{"id":241872,"date":"2020-11-09T22:36:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T03:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=241872"},"modified":"2020-11-17T22:40:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T03:40:37","slug":"unrwas-financial-problems-9-november-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unrwas-financial-problems-9-november-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"UNRWA’s Financial Problems \u2013 9 November 2020 Daily Press Briefing \u2013 (Excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
9 NOVEMBER 2020<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees<\/u><\/p>\n

A distressing announcement from our colleagues at UNRWA:\u00a0\u00a0The Commissioner General for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees\u00a0(UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, announced that the Agency has run out of money as of today to pay for the salaries of 28,000\u00a0UNRWA staff for November.\u00a0 The Agency needs to raise $70\u00a0million by the end of the month if it is to pay full salaries for the months of November and December.\u00a0 Mr.\u00a0Lazzarini said if additional funding is not pledged in the next weeks, UNRWA will be forced to defer partial salaries to all staff.\u00a0 Over the last five years, UNRWA cut $500\u00a0million out of its budget by enacting efficiency and cost\u2011reduction measures. \u00a0This has included cutting staff, stopping needed repairs and investments in its infrastructure, increasing classroom size to 50\u00a0students per teacher, and reducing life\u2011saving humanitarian assistance at a time of rising needs.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Questions and Answers<\/u><\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>: …On UNRWA first, does the Secretary\u2011General plan to reach out himself and try and spur this $70 million fundraising campaign?<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>: …On your first question, on UNRWA, the Secretary\u2011General has been a big advocate of the stabilizing presence of UNRWA and the work that it does. \u00a0He will continue to advocate for them and advocate in a way that will hopefully lead to money coming into the agency very quickly. \u00a0As you\u2019ll recall, he personally chaired a number of fundraising conferences for UNRWA, and he will continue to advocate for them.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 I have a follow\u2011up on the issue of UNRWA. \u00a0So, you said\u2026 you talked about the position of the Secretary\u2011General, but you didn\u2019t name exact steps that he is willing or wishing to take to help and\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I mean, what he\u2019s willing to do is reach out to Member States as much as he needs to, to try to get money for them. \u00a0I mean, the steps are pretty simple. \u00a0UNRWA needs cash, and we don\u2019t print money. \u00a0So, we need to\u2026 and Philippe Lazzarini and his team are working with the donors, with Member States, and the Secretary\u2011General will fully support them in any way he can.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 And another question on UNRWA and its funding. \u00a0Salaries will not be paid. \u00a0What then potentially is the impact on Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip? \u00a0And how could it impact basic services for them?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Well, what we\u2019re said\u2026 I think Mr.\u00a0Lazzarini said, if the money doesn\u2019t come in, they will go to partial salaries. \u00a0So, they would not see zero out. \u00a0That will have an impact on Palestinians in the sense\u2026 because the vast majority of UNRWA staff are local staff. \u00a0So, if\u2026 that will cut into the money that\u2019s flowing into society. \u00a0Obviously, there\u2019s no talk at this point of cutting services because some of it has already been cut, but a further cut of educational, health services, socio\u2011services could have a devastating impact on Palestinian society.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 You may have already answered this. \u00a0What is the reason why the funds to UNRWA have been cut in half, you said? \u00a0Who or what is contributing less and why?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Well, I mean, why people contribute less, I think you have to ask them. \u00a0We saw a number of Governments eliminate or drastically cut back their financial contributions and\u2026 every\u2026 it\u2019s all up on the UNRWA website in terms of the contributions.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But you have no\u2026 [inaudible] in the past, why did they cut it this year?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 If somebody contributes, it\u2019s up\u2026 or stops contributing, it is up to them to explain why. \u00a0It\u2019s not for me to\u2026 we suffer the consequences. \u00a0We don\u2019t have to interpret the reasons.\u00a0 Evelyn?<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Yes, St\u00e9ph. \u00a0Thank you. \u00a0I just wanted to point out that the big gap in UNRWA is at least three years\u2019 worth of US funding that was slashed by President Trump. \u00a0It\u2019s $300\u00a0million a year. \u00a0Is this a [inaudible] the Secretary\u2011General going to appeal strongly to the US, whether it is listed\u2026?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 The Secretary\u2011General and I think all of us will appeal to all those who can and are willing to give.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But that\u2019s a big\u2026 you\u2019re talking about 9\u2026 at least 900\u00a0million\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I\u2026 no, no, I\u2019m aware of the numbers.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you so much. \u00a0Yeah, I\u2019ve got a question about this award that the SG is getting tonight from the World Jewish Congress, which is an avowedly Zionist organization. \u00a0And I guess my question is, have you considered what the optics are of this? \u00a0I mean, you\u2019ve just been talking about how nobody\u2019s giving any money to UNRWA. \u00a0It\u2019s been a rough year for the Palestinians from the point of view of the Americans, Arab states turning their back on them, and now tonight, the UN\u2026 the UNSG taking an award from a Zionist organization. \u00a0Have you thought about how it looks?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I think the Secretary\u2011General, as you\u2019ll see from the remarks, is focussed on the fight against anti\u2011Semitism, which he has been very vocal about since day one. \u00a0And I would encourage you to read the remarks where he talks about discrimination in terms of other religions, whether it\u2019s Islamophobia or others. \u00a0His remarks in no way contradict his strong belief and continued belief in a two\u2011State solution, where Palestinians and Israelis can live together in peace, side by side.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 NOVEMBER 2020 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. \/… United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees A distressing announcement from our colleagues at UNRWA:\u00a0\u00a0The Commissioner General for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees\u00a0(UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, announced that the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[5352,6169,1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,2441,2533,1745],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-241872","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-education-and-culture","document-subject-health","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/241872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/241872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=241872"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=241872"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=241872"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=241872"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=241872"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=241872"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=241872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}