DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Jan Fischer, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

I’d like to welcome the group of visiting Arab journalists to the briefing.  Nice to have you.

Good afternoon.

**Afghanistan

The Secretary-General issued a statement yesterday afternoon exhorting all parties to take all possible precautions to minimize civilian casualties as well as of those of Afghan and other humanitarian workers still operating in that country.  We have the statement upstairs.

United Nations humanitarian agencies today are urging donor governments to respond more rapidly to their emergency humanitarian appeals for Afghanistan.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had received only some $12 million in cash, of the estimated $50 million needed to care for an initial planning figure of 400,000 new arrivals in surrounding States in the first phase of an emergency.  Donor governments have formally pledged another $11 million, but these pledges have not yet been translated into cash.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it has received less than 6 per cent of its appeal for $257 million, the amount that they asked for, despite the generous pledges.

The UNHCR and WFP portion of the $584 million emergency appeal for Afghanistan launched by the Secretary-General last month account for the bulk of the total.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said it has called for a modest funding of $36 million to carry out emergency work.  Yet with only a month until the onset of winter, it has received only half that amount.

UNICEF also reported today that a nine-truck supply convoy that departed Quetta for Kandahar on 14 October, arrived in Kandahar yesterday afternoon, carrying 450 hand-pumps and related accessories.  These materials have been off-loaded and distributed to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and they will be installed in displaced persons’ camps and other drought-affected areas.

WFP announces that its Executive Director, Catherine Bertini, will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. at the National Press Club in Washington tomorrow.

**Security Council

The Security Council will hold consultations this afternoon, starting at 3:15.

They will begin with Afghanistan.  Council members will have a first exchange of views with Lakhdar Brahimi, since he was reappointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan.  The Secretary-General will be present.

Council members will then take up Burundi.  They will be briefed by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast.

The last item on their agenda will be Angola.  Ibrahim Gambari, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, will introduce the Secretary-General’s report on the United Nations Office in Angola and brief Council members on the latest developments in that country.

**United Nations Budget

Yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General presented to the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly a budget, totaling $2,519,000,000, for the 2002-2003 biennium.  That budget, he noted, represents a reduction in real resources by 0.5 per cent -- the same level of reduction, adjusted for inflation, as in the last biennium.

His budget reflects the continuing reform effort, including, for the first time, indicators of expected achievements, so that success can be measured more effectively.

The Secretary-General, in presenting the budget, drew particular attention to the need for resources to reform United Nations peacekeeping, in accordance with the recommendations of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations that had been chaired by Lakhdar Brahimi.  He added his hope that the General Assembly would take decisions to improve staff security, including the appointment of a full-time Security Coordinator.

He also warned that, with the United Nations budget lower in dollar terms today than it was in 1994-95, "We can do more with less, but only up to a point. Sooner or later, “the quality of our work must suffer".  It is time, he said, to review the United Nations programme of work, and decide whether all the meetings that are held are truly indispensable; whether some reports duplicate others; and whether resources are allocated in the most productive way.

He also noted his proposal for time limits, or "sunset provisions," for new initiatives, and urged the Assembly to give the idea serious thought.

We have his full speech available in my office.

**Anti-terrorism in Africa

Ibrahima Fall, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, is in Senegal today.  He is there to represent the Secretary-General at a summit of African heads of State, which is happening in Dakar today and tomorrow. 

The meeting, convened by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to consider the draft of an African Pact against Terrorism, brings together about 20 heads of State. 

Tomorrow Mr. Fall will deliver the Secretary-General’s message to the summit.  As soon as we have that text, we’ll make it available to you.

**Iraq

The weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme shows that Iraqi oil exports under the oil-for-food programme dropped from the previous week’s high of 18 million barrels to 14.7 million barrels in the week ending

12 October.

So far into the current phase X of the programme, which runs from 4 July to 30 November of this year, Iraqi oil exports have totaled 195.2 million barrels, earning an estimated 3.8 billion dollars.   

The Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, at his briefing to the Security Council last week, drew attention to the fact that the estimated revenue for phase X is now expected to be about $5.54 billion, which, after the deductions pursuant to relevant resolutions, would leave only about $3.2 billion for the humanitarian programme.  The distribution plan for the purchase of humanitarian supplies for phase X was budgeted at $5.4 billion.  So there’s a significant shortfall there.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

UNHCR is reporting the start yesterday of an operation to separate former soldiers from refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

These soldiers had crossed over from the Central African Republic following a failed coup attempt there last May.

In the first phase, United Nations peacekeepers from the United Nations mission in the Congo escorted the former soldiers, along with their families, to a new site away from the 24,000 Central African refugees who also sought shelter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the days following the coup attempt.

Within ten days, UNHCR hopes to have relocated 2,500 soldiers and their families.

For more information, pick up the UNHCR briefing notes in my office.

**World Food Day

Today is World Food Day and in his message marking the occasion, the Secretary-General remarked that this year’s theme, “Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty”, highlights the need to address both hunger and poverty alleviation.  He said, “Hungry people’s capacity for productivity and growth are stunted.  They cannot fulfil their potential as individuals, nor as a society.”  He went on to say that what was needed to break the cycle of misery was a combination of political will, investment in agriculture and rural development, and social safety nets.

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf, said in his message that there was enough food in the world to feed every man, woman and child but that there are “vast and unacceptable divides between those who have access to resources and those who do not”.  He added that to improve access to food and income in rural areas, investment was needed in the agricultural sector.

The FAO also launched a new Web site today with information on fighting hunger.  The Web site is at www.fao.org/waicent.

As part of today’s celebrations, 30 countries are taking part in a global “teach-in” as part of a global education campaign on hunger.

The full text of both messages, as well as a press release from the FAO, are available upstairs.

**Tajikistan

The World Food Programme today appealed for urgent food aid for 1 million people who are suffering from a devastating two-year drought in Tajikistan.

Tajikistan, one of the poorest of the former Soviet Republics, is still struggling with the aftermath of a gruelling five-year civil war and facing severe economic hardships.  The crippling drought that hit Tajikistan is part of a regional phenomenon that has also afflicted neighbouring Afghanistan.

**Poverty Eradication

Tomorrow, an observance to commemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty will be held at the United Nations garden, starting at noon, when Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai will read a message on behalf of the Secretary-General to mark the Day.

At that ceremony, testimony will be read from families living in poverty, and a quilt made by children will be presented.

Also among tomorrow's events for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, there will be a press conference in this room at 11:00 a.m. on the role of cooperatives in poverty reduction with Donald Lee, Chief of the United Nations Poverty and Employment Unit.  He will be accompanied by Namarati Bali, Secretary of India's Self-Employed Women's Association, and Christopher Johnson, Manager of Research and Business Development for the International Development Canadian Cooperative Association.

Last, there will be a panel discussion, from 1:15 to 2:45 tomorrow in Conference Room 8, on the role of cooperatives in reducing poverty, which will be chaired by Ambassador José Roberto Andino Salazar of El Salvador.

**Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Tomorrow at 12:30, the Secretary-General will receive a petition originally launched by the now late Jacques-Yves Cousteau.  The petition, titled the Right of Future Generations, contains 9 million names from people from over 100 countries who call for an uncontaminated earth.

Cousteau's widow Francine, who is President of the Cousteau Society, will be at the presentation.  Also present will be Pierre Chastan, spokesman for the petitioners, who travelled across the Atlantic in a small boat he made himself in order to make the presentation.

A Note to Correspondents is on the racks.

**Immunization in West Africa

A few press releases to highlight.  The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund announced today that sychronized national immunization days will take place in 16 West African countries beginning on Friday 19 October and will aim at immunizing 80 million children.  The launch will take place on the 19^th in Lungi, Sierra Leone and will include the Presidents of Mali and Sierra Leone.  We have a media advisory on that event.

**UNESCO Effort to Safeguard Jerusalem

From the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better-known to you as UNESCO, we have news that the Director General, Koichiro Matsuura, has called for the launch of an international effort to safeguard the heritage of the old city of Jerusalem.  He said that, provided the initiative got broad endorsement, he would seek funding for the operation, which would be conducted strictly on a professional and technical footing, removed from all political consideration.

You can see the press release if you’re interested.

**World Health Organization Panel Discussion

In conjunction with the Preparatory Committee for the International Conference on Financing for Development, the World Health Organization will host a panel discussion on “Financing the new health agenda” that will take place this afternoon in Conference Room 2 at 1:15.  The panel will be chaired by Jorge Eduardo Navarrette, Ambassador of Mexico to the United Nations.  You are all invited to attend.

**United Nations Development Programme

Lastly, the UN Development Programme Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown, is in Amsterdam today, where he is wrapping up a series of meetings on Africa's relations with its external partners.

He is participating in consultations organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa that provide a forum for frank dialogue between African finance ministers and their Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) counterparts.

And I don’t think I mentioned that Lakhdar Brahimi will be our guest at tomorrow’s noon briefing, which will be his first talk to journalists since resuming as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Afghanistan.

That’s all I have for you.  Any questions before we go to Jan?

Briefing by the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Good afternoon.

**Report on Security Council

In the General Assembly Hall, the plenary continues to review the report on the Security Council.  Yesterday, we heard 14 speakers in the morning and

15 in the afternoon, and today we will hear another 27 Member States and one Observer, that’s Palestine, and Palestine is expected to be the last speaker in the morning.  Although the speakers’ list is not closed yet, the meeting on this agenda item should conclude today.

**Speakers for General Debate

Yesterday, I made the provisional list of speakers for the General Debate available.  It is intended for your planning purposes only, so it should not be published or posted.  One of you asked me yesterday how many Member States are scheduled to speak during the General Debate, so I went through the list and came to a total of 189 plus one observer.

**Chairman of Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism

I was also asked for an update on the possibility of having the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism meet with you and I am now aiming for early Friday afternoon, but will have to confirm that later.  For your information, I have printed out two pages on the Committee from the UN website and you will note that the correct name of the Committee is:  Ad Hoc Committee established by General Assembly resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996. Those copies are available at the exit to this hall.

Do you have any questions for me?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Ambassador Negroponte just left after meeting with the Secretary-General?  Do you know what that meeting was about?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  We normally don’t give you readouts of every meeting, particularly with Permanent Representatives.  But if you’re desperate to know what it was about, I can ask.  I can’t promise you an answer, but I can ask.

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