HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
THURSDAY, 7 JULY 2022
UN/EU RETREAT
This afternoon, the UN and the European Commission will hold their first High-Level Dialogue. That will get under way at the Greentree Foundation.
The discussions will be co-chaired by the Secretary-General and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
G20
The foreign ministers of the G20 are gathering in Bali, in Indonesia. The Secretary-General will address them in a pre-recorded video message that will air tomorrow morning, local time. In the message, he will underscore the need to strengthen multilateralism and to avoid widespread food shortages, deepening climate chaos, and a wave of poverty and destitution that will leave no country untouched.
SECURITY COUNCIL / WEST AFRICA
This morning, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Annadif Khatir Mahamat Saleh, briefed the Security Council.
He highlighted to Council Members that the region is continuing to evolve at different rhythms - on the one hand, citizens who freely exercise their right to vote to choose their leaders, and on the other hand, military personnel who seek to dominate the political space.
He also highlighted the devastating humanitarian situation in the region and called for greater international support.
SECRETARY-GENERAL/BURKINA FASO
Earlier today the Secretary-General had a phone call with Lieutenant Colonel Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, President of the Transition in Burkina Faso. During the call, the Secretary-General expressed the support of the United Nations for the efforts to restore constitutional order and strengthen the democratic governance in Burkina Faso.
The Secretary-General also welcomed the agreement reached with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the transition and reaffirmed the support of the UN to Burkina Faso in responding to humanitarian and security challenges.
MALI
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today warned that the situation in Mali has significantly deteriorated over the past 6 months due to increasing conflict and intercommunal clashes. The level of needs is higher than at any point since the beginning of the crisis in 2012.
Today, 7.5 million people – that’s one in three Malians – require humanitarian assistance, compared to 3.8 million in 2017.
In addition, 1.8 million people need food assistance, an increase of more than 50 per cent compared to last year.
As of this month, only 16 per cent of the $685 million we need for the humanitarian response this year has been received.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) today commended the mediation efforts of the President João Lourenço of Angola, which led to the convening of the Luanda summit yesterday with the Presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. The UN Mission welcomes the commitments made by the two presidents to de-escalate the situation.
The UN stands ready to support the implementation of the roadmap agreed by the Heads of State.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) today said that 23 violations and abuses of human rights impacted 42 victims have been documented just in the past two weeks, mostly in the prefectures of Ouham, Mambere-Kadai and Ouaka. State actors were found to be responsible for 59 per cent of those incidents. Alleged incidents impacting another 36 victims are still under investigation.
The Mission is providing technical and financial support to protect civic space and human rights as well as helping establish a national mechanism to combat torture and other cruel and degrading treatment.
The Mission has also successfully advocated for the release of 11 people illegally detained for more than a year at Camp de Roux prison in Bangui.
On the security front, the situation is reported to be relatively calm but remains fragile in the east and the centre of the country. MINUSCA is conducting robust patrols by air and land, despite extremely degraded road conditions, and has reinforced its presence in Dimbi, where peacekeepers recently repelled an attack by armed groups to protect hundreds of civilians.
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
The UN team in Côte d’Ivoire, led by the Resident Coordinator Philippe Poinsot, is helping with the COVID-19 pandemic response. The team is supporting mobile immunization initiatives and contributing to campaigns to tackle misinformation.
The UN team also continues to ensure the provision of other health services, including malaria prevention, and the provision of 18 million mosquito nets to more than 6 million households.
On the socio-economic front, the UN team has supported the construction of more than 100 classrooms from recycled plastic bricks, which impacted 5,000 children. The UN team has also provided 800,000 tons of seeds to 10,000 producers to boost rice production while contributing to the installation of five solar irrigation systems to combat the lack of water during the dry season.
POVERTY
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) today launched a report which says that 71 million people in the developing world have fallen into poverty in just three months as a direct consequence of global food and energy price surges.
UNDP said the impact on poverty rates is drastically faster than the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Price spikes in key commodities are already having immediate and devastating impacts on the poorest households, with clear hotspots in the Balkans, countries in the Caspian Sea region and Sub-Saharan Africa and in particular the Sahel region.
The report zooms in on the insights provided by the two briefs of the UN Secretary-General Global Crisis Response Group on the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine.
EDUCATION
A staggering 84 million children risk missing out on getting an education between now and 2030, the The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned today in a new report.
According to the report, only one in six countries is on track to meet crucial development goals that include decent education for all by 2030.
On the pledge to secondary school access made by all 193 UN Member States, UNESCO said that only one in six countries was on course to achieve this by the end of the decade.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Today on the margins of the High-Level Political Forum, the UN will launch new guidelines to help countries make sure human rights is an integral part of their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The guidance note called “Human Rights and Voluntary National Reviews” has been developed as part of the Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights. It has been drafted with contributions from across the UN system, led by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
KISWAHILI
Today is first Kiswahili Language Day. With more than 200 million speakers, Kiswahili is one of the most widely used languages of African origin, and the most widely spoken language in sub-Saharan Africa.
Kiswahili has been a catalyst in the promotion of many UN priorities including the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the African Union 2063 development agenda. At the UN, there are a Kiswahili News website and social media platforms serving those language audiences and Diaspora audiences.
***The guests at the Noon Briefing were the Under-Secretary-General and head of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Liu Zhenmin, the Statistics Director Stefan Schweinfest, and SDG Monitoring Chief Yongyi Min. They spoke with reporters on the launch of The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022.
