Category: World Leaders (Page 4 of 9)

UN chief: $1 billion pledge a ‘quantum leap’ in commitment to Afghanistan.

September 14, 2021 / Michael Maas / 0 Comments

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday hailed significant international financial support pledged to the people of Afghanistan following a meeting in Geneva, which nearly doubled the initial $606 million flash appeal for the country.

“Today, we have already heard clearly more than $1 billion in pledges, it represents a quantum leap in relation to the financial commitment of the international community towards the Afghan people,” said Mr. Guterres.

UN relief chief Martin Griffiths confirmed in his closing remarks to the meeting that more than $1.2 billion in humanitarian and development aid in total had been promised, incorporating both Monday’s appeal, and the regional response.

A ‘lifeline’ for Afghans

“The funding will throw a lifeline to Afghans who lack those services; to the small children that Henrietta Fore of UNICEF spoke of, who face the risk of acute malnutrition.

And to the many women and girls who could lose their access to reproductive health services, and much more,” said the Emergency Relief Coordinator, and head of the UN humanitarian affairs office.

In an encounter with journalists on the sidelines of the high-level ministerial meeting, the UN Secretary-General noted that the fact that nearly 100 Member States had taken part in helping Afghanistan,

This in addition to more than 30 regional and international organisations, underscored that the crisis in Afghanistan remained a crucial issue for the global community, according UN News.

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UN chief: “support Afghans in their most perilous hour”.

September 13, 2021 / Michael Maas / 0 Comments

The international community should urgently offer a “lifeline” to millions of vulnerable Afghans “who face perhaps their most perilous hour”, the UN Secretary-General said on Monday.

Leading the appeal in Geneva for $606 million to support emergency aid for 11 million people across the country, António Guterres said that even before the uncertainty caused by the Taliban takeover last month, people were in the grip of one of the worst crises in the world.

“The people of Afghanistan need a lifeline,” he said.

“After decades of war, suffering and insecurity, they face perhaps their most perilous hour.

Now is the time for the international community to stand with them”, according UN News.

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Pope Francis to G20: “peace is a universal right”.

September 12, 2021 / Michael Maas / 0 Comments

Pope Francis sends a message to participants in the G20 Interfaith Forum, and urges religious leaders to pursue peace for all peoples and to serve truth.

The G20 Interfaith Forum runs from 12-14 September in the Italian city of Bologna, and is meant to promote healing from the Covid-19 pandemic and the many conflicts lacerating the world.

Religious leaders taking part in the annual event seek to engage with the agenda of the G20, a forum for international economic cooperation amongst the world’s 20 largest economies.

Pope Francis sent his greetings to participants in the Interfaith Forum on Saturday evening.

Pope Francis praised the forum’s goal of sharing ideas and hopes through interfaith dialogue and the promotion of religious freedom.

He said the role of religions is essential in overcoming war and hatred, since “true religion consists in adoring God and loving our neighbor.”

“More than putting something on display, we are called to show the fatherly presence of the Heavenly God through our harmony on earth,” he said, according Vatican News.

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UN chief Antonio Guterres urges: “time to think big about future international cooperation”.

September 11, 2021 / Michael Maas / 0 Comments

Celebrating the United Nations 75th anniversary last year, prompted major internal discussion about its future, and a new direction away from the post-World War Two consensus of its early days.

These reflections have resulted in Our Common Agenda, a landmark new report released on Friday by the UN Secretary-General, setting out his vision for the future of global cooperation.

Antonio Guterres launched the report at a meeting of the UN General Assembly on Friday, prefacing his remarks with a scathing overview of the parlous state of a world he described as being under enormous stress, and warning that the world risks a future of “serious instability and climate chaos”.

“From the climate crisis to our suicidal war on nature and the collapse of biodiversity, our global response is too little, too late”, declared the UN Secretary-General.

“Unchecked inequality is undermining social cohesion, creating fragilities that affect us all.

Technology is moving ahead without guard rails to protect us from its unforeseen consequences.”

The UN chief went on to describe the extensive consultations that fed into its development, a listening exercise that led the UN to the conclusion that enhanced multilateralism is seen as the way to deal with the world’s crises.

This approach would herald a new era for multilateralism, in which countries work together to solve global problems; the international system works fast to protect everyone in emergencies; and the UN is universally recognized as a trusted platform for collaboration, according UN News.

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

September 10, 2021 / Michael Maas / 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 / Michael Maas / 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 / Michael Maas / 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 / Michael Maas / 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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UN humanitarian chief urges: ‘prevent entire generation from being lost in Syria.’

September 6, 2021 / Michael Maas / 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 / Michael Maas / 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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A ‘lifeline’ for Afghans

A critical step

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