HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
FRIDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2023
SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Secretary-General will be leaving New York on Sunday to attend a number of multilateral summits.
He will head to Nairobi to attend the Africa Climate Summit, which is being hosted by Kenya and the African Union. He will speak there on 5 September, at the opening of the Summit as well as on a panel on the “New Global Climate Finance Architecture.” He will stress the need to invest in the African continent – which accounts for only 4 per cent of global emissions - so it can have access to renewable energy. While in Kenya, the Secretary-General is also expected to have a series of bilateral meetings, including with President William Ruto.
He will then go on to Jakarta, in Indonesia, to attend the thirteenth ASEAN-UN summit and from there he will go to New Delhi, [India], to attend the G20 Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will be meeting with leaders on the margins of both these meetings and will be holding press conferences at all the stops. He will come back to New York on 11 September, and then later that week, he will head to Cuba for the G77 + China meeting.
CLIMATE
This morning, the Secretary-General, in a video message, addressed the African Youth Climate Assembly that is being held in Nairobi.
He told young people that their passion and determination is responsible for much of the climate action we have seen around the world. He asked them to keep pushing leaders from developed nations to deliver climate justice. “Turn up the volume in calling for change, mobilize your friends, mobilize your colleagues, and networks, and use this Assembly to make connections, and make your voices heard,” he said.
He added that the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, which starts on Monday, he will also be urging all leaders to act.
And on a related note, our friends at the UN Children’s Fund today released a report which says that children in 48 African countries are at high or extremely high risk of the impacts of climate change. The report assesses countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services. More online.
SOUTH AFRICA
In a statement issued last night, the Secretary-General expressed his deep sadness at the news of the fire in Johannesburg yesterday that reportedly killed 70 people.
In this moment of great sadness and grief, Mr. Guterres conveys his sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of South Africa.
The United Nations Country Team in South Africa stands ready to work with the authorities to provide assistance to those affected and to prevent further incidents of this nature.
MALI
In Mali, the World Food Programme and UNICEF said today that armed conflict, internal displacement, and restricted humanitarian access risks pushing nearly one million children under the age of 5 into acute malnutrition by the end of the year, with at least 200,000 people at risk of dying of hunger if they cannot receive assistance.
They added that almost a quarter of Mali's population suffers from moderate or acute food insecurity, and that, for the first time ever in the country, over 2,500 people are at risk of famine in the region of Ménaka.
UNICEF and WFP urgently appeal for US $184.4 million to reach 8.8 million people this year, including 4.7 million children. Funding will be essential to provide emergency food assistance to vulnerable populations and support medical services, including fuel to keep vaccines cold and to buy more humanitarian supplies, such as life-saving treatments for children with malnutrition.
UKRAINE
In Ukraine, the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to support civilians fleeing the fighting in the Kupiansk District in the eastern Kharkiv Region.
Local volunteer groups and NGOs are assisting people seeking safety from 50 of the 270 villages and towns in the Kupiansk District. The national authorities announced an evacuation of this area in early August.
Most of the people arrive in Kharkiv with very few or no personal belongings. They urgently need shelter, food, hygiene and household items.
UN agencies, national and international non-governmental organizations are meeting them at arrival points and in collective centres to provide food, cash assistance, and basic supplies, and other services.
Since the beginning of August, the humanitarian community has delivered 65 tons of food, medical supplies, emergency shelter materials, hygiene products and other relief items to people remaining in the Kupiansk District through two inter-agency convoys.
This is in addition to the regular humanitarian response in the Kharkiv Region, where some 900,000 people have received aid so far this year.
RESIDENT COORDINATOR / KUWAIT
The Secretary-General has appointed Ghada Hatim Eltahir Mudawi of Sudan as the UN Resident Coordinator in Kuwait, and that comes following the confirmation by the Host Government.
With more than 25 years of experience in humanitarian and development affairs, Ms. Eltahir’s appointment reinforces the commitment towards gender parity, already achieved at the Resident Coordinator network.
HAITI
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, called for an end to the carnage in that country, where escalating violence has killed and injured more than 70 people in Port-au-Prince just in the last two weeks.
More than 10,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks alone and have sought refuge in more than 20 spontaneous sites or with host families.
So far this year, more than 2,500 people have been killed and almost 1,000 have been injured.
Despite these challenges, humanitarian partners have responded and continue to provide hygiene and dignity kits, hot meals and water. Mobile clinics have also been deployed to ten sites in Haiti so far.
Psychosocial and medical support and emergency accommodation has been provided to nearly 500 people at risk of Gender Based Violence and more than 1,200 women and girls have received sexual and reproductive health services.
The humanitarian community calls on all parties to put an immediate stop to the violence, to allow for safe access in all parts of the country and respect human rights, humanitarian norms and standards.
Nearly half of Haiti's population needs humanitarian help. The $720 million Humanitarian appeal fund for Haiti is only 26 per cent funded.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Eswatini, Malawi and Sri Lanka have made their full payments to the regular budget. We now have a 133 fully paid-up nations.
BRIEFING ON TUESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER
On Tuesday, Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy in OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), and Gabriella Waaijman, the Humanitarian Director of Save the Children will brief reporters on their latest mission with the humanitarian Emergency Directors’ Group to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
