Month: September 2021 (Page 3 of 3)

President of the UN General Assembly: “world remains far behind solving biggest global challenges”.

September 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir, told reporters on Thursday, that the world is “far behind in being able to solve the greatest global challenges and achieve the SDGs.” 

Volkan Bozkir was speaking in New York at his final press conference in the top job, steering the agenda of the world body amidst an extraordinary year, dominated by COVID-19. 

Abdulla Shahid, from the Maldives, is taking over the role for the 76th session at the end of the month. 

The last year, said Mr. Bozkir, “only highlighted that the preventive tools and mechanisms available with the UN are in desperate need for review.” 

“The United Nations cannot be a follower of crisis.

It must be a preventive body, it must deliver earlier action to prevent, or prepare for, crises in the first place,” he added.  

Lastly, he left some recommendations to his colleagues and his successor.  

He believes there’s a need to streamline and deepen the work of the UN General Assembly. 

For him, “success is not measured by the number of meetings we have, but by their quality, their format, their impact”, according UN News.

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United Nations: “Hunger spikes in Haiti following deadly earthquake”.

September 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Around 980,000 Haitians in the four districts most affected by the August 14 earthquake in Haiti are now living with acute food insecurity, according to new UN food security data released on Thursday. 

Following the release of its findings, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) urgently called for more investment to help rural Haitians go back to small-scale farming and avoid a worsening of the food crisis. 

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has long been vulnerable on multiple fronts.  

Last month’s earthquake destroyed markets, roads, storage and processing facilities, dairies, and irrigation systems. 

Tropical Storm Grace, which hit days after the seismic event, caused additional damage. 

FAO Representative in Haiti, Jose Luis Fernandez, said that “on top of a succession of disasters and crises, this latest double whammy has left people’s ability to produce and to access food for their families and communities, in tatters.”  

“With the October winter planting season just around the corner, we can’t wait to invest in rebooting agricultural production. That must happen immediately, but we are hampered by low levels of funding for this critical work,” he added. 

Even before the 7.2 magnitude earthquake, poverty, civil unrest, political and economic instability, combined with recurring natural disasters and the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, had turned Haiti into one of the worst-affected areas in terms of food supply.  

At the time, 4.4 million people were facing crisis or even worse levels of acute food insecurity, as measured on the official IPC food security scale, according UN News.

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UN chief: protecting education, means ‘we protect the future’.

September 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The global community needs to say with one voice that “attacks on schools must stop”, the UN chief urged at a virtual event on Thursday commemorating the International Day to Protect Education from Attack.  

“Schools must be places of learning, safety and peace”, he said, lauding education as not only providing knowledge and skills but also transforming lives and driving development for people, communities and for societies. 

Nevertheless, he added, “year after year, this fundamental right comes under attack”. 

The UN Secretary-General cited the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack in revealing that between 2015 and 2020, over 13,000 reports of strikes on education, or the military use of educational facilities, had been recorded around the world. 

“And this threat is not lessening, as the horrifying events in Afghanistan are showing us so starkly”, he said, according UN News.

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United Nations: “COVID-19 deals and delays unacceptable”.

September 9, 2021 / / 0 Comments

While 80 per cent of citizens in high and upper-middle income nations have had a dose of COVID-19 vaccine, that figure stands at just 20 per cent for those living below the top tiers, according to a joint statement issued by the United Nations and partner agencies, responsible for the multilateral COVAX initiative to provide equal access for all. 

It’s a year since the innovative scheme was born, in a bid to guarantee timely access to everyone, regardless of their income, status or location, to life-saving jabs, as the pandemic gripped the world. 

“Yet, the global picture of access to COVID-19 vaccines is unacceptable”, said the statement released on Wednesday. 

“In the critical months during which COVAX was created, signed on participants, pooled demand, and raised enough money to make advance purchases of vaccines, much of the early global supply had already been bought by wealthy nations.” 

In a news briefing in Geneva, World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reminded journalists of his call, a month ago, for a global moratorium on booster doses, at least until the end of September, in order to prioritise the vaccination of the most at-risk people around the world who are yet to receive their first dose. 

“There has been little change in the global situation since then, so today I am calling for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year, to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40 percent of its population,” he explained.   

For Tedros, the world’s largest producers, consumers and donors of vaccines in the world’s 20 leading economies hold the key to vaccine equity and ending the pandemic. 

“Now is the time for true leadership, not empty promises,” he said.   

The WHO wants to support every country’s efforts to vaccinate at least 10 per cent of their populations by the end of this month, at least 40 per cent by the end of this year and 70 per cent of the global population by the middle of next year, according UN News. 

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United Nations report: human activity the cause of disasters around the world.

September 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Disasters such as cyclones, floods, and droughts are more connected than we might think, and human activity is the common thread, a UN report released on Wednesday reveals.

The study from the United Nations University, the academic and research arm of the UN, looks at 10 different disasters that occurred in 2020 and 2021, and finds that, even though they occurred in very different locations and do not initially appear to have much in common, they are, in fact, interconnected.

A consequence of human influence

The study builds on the ground-breaking Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment released on 9 August, and based on improved data on historic heating, which showed that human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years.

António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General described the IPCC assessment as a “code red for humanity”.

Over the 2020-2021 period covered by the UN University, several record-breaking disasters took place, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a cold wave which crippled the US state of Texas, wildfires which destroyed almost 5 million acres of Amazon rainforest, and 9 heavy storms in Viet Nam, in the span of only 7 weeks.

The new report identifies three root causes that affected most of the events in the analysis: human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, insufficient disaster risk management, and undervaluing environmental costs and benefits in decision-making.

The first of these, human induced greenhouse gas emissions, is identified as one of the reasons why Texas experienced freezing temperatures, but these emissions also contribute to the formation of super cyclones such as Cyclone Amphan, on the other side of the world.

The report also shows how the record rate of deforestation in the Amazon is linked to the high global demand for meat: this demand has led to an increase in the need for soy, which is used as animal feed for poultry.

As a result, tracts of forest are being cut down.

“What we can learn from this report is that disasters we see happening around the world are much more interconnected than we may realize, and they are also connected to individual behaviour”, says one of the report’s authors, UNU scientist Jack O’Connor.

“Our actions have consequences, for all of us”, according UN News.

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World Health Organization to G20 Health Ministers: “meet COVID-19 pledges”.

September 7, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The head of the World Health Organization told the G20 Health Ministers in Rome on Sunday “that despite hopes that by now the pandemic would be under control the opposite is true”.

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that “many countries continue to face steep increases in cases and deaths”, despite that more than five billion vaccines have been administered globally.

“But almost 75 per cent of those doses have been administered in just 10 countries”, he explained.

He added that at 2 per cent, Africa has the lowest vaccination coverage, this is unacceptable”.

The World Health Organizations global targets are to support every country to vaccinate at least 10 per cent of its population by the end of the month, at least 40 per cent by the end of the year, and 70 per cent by the middle of next year. 

“We can still reach these targets, but only with the commitment and support of G20 countries”, Tedros stated

As the largest producers, consumers and donors of COVID-19 vaccines, he upheld that they hold the key to achieving vaccine equity and ending the pandemic.

“We can never allow a pandemic on this scale to happen again.

 And we can never allow an injustice like this to happen again”, spelled out the WHO chief, according UN News.

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United Nations deputy chief: climate action essential to cool ‘season of fire and floods’.

September 7, 2021 / / 0 Comments

With extreme weather events increasingly impacting countries across the world, the deputy UN chief on Monday underlined the importance of limiting temperature rise to the internationally agreed goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

“The entire planet is going through a season of fire and floods”, Amina Mohammed told a high-level meeting on climate action, primarily hurting fragile and vulnerable populations in rich and poor countries alike. 

Speaking via video message to the Dialogue on Accelerating Adaptation Solutions ahead of COP26, the annual UN climate conference, which will take place in Glasgow in November, the Deputy Secretary-General noted already-visible impacts with a 1.2 degree rise. 

“Countries and populations worldwide, particularly those most vulnerable and least responsible for the climate crisis, will experience even more devastating consequences”, she said.  

“The effects will reverberate through economies, communities and ecosystems, erasing development gains, deepening poverty, increasing migration and exacerbating tensions”. 

With “bold and decisive steps” towards a net-zero global economy by 2050, Ms. Mohammed said that the world could still limit global warming to within 1.5 degrees. 

“Acting now is a question of climate justice. And we have the solutions”, she said, according UN News. 

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President of Guinea, Alpha Condé, detained by soldiers on Sunday.

September 6, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Members of Guinea‘s armed forces announced a takeover of the government and the closure of the country’s borders.

The army unit announced on Sunday that it had seized power in the West African country of Guinea, ousting 83-year-old president Alpha Condé, and imposing an indefinite curfew.

International organizations including the African Union and the United Nations have condemned the move and called for respect for the rule of law.

“I strongly condemn any takeover of the government by force of the gun and call for the immediate release of President Alpha Conde,” the UN secretary-general António Guterres tweeted.

President Alpha Conde was sworn in for a third term last December after a disputed election.

He initially came to power in 2010 in the country’s first democratic election since its independence from France.

Many saw his presidency as an opportunity for a fresh start for the nation.

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UN humanitarian chief urges: ‘prevent entire generation from being lost in Syria.’

September 6, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Some 13.4 million Syrians throughout the beleaguered country are in need of assistance, the UN humanitarian office said on Saturday, calling for “greater access and expanded funding”, to better help them.

Concluding a seven-day visit to Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, in his first official mission in the region since assuming the function of UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths stressed that “the UN needs to be able to reach people who depend on its aid both from Turkey and from within Syria”.

“Humanitarians and donors must keep Syria high on our collective agenda to prevent an entire generation being lost”, Martin Griffiths underscored.

During meetings with the Syrian Foreign Minister and his deputy, Mr. Griffiths emphasised the need to expand humanitarian access, protect civilians and help Syrians envision a future for themselves.

So far, the United Nations and its partners have received only 27 per cent of the funding needed for its 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria, which seeks $4.2 billion.

And the $5.8 billion Regional Refugee & Resilience Plan aims to help over 5.5 million Syrian refugees and host communities in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey is only 19 per cent funded, according UN News.

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World Health Organization: “rich countries should donate at least 1 billion vaccine doses”.

September 1, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Rich countries must share their supplies of COVID-19 vaccines quickly, in line with recommendations made earlier this year by an independent panel appointed by the World Health Organization, the former co-chairs said on Tuesday.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia, and Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, expressed deep concern over the slow pace of vaccine redistribution from high-income to low-income countries.

The two former leaders served as co-chairs of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR), launched by WHO in July 2020.

A critical step

“The Independent Panel report recommended that high-income countries ensure that at least one billion doses of vaccines available to them were redistributed to 92 low and middle-income countries by 1 September, and a further one billion doses by mid-2022”, they declared.  

“Ensuring that all those around the world most vulnerable to the impact of the virus, including healthcare workers, older people and those with significant comorbidities, can be vaccinated quickly is a critical step towards curbing the pandemic“, according UN News.

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