HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC​,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
THURSDAY, 22 DECEMBER 2022

UKRAINE
Starting off with a note from Ukraine from our humanitarian colleagues on the ground who tell us that parts of the Kyiv only have power supplies for only 3-5 hours per day. This is impacting water and heating systems, as well as disrupting basic services.
To meet the growing needs for heat and power amid the energy crisis, our partners are delivering generators to hospitals, schools, heating points and collective centres. Some 770 generators have been delivered or are being installed.
This includes, as of early December, more than 330 generators that our partners had provided to health facilities across Ukraine, mainly in eastern Kharkivska, northern Kyivska and Chernihivska oblasts. Additional generators have either been ordered or are on their way to delivery.

AFGHANISTAN
Turning to Afghanistan, the World Health Organization today said Afghanistan has vaccinated 5.36 million Afghan children aged 9–59 months against measles. This is part of a nationwide vaccination campaign supported by WHO and the UN Children’s Fund, that was held from 26 November to 12 December. 6.1 million children aged 0-59 months have also received oral polio vaccines and they have hit every province in Afghanistan.
WHO notes that in 2022, many measles outbreaks were reported in the country. As of November of this year, Afghanistan has confirmed 5,484 measles cases with approximately 300 deaths attributed to measles infection. 
I also want to highlight some of the work other UN agencies have been doing to support women and girls in Afghanistan. 
Our colleagues at the World Food Programme tell us that this year, they have supported nearly 12 million women and girls through activities to prevent and treat malnutrition. Over 1.7 million were pregnant or lactating women.
WFP also offered school feeding for 400,000 girls. Under the Spotlight Initiative, backed by the European Union and the UN, several entities, including UN Women, UNICEF, the UN Development Programme and the [UN Population Fund], provided essential services to 30,000 women in safe spaces designed for women and girls. 
The initiatives also enabled an emergency hotline that helped almost 117,000 women, girls, and youth, and nearly 27,000 women received reproductive health services in three priority provinces.
For its part, UNESCO, the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, provided basic general literacy programmes to 25,000 youth and adults, half of them girls and women.  Also in 2022, UNICEF reached 300,000 children - half of them girls - through 20,000 community-based classes. And 90,000 women and girls have accessed nearly 100 UNICEF-supported safe spaces for girls and women across 16 provinces where they receive psychosocial support and referrals to other basic services.  

SOUTH SUDAN
Turning to South Sudan, today Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, allocated $14 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund, also known as CERF, to support people impacted by the increased violence and severe flooding. 
These funds will support direct humanitarian assistance to more than 260,000 people, and our partners will be able to scale up existing cash programmes, protection, health, education, water and sanitation, as well as hygiene activities. 
In 2023, 9.4 million of the most vulnerable people in South Sudan will need urgent assistance and protection - that is up from 8.9 million last year.   

HAITI
The Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, spoke to Council members yesterday afternoon on Haiti. She stressed that it is time to step up and turn the current crisis into an opportunity for Haiti and its people to bounce back stronger. She urged every country with the capacity to do so to give urgent consideration to the Haitian Government’s request for an international specialized armed force to help restore security and alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative Helen La Lime briefed via videoconference. She described how insecurity and violence have surged in the country this year including kidnappings, killings and rapes. She also said the economic situation is catastrophic and that cholera cases have reached 15,000 throughout the country. She added that the Mission continues its efforts to advance political dialogue through the National Consensus document.

UNDOF
Also this morning, I just want to note the Security Council adopted a draft resolution to renew the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force, UNDOF, for a period of six months, until June 30, 2023. That was adopted unanimously.

SOUTH AFRICA
Quick update from South Africa, where our team, led by Resident Coordinator Nelson Muffuh, is working with authorities to respond to the recent measles outbreak. As of this Tuesday, there were 245 confirmed cases, almost 75 per cent of them children under the age of nine. Through funding from the Governments of Germany and Japan, UNICEF is supporting the procurement of cold chain equipment that will benefit approximately 2,000 health facilities. Training for healthcare professionals is scheduled to kick off early next year. For its part, the World Health Organization has teams in each of the affected provinces and is developing provincial plans and providing training on measles vaccination and outbreak preparedness.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
I want to flag an important report regarding the Latin America and the Caribbean. The International Labour Organization said 34.5 per cent of people over 65 years old in Latin America and the Caribbean have no income.
The new "Social Protection Overview" for the region focuses on pension systems and finds that improvements in coverage, sufficiency and sustainability are essential to provide economic security, particularly to those people most affected by crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The International Labour Organization said the proportion of older people without labour income or pension increased from 31.9 per cent in 2019 to 34.6 per cent in 2020 and 34.5 per cent in 2021.

BRIEFINGS
This is the last briefing we will have this year. We will not brief tomorrow and we will not be brief Tuesday through Friday next week. We will, however, have people in the office.  I also want to do a little shout out to our colleagues in C2C which is a transcription company, which has been transcribing briefings and making sure we get transcripts quickly and most important accurately. They unfortunately, won’t be doing the service, we will have someone else starting in January. But we want to thank Jennifer Bonfilio and her team for their work.