HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,
DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
WEDNESDAY, 27 APRIL 2022

 

SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVELS 
The Secretary-General was traveling this morning from Poland to Ukraine, and he has recently arrived in Kyiv.  Tomorrow, he will meet there with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and we expect him to speak to the press, as well. 
Yesterday evening, upon his arrival in Rzeszów, Poland, on his way to Ukraine, the Secretary-General was received by the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda.  
The Secretary-General expressed his deep appreciation and gratitude to the President for the generosity of the Polish people, for the manner in which they opened their homes and their hearts to almost two million Ukrainian refugees. The Secretary-General also briefed the President on his meetings in Moscow and Ankara.  
Yesterday afternoon, we also shared a readout of the Secretary-General’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation. 
During the tête-a-tête meeting, the Secretary-General reiterated the United Nations’ position on Ukraine, and they discussed the proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol.  The President agreed, in principle, to the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.

CLIMATE 
Today, the Secretary-General addressed, in a video message, the first meeting of his High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Emission Commitments of Non-State Entities. He told them that it is essential that we ensure the credibility and environmental integrity of net zero pledges. 
“We need to ensure net-zero commitments are ambitious and credible, and that they align with the highest standards of environmental integrity and transparency,” he said. 
He also asked the group to work in an inclusive and open manner, adding that the best protection against any accusation of “special interests” will be the full transparency of the group’s consultations and process.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL/SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 
This morning, the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed spoke at a meeting of the members of the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 
Ms. Mohammed noted that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to violently derail progress made in achieving the 2030 Agenda, while more than 100 million additional people were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020, dramatically reversing a two-decade long decreasing trend.  
She said that slow progress towards gender equality has been pushed back, and now the war in Ukraine is having a severe impact on a world economy already battered by the pandemic, and the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.  
To rescue the Sustainable Development Goals, the Deputy Secretary-General said we will need to accelerate implementation on all fronts, including by massively scaling up financing. Although Official Development Assistance rose to its highest level in 2021, it is not enough to make up for skyrocketing food and energy prices, and debt servicing payments.

SECURITY COUNCIL 
This morning, the Security Council heard a briefing by Huang Xia, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region.  
He told Council members that while the past months have been characterized by encouraging dynamics of dialogue, cooperation and by a willingness to address the root causes of instability in the region, the security and humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been aggravated by the resurgence of the armed group M23. It is also regrettable, he said, that the Allied Democratic Forces and other armed groups continue to commit atrocities against civilians.
Mr. Xia said that peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo remains extremely fragile. He called for increased security cooperation in the region. He also reiterated the importance of ensuring a direct and ongoing dialogue at the highest level between the leaders of the region. Finally, he called for continued support from the international community.

SYRIA 
Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, briefed the Security Council yesterday afternoon.  He told Council members that Syria is a hot conflict, not a frozen one. He said that the current strategic stalemate on the ground and Syria’s absence from the headlines should not mislead anyone into thinking that the conflict needs less attention or fewer resources, or that a political solution is not urgent. 
Joyce Msuya, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, added that a staggering 4.1 million people in north-west Syria need humanitarian aid. Almost a million people are living in tents, half of which are beyond their normal lifespan, she said. 
She told the Council that the renewal of the UN cross-border authorization in July remains essential to save lives in north-west Syria.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 
The UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that the government is currently hosting a week-long regional Forum in Bangui to raise awareness and build digital media capacities to prevent conflicts related to hate speech in Central Africa.  
The Forum is organized by the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), with the support of the UN peacekeeping mission and other partners.

HORN OF AFRICA
Yesterday, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that donors pledged nearly $1.4 billion to respond to the drought in the Horn of Africa – the worst in the region in four decades – that has left more than 15 million people severely food insecure in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
These pledges, which will cover the next six months, were made at a high-level meeting in Geneva, co-hosted by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. Senior representatives from the Governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia also took part.
Of the $1.4 billion pledged, some $1 billion will go towards immediate and life-saving aid, such as food, nutrition, water and sanitation, cash and health assistance, as well as feed and medicines to keep livestock alive.
The remaining pledges will go towards development support to the three drought-affected countries.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said, “once again, vulnerable people across the Horn of Africa are falling victim to the cruelty of acute hunger and potential famine in a crisis that is not of their own making.

CARIBBEAN 
An estimated 2.8 million people - or nearly 40 percent of the population in the English-speaking Caribbean - is food insecure, which is one million more than in April 2020.  That’s according to the results of a recent survey conducted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the World Food Programme (WFP).  
The survey says that severe food insecurity continues to increase in the region, with the current figure 72 per cent higher when compared to April 2020. 
Highlighting the lasting impact of the pandemic, the results demonstrate deteriorating food consumption and diets, with 25 per cent of respondents eating less preferred foods, 30 per cent skipping meals or eating less than usual and 5 per cent going an entire day without eating in the week leading up to the survey.

RESIDENT COORDINATORS 
Khaled El Mekwad of Egypt assumed the role of Resident Coordinator in Bahrain on April 16th, and in Guinea-Bissau, Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah of Ghana began leading our team on the ground on April 18th. 
Their full biographies are online.

UNESCO/GUILLERMO CANO WORLD PRESS FREEDOM PRIZE 
The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has been named as the laureate of the 2022 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, following the recommendation of the International Jury of media professionals.  
Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, noted that for twenty-five years, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize has been calling the world’s attention to the bravery of journalists around the world who sacrifice so much in the pursuit of truth and accountability. Once again, she said, we are inspired by their example and reminded of the importance of ensuring the right of journalists everywhere to report freely and safely. 
The Award Ceremony will take place on 2 May in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day Global Conference, and it will be streamed online.

LAND DEGRADATION 
A new report by our colleagues at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification says that up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, threatening roughly half of the global GDP – that’s $44 trillion. 
The report warns that if business as usual continues through 2050, there could be an additional degradation of an area almost the size of South America. 
The report also makes recommendations for decision makers on ways to invest in land restoration, climate change mitigation and poverty reduction. The report is being released ahead of the 15th session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification which will be held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire from 9-20 May.

MEASLES 
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today said that worldwide measles cases increased by 79 per cent in the first two months of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021. WHO and UNICEF warned that this is a worrying sign of a heightened risk for the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and could trigger larger outbreaks, particularly of measles affecting millions of children in 2022.  
The two UN agencies noted that pandemic-related disruptions, increasing inequalities in access to vaccines, and the diversion of resources from routine immunization are leaving too many children without protection against measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.  
As of April 2022, the agencies report 21 large and disruptive measles outbreaks around the world in the last 12 months. Most of the measles cases were reported in Africa and the East Mediterranean region. WHO and UNICEF noted that the figures are likely higher as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted surveillance systems globally, with potential underreporting.

MYANMAR
The United Nations reiterates the Secretary-General’s condemnation of the military takeover on 1 February 2021, and repeats the call for an immediate end to violence and repression, for the respect for human rights, and for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Myanmar.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the principles of equality before the law, the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, and all the guarantees necessary for a person’s defense.

NOON BRIEFING GUESTS TOMORROW 
Tomorrow, my guests will be Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic, Veronika Remisova, along with the President of the UN Habitat Assembly, Martha Delgado, and UN-Habitat Executive Director, Maimunah Mohd Sharif. They will be here to discuss tomorrow’s General Assembly High-level meeting on the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS 
Botswana, Jamaica and Uzbekistan have now paid their regular budget dues. There are now 91 fully paid-up Member States.