Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen of the media.

This conference has fully met my expectations in relation to the solidarity with the people of Afghanistan.

First of all, because of the massive level of participation, meaning that this is a matter that today mobilizes the interest not only of governments around the world, but of international organizations and civil society.

We have 156 participants, of which 96 are Member States and half of them speaking at the ministerial level.

We have 33 international and regional organizations and 22 international NGOs. It is a level of participation that shows how much this is a crucial issue at the present moment for the international community.

Second, it fully met my expectations because there was a unanimous support to the recognition that this is the moment to mobilize the international community to provide effective humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, a moment in which the Afghan people is suffering an enormous, a dramatic humanitarian situation.

And not only this was recognized by all the interventions, but so was the idea that humanitarian aid needs to be provided safely, needs to be provided in full respect of humanitarian principles - impartiality, neutrality, independence, needs based – and at the same time, with a particular concern in relation to the participation of women and girls, and the rights of women and girls, in the context of the program of support and assistance to the Afghan people.

And third, because there was an extremely meaningful announcement of new commitments, of new financial commitments.

It is not possible to give you a figure about what was the amount - not all have spoken - and what was the amount specifically for the flash appeal. But considering the flash appeal, considering the support to neighboring countries and other programmes that several countries mentioned, today we already heard clearly more than 1 billion US dollars of pledges. It is impossible, as I said, to say how much of these will be for the flash appeal; but in any case, it represents a quantum leap in relation to the financial commitment of the international community towards the Afghan people.

But this conference is not an isolated act. This conference is a clear strategy of the United Nations to respond to the crisis in Afghanistan, and in particular to assume leadership in relation to humanitarian assistance.

I have to say that when I saw the tragic events that we all witnessed - the mass exodus, the chaos at the airport, the situation of panic that was shown by all televisions around the world, and even the pressure for many of our staff because they are seeing everybody leaving and expressing their own concerns, I decided that the UN should stay and deliver, with all the difficulties and all the unpredictable aspects of the future; that the UN should stay and deliver, and that it should use its traditional presence in Afghanistan - we are there since ‘47 and we were there in all moments, even during the other Taliban regime; that the UN should use its traditional presence in Afghanistan and its added value in humanitarian assistance to make humanitarian assistance the main factor of our intervention at the present moment.

To do so, we organized a programme of actions that we are implementing at the present moment.

First, it is impossible to provide humanitarian assistance inside Afghanistan without engaging with the de facto authorities of the country. And I do believe that it is very important to engage with the Taliban at the present moment for all aspects that concern the international community, be it about terrorism, be it about human rights, be it about drugs, be it about the nature of the government; our attitude is to engage.

And so, Martin Griffiths went to Kabul. If we can say that an Under-Secretary-General, in protocol terms, is equivalent to a minister, it was the first visit to Kabul to meet the Taliban leadership at that level.

And he went there clearly to establish the conditions for effective humanitarian assistance by the UN in Afghanistan, and for the guarantee that this could be done with the full cooperation of the Taliban, and with them taking fully into account our own concerns.

It is important to say that Martin Griffiths, beyond the discussions he had, received a letter in which - together with another received today - the Taliban have committed not only to guarantee our access to the whole territory, but also to provide security to UN convoys and reaching insecure areas; and so our main concern with the security of our staff was taken into account. They made some encouraging statements in relation to the important questions for us, which are the participation of women, in work in general and in humanitarian work in particular, and the right of girls in all areas, all levels of education - not to mention a number of other issues that are related, naturally, to the safety of our staff, to guarantee that our premises would be protected, and to another group of important questions.

Obviously, these commitments are commitments made; we will now have to see what happens on the ground. We know the situation is very complex. We know that in different parts of Afghanistan, there are different approaches to the most distinct areas, and we are, of course, very much concerned in making sure that humanitarian assistance is an entry point for an effective engagement with the Taliban in all other aspects of concern of the international community.

I was also very happy to see that the whole UN family came together, the whole one family came together for the preparation of our flash appeal - came together in assuming exactly the same strategy in relation to Afghanistan. Today, Filippo Grandi is in Kabul. Several other agencies will be going to Kabul to make sure that in their specific areas, we implement the different aspects that we have discussed during the visit of Martin Griffiths. And so there is a strong commitment of the UN to deliver, to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan, but at the same time to fully engage with the Taliban in relation to all the matters of concern that I have expressed several times.

But there is another observation I would like to make. Humanitarian aid will not solve the problem if the economy of Afghanistan collapses.

And we know that the risk is enormous, and that there is a dramatic lack of cash. We cannot even operate if the banks are not operating, even to pay the salaries to our staff. So, knowing that there are a number of complex questions in relation to these, knowing that different institutions have different obligations according to distinct aspects coming from past resolutions and things of the sort, my appeal to the international community is to find ways to allow for an injection of cash in the Afghan economy - allowing the economy to breathe and avoiding a collapse that would have devastating consequences for the people of Afghanistan, and possibly trigger a massive exodus with the consequences that you can imagine, in relation to the stability of the countries in the region. So, understanding all the problems and all the questions that many countries and institutions have raised, my appeal is for mechanisms to be found to make sure that we do not let the economy of Afghanistan collapse.