Noon briefing of 25 February 2020

The Secretary-General is on his way back from Geneva.
This morning, he called on the international community to face up to the devastating and complex issue of internal displacement as he opened the inaugural meeting of a new High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement.
The Secretary-General said it is unacceptable that millions of people are so brutally dislocated from their home and then linger without solutions for years. Being displaced should not be an interminable problem, he said.
The Secretary-General expressed confidence that the High-Level Panel will bring fresh ideas to prevent forced displacement, better protect and assist displaced people and identify swifter solutions to displacement.
The Secretary-General also met with young people at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, as part of the global conversation on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General is in Zimbabwe today. She spoke at the sixth Session of the African Regional Forum for Sustainable Development. She said that 2020 is an opportunity for all of us to chart a different course and to kickstart a Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals.
As we begin this exciting decade, she said, it is vital that we recognize the progress being made in Africa on multiple fronts. She said that Africa continues to have some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and growth is projected to remain stable in 2020. And the proportion of people living in poverty in Africa is declining -- from 34.5 per cent in 2015 to 32.5 per cent in 2019.
The Deputy Secretary-General said that in Africa - as elsewhere – we need to accelerate the pace and scale of our collective action.

HOSNI MUBARAK
The Secretary-General has written, to offer his condolences to the Government of Egypt and to the family of the former President Hosni Mubarak, following his death that was announced today.
The Secretary-General, in a letter, wrote that President Mubarak played an important role in diplomatic efforts throughout the Middle East, including in promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians and supporting the endeavours by the League of Arab States to end conflict in the region.
The Secretary-General reaffirmed the commitment of the UN to continue working alongside the Government and people of Egypt in advancing the country’s democratic development, respect for human rights, and economic prosperity for the benefit of all Egyptians.

SYRIA
The UN remains alarmed about the safety and protection of over three million civilians in Idlib and surrounding areas in Syria, as reports of airstrikes and shelling continue to take a heavy toll on the civilian population.
Reports indicate continued hostilities in many parts of northwest Syria, with airstrikes in at least 24 communities and shelling in 20 communities in the last 24 hours. Two civilians were reportedly killed and six others reportedly injured in the overnight fighting.
The latest estimates suggest that some 948,000 people have been displaced in northwest Syria since 1 December, that’s an increase of some 73,000 from the previous week.
Yesterday, the UN launched the revised Humanitarian Readiness and Response Plan for northwest Syria. The plan has been updated in response to the surge of needs of the people on the ground. It aims to reach at least 1.1 million people in need with humanitarian assistance, at a total cost of $500 million.
At the same time, the UN continues to seek improved access to people in need, including in conflict-affected areas. Discussions are underway with Turkey to increase the capacity of aid crossing at the border from 50 trucks a day to 100 trucks. The UN is also organizing assessment missions from within Syria to identify the needs of civilians that remain in former frontline areas.

YEMEN
The Office of Martin Griffiths, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, is hosting a consultative meeting with a group of Yemeni public and political figures in Amman, Jordan, on 26-27 February 2020. That’s tomorrow and Thursday.
The meeting brings together a diverse group of Yemeni stakeholders, both men and women, including members of some political parties and independent public figures. Discussions will focus on approaches to resume the official peace talks under the auspices of the United Nations.
Participants will further engage in a constructive dialogue about ways to ensure that the peace process is inclusive and capable of bringing sustainable peace to Yemen.

LOCUSTS
The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Executive Director of World Food Programme, today called for increased funding to tackle the swarms of locusts.
On 20 January, FAO called for $76 million to help combat this pest, but the resources to control the outbreak have been too slow in coming.
The officials said that since then, that the locusts continue their invasion throughout eastern Africa, the cost of action has doubled, to $138 million. WFP warned that the cost of responding to the impact of locusts on food security alone will be at least 15 times higher than the cost of preventing the spread now.
To date, $33 million has been received or committed.

SOMALIA
James Swan, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the country, told members of the Security Council yesterday that 2020 had the potential to be a transformative year for Somalia.
He warned that while technical advances across political, security, economic and humanitarian agendas have continued, these gains will quickly reach their limits without the necessary political agreements.
The Special Representative also said that the worst locust outbreak Somalia has experienced in 25 years is adding to extreme humanitarian challenges faced by the country’s most vulnerable.
Mr. Swan concluded by saying he looks forward to Somalia’s leaders to take the bold steps necessary to enable progress in this critical year.

BURKINA FASO
In Burkina Faso, almost 300,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since last December. As of today, a total of nearly 766,000 people have been displaced.
More than half of those displaced inside the country – or 56 per cent – have no adequate shelter or no shelter at all.
This month, $ 10 million was allocated from the Central Emergency Fund for Burkina Faso to provide shelter, water and sanitation, protection and health services.
However, the UN and humanitarian partners are targeting 1.8 million people this year and are requesting $ 312 million.

SDG ADVOCATES
In Norway today, Prime Minister Erna Solberg will gather a group of the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocates and UN representatives on the Norwegian Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard to witness a new seed deposit to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
The seed vault aims to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds that are duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. It is also an attempt to ensure against the loss of seeds in other gene banks during large-scale regional or global crises.
Ms. Solberg will be joined by her co-chair of the Secretary-General’s SDG advocacy group, President Akufo-Addo of Ghana, as well as by Agnes Kalibata, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit.
The Prime Minister and her guests will have meetings relating to sustainable development and issue an call to action on food security, preservation of genetic diversity and combatting climate change in support of the Decade of Action to Deliver the Sustainable Development Goals.

POSTAL UNION
The Universal Postal Union (UPU) today welcomed the resumption of international postal exchanges between Qatar and Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Post will be transiting through Oman between these destinations.
The agreement follows a 29 January meeting at UPU’s headquarters in Berne, Switzerland between representatives of the countries and the UPU Director General, Bishar A. Hussein.

HONOUR ROLL
Turkey has now paid its budget dues in full bringing the Honour Roll up to 54.