Noon briefing of 8 June 2022

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE U.N. SYSTEM

WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022

GLOBAL CRISIS RESPONSE GROUP ON FOOD, ENERGY AND FINANCE

Speaking at the launch of the second brief of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, the Secretary-General said that today’s report makes clear that the war’s impact on food security, energy and finance is systemic, severe, and speeding up. It is also amplifying the consequences of the many other crises the world faces, he added.
Three months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we face a new reality, Mr. Guterres said. For those on the ground, every day brings new bloodshed and suffering. And for people around the world, the war, together with the other crises, is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake.
Vulnerable people and vulnerable countries are already being hit hard but make no mistake, the Secretary-General added, no country or community will be left untouched by this cost-of-living crisis.

Mr. Guterres said that the only one way to stop this gathering storm in its tracks is to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But until that happens, he said, we need immediate action on two fronts. We need to bring stability to global food and energy markets to break the vicious cycle of rising prices and bring relief to developing countries. And we need to make resources available immediately to help the poorest countries and communities.
The report was launched with Rebeca Grynspan, the Head of UNCTAD, the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
The report is available online at this address: https://news.un.org/pages/global-crisis-response-group/

SECRETARY-GENERAL’S TRAVEL

The Secretary-General will travel to Los Angeles, California, today to attend the Summit of the Americas, where he will attend the Leaders' Plenary Session and Leaders' Dinner on 9 June. The Secretary-General will return to New York on Friday.

UN GLOBAL COUNTER-TERRORISM COORDINATION COMPACT

Speaking at the 8th meeting of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, the Secretary-General said that while the overall number of deaths from terrorism has declined, the threat remains.

The threat to Africa — in particular — is in fact increasing, he added, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for 48 per cent of deaths attributed to terrorist groups globally last year.

These groups are exploiting power vacuums, longstanding inter-ethnic strife, internal weaknesses and state fragilities, Mr. Guterres said. But despite the challenges, he expressed his conviction that progress is possible.

Taking an integrated and holistic approach is an essential part of the UN’s Counter Terrorism Strategy, the Secretary-General said. It means investing in health, education, protection, gender equality and justice systems accessible to all.

It also means creating truly democratic systems and processes, so every person can have a voice in the future of their communities and countries — and it means placing human rights and rule of law as the foundation of our work.

SECURITY COUNCIL

The Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Martha Pobee, briefed the Security Council on the situation in Central Africa. She first paid tribute to François Louncény Fall, whose mandate as Special Representative for the Secretary-General ended last week.

She said that some countries in the sub-region continue to face political and security issues and highlighted the importance of regional approaches to address these challenges.

Addressing the situation in Cameroon, she called on the international community to step up support to national efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict in line with the conclusions of the Major National Dialogue and international standards.

Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ms. Pobee said she remains concerned by the activity of all armed groups in the eastern part of the country. In particular, Ms. Pobee expressed her concern about the heinous attacks on civilians by the ADF and CODECO, and attacks by the M23 movement on Congolese security forces and MONUSCO. She said these attacks are exacerbating humanitarian crises, harming bilateral relations at different levels, and contributing to the spread of hate speech.

She welcomed the timely mediation role of President João Lourenço of Angola and also reiterated the Secretary-General’s call to all armed groups to disarm and join the political process of the Nairobi Conclave. She also encouraged all countries of the region to take steps conducive to peace, and to maintain dialogue with a view to avoiding any further escalation of tensions.

Central Africa also remains one of the regions in the world most severely affected by climate change, Ms. Pobee said, adding that this continues to compound peace and security challenges in the sub-region. The UN office for Central Africa, in close collaboration with the Climate Security Mechanism, is issuing a report on the negative impact of climate change on peace and security in Central Africa, which provides recommendations to regional stakeholders on how to better prevent, mitigate and manage security risks linked to climate change, under the leadership of ECCAS.

UKRAINE

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) today said that it is working with Uber Technologies Inc, a global mobility and delivery platform, to transport emergency assistance to people in need in urban areas across Ukraine through the use of a custom-built version of Uber’s platform. With larger vehicles facing issues reaching those in need in built-up areas, collaboration with Uber allows WFP to better coordinate, dispatch and track a fleet of smaller vehicles delivering relief items from warehouses to people in need in densely populated areas of Ukraine.

WFP said that through this platform, it can get its food closer to those people needing its support, dispatching deliveries in various sizes of vehicle, tracking each trip to its destination, and confirming deliveries have been made safely.

Through this collaboration, WFP said that it has already delivered food from its warehouse in Dnipro to other parts of the city, ready for distribution. Further deliveries are also ongoing in other parts of the country, including Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Chernivtsi.

WORLD OCEANS DAY

Today is World Oceans Day. In a message, the Secretary-General notes that last month, the World Meteorological Organization revealed that four key climate indicators broke new records in 2021: sea level rise; ocean heat; ocean acidification; and greenhouse gas concentrations. He stressed that it is clear that the triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are threatening the health of our oceans, on which we all ultimately depend.

The Secretary-General emphasized that it is time to realize that, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change, we urgently need collective action to revitalize the ocean. He noted that later this month, the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon will focus on scaling up action based on science and innovation for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 14, and discussions will continue on a new agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The Secretary-General stressed that ensuring a healthy and productive ocean is our collective responsibility and urged all those with a stake in ocean health to come together to revitalize our seas and oceans.