultaneously responding to plagues of locusts, cyclones and a deadly livestock disease, all of which threaten to worsen hunger and the livelihoods of millions of people.
Swarms of Desert Locust, which originated in Africa, have moved swiftly into west Asia attacking vegetation in parts of Iran and Pakistan, and are now threatening crops in India. These swarms are the worst experienced in more than a generation. Fall armyworm, a maize-destroying pest that migrated to Asia from Africa in 2018, has also spread across the continent and has arrived in Australia.
African swine fever (ASF) has re-emerged in the Asia-Pacific region, and for the first time been detected in India. ASF, which ravaged pig production in China in 2018 and 2019, has also been discovered for the first time in the Pacific subregion, with cases confirmed in Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Cyclones such as Amphan and Vongfong have added to the damage in some of the countries already overstretched by their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
ROHINGYA
The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) today called for a coordinated response to help hundreds of Rohingya refugees who are stranded at sea be brought safely to land.
IOM Director General António Vitorino said that, with the entire world grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, we must work collectively to avoid a repeat of the 2015 crisis when thousands of men, women and children faced tremendous challenges in accessing life-saving care and support.
In mid-April, more than 30 Rohingya refugees died after spending two months aboard a smuggler’s vessel attempting to enter Malaysia.
IOM believes that as many as 500 others remain at sea unable to disembark at their intended destination.
 
COVID-19/D.R. CONGO
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are more than 2,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 68 deaths.
The UN team, led by David McLachlan-Karr, there has supported the Government and the people to prepare aound respond to the health, humanitarian and socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO), at the local level, has provided medicine, as well as motorcycles and fuel for contact tracing. More than 70 experts are working at the frontline of the health response in coordination, surveillance, support to labs, data gathering, contact tracing, community engagement and logistics. 
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is helping to construct quarantine sites and medical checkpoints. It is also donating medicine and equipment such as masks, installing more than 2,000 handwashing stations, providing over 65,000 soap bars and ensuring the disinfection of nearly 1,600 dormitories. UNHCR also trained medical staff in areas hosting refugees and internally displaced people. For its part, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) supported the deployment of a local handwashing system using solar energy in several parts of Kinshasa.
To address gender-based violence during lockdown, UN Women is working with the national police.
The UN peacekeeping mission and UNDP are providing personal protection equipment to police and prison staff, transforming containers in central prisons, to separate suspected COVID-19 cases among detainees.
The UN team is bolstering its communications efforts to prevent the spread of the disease, especially through the use of radio. The UN peacekeeping mission’s Radio Okapi – with the Ministry of Education and UNICEF – was the first media in the country to provide education through radio, airing 14 weekly hours of school programming for 22 million children at home. UNICEF is also helping the Ministry of Education to implement distance learning by distributing learning booklets for all grades, among other methods.
 
D.R. CONGO/HUMAN RIGHTS
The Joint UN human rights office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo says there is a worrisome deterioration of the security situation in the territories of Djugu and Mahagi, in the eastern province of Ituri. 
Between October last year and April, the office documented that armed assaillants - a majority of them from the Lendu community - killed at least 296 people, injured 151 others and raped 38 people, including several women and children. 
Attacks against civilians have intensified since March, taking place, in many cases, around artisanal mining sites, and also extending to additional territories (Mahagi and Irumu). 
This has led to a new influx of displaced people to Bunia and other urban centers known to be safer. This brings the number of displaced people in the province of Ituri to more than 1.2 million people. The violence risks pushing members of the communities targeted by the attacks to form self-defense militias, which could increase the likelihood of widespread inter-communal violence in the region. 
The Human Rights Office stresses that the widespread and systematic nature of attacks against civilians, killings and barbaric acts, beheadings and post-mortem mutilations, can constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, and expose all their perpetrators to prosecution by national and international justice. 
 
COVID-19/POVERTY
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children today warned that the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic could push up to 86 million more children into household poverty by the end of 2020. This represents an increase of 15 per cent.
Without urgent action to protect families from the financial hardships caused by the pandemic, the total number of children living below the national poverty line in low- and middle-income countries could reach 672 million by year-end. Nearly two-thirds of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Countries across Europe and Central Asia could see the most significant increase, up to 44 per cent across the region. Latin America and the Caribbean could see a 22 per cent increase.
UNICEF and Save the Children said that the impact of the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic and related containment policies is two-fold. Immediate loss of income means families are less able to afford the basics, including food and water, less likely to access healthcare or education, and more at risk of child marriage, violence, exploitation and abuse. When fiscal contraction occurs, the reach and quality of the services families depend on can also be diminished.
For children living in countries already affected by conflict and violence, the impact of this crisis will further increase the risk of instability and of households falling into poverty.
 
PEACEBUILDING FUND
The Secretary-General today announced the members of the Sixth Advisory Group of the Peacebuilding Fund, which is the Organization’s financial instrument of first resort to sustain peace in countries or situations at risk or affected by violent conflict. From 2006 to 2017, the Fund approved a total of $772 million to 41 recipient countries, and from 2017 to 2019, it scaled up its commitments by approving $531 million for 51 countries. The Peacebuilding Fund’s new Strategy 2020-24 is designed to bolster the fund with a target of $1.5 billion in financing for peacebuilding, the most ambitious strategy for the Fund to date.
The ten individuals who will serve a term of two years are: Ms. Anne Anderson, Ambassador (ret.), Ireland; Professor Emmanuel Asante, Chairperson, National Peace Council, Ghana; Ms. Lise Filiatrault, Ambassador (ret.), Canada; Ms. Liberata Mulamula, Ambassador (ret.), Tanzania; Mr. Johannes Oljelund, Director-General for International Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden; Ms. Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive, Overseas Development Institute, United Kingdom; Mr. Stéphane Rey, Head of Peace Policy, Deputy Head of the Human Security Division, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland; Mr. Gert Rosenthal, Ambassador (ret.), Guatemala; Mr. Hanns Heinrich Schumacher, Ambassador (ret.), Germany; and Ms. Marriët Schuurman, Director, Department of Stability and Humanitarian Aid, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands.
The Secretary-General expressed his gratitude to the members of the fifth Advisory Group for their advice and support which has considerably strengthened the impact of the Fund globally.