Elevated Risk of Cholera Makes New United Nations Approach to Epidemic ‘All the More Urgent’, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Member States

Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s briefing to Member States on the new approach to cholera in Haiti, in New York today:

Thank you for joining us for this important briefing on our new approach to cholera in Haiti.  This initiative is of great significance for Haiti, but also for the United Nations as a whole.

I share the podium with David Nabarro, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda, who has been asked by the Secretary-General to oversee this critically important effort.  Ross Mountain, Special Adviser on the Impact of Cholera, is also with us today.  Both of them and I will be ready to respond to questions or comments at the end of the meeting.

After my introduction, we will hear from SRSG [Special Representative of the Secretary-General] Sandra Honoré and DSRSG [Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General] Mourad Wahba from Port-au-Prince [by video teleconference].

I hope that you have all received the letter I sent to each Permanent Representative last week.  We have extra copies and other material at the back of the room.  The letter describes and seeks your support for our new approach to cholera in Haiti.  We simply cannot succeed without you.

And we cannot discuss the cholera issue without taking into account the effects of the devastating hurricane which struck Haiti as I sent my letter to you last week.  Hurricane Matthew raced across Haiti, leaving a trail of death, destruction and despair.  It left millions of Haitians on the southern coast of Haiti in dire and desperate need of humanitarian assistance.  I commend the Government of Haiti for taking leadership and guiding life-saving assistance to Haitians most in need.  The hurricane reminded us of the strength, resilience and resourcefulness of the Haitian people.

Today, my main message is to concretely reaffirm the compassion and solidarity of the United Nations and its Member States with the people of Haiti.  They are the first responders when disaster strikes.  And disaster has struck them more than most people on earth — the earthquake six years ago, the cholera outbreak and now this monster hurricane.

Another message is to reassure them that we will act with all speed to help them.  And we must convey to them that our approach to the hurricane and to cholera includes a commitment to help forge long-term solutions.  We must deal with the underlying problems of poverty and fragility that make each successive shock so much more damaging.  Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will visit Haiti to deliver this message of solidarity and support directly to the Haitian people.

On the hurricane response, the OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] flash appeal requested $119 million immediately.  This will cover food, shelter, water and emergency sanitation over the next three months for the 750,000 most vulnerable.  Many of the most seriously affected live in hard-to-reach areas.

The water and sanitation infrastructure in the hurricane-affected areas has been destroyed.  The response must be early and quick action to prevent a public health crisis, primarily due to further spread of cholera.

UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund], relying on a recent CERF [Central Emergency Response Fund] loan, has scaled up and sent rapid-response teams to the hurricane areas to control the spread of the disease.  WHO [World Health Organization] has sent 1 million cholera vaccines for use in the affected areas.

The elevated risk of cholera makes our new approach all the more urgent.  We know all too well the huge toll which cholera has already taken in Haiti.  We must urgently stop it in its tracks.  Beyond emergency response, we must support lasting programmes and solutions that reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience.

The new approach to cholera encompasses two tracks of work:  the first track involves intensifying our efforts to treat and eliminate cholera, as well as to improve longer-term access to clean water and sanitation.  We must build resilience to the disease and — most important — stop deaths.  The second track aims to develop a framework proposal to Member States for material assistance to those Haitians most affected by cholera after the 2010 outbreak.  The Secretary-General intends to present a proposal on this to the General Assembly before he leaves office.

We are committed to discuss this proposal with the Haitians, both the Government and those most affected by cholera.  We have had to adjust the timing of the consultations and the Secretary-General’s presentation to the General Assembly to the new realities caused by the hurricane.  The timelines have been slightly adjusted, but our resolve is just as strong.  We are working very hard on the design of our proposal and are making good progress.

I know this will be a complex process.  But, the end result will, I am sure, represent a wholehearted and good-faith effort.  It aims to provide tangible support to those affected.  Already we have identified questions that we — as the United Nations and Member States — together must address.

Here are some key challenges and questions related to the material assistance package:  How do we identify and prioritize potential beneficiaries on the basis of partly incomplete information?  How and when are we to conduct the consultations in Haiti?  How are we to balance the potential mix between individual/household and community/collective benefits?  And how do we implement the arrangements for the package?

We also have to ascertain that you, the Member States, are willing to support and contribute to this effort.  It will be difficult to proceed with the design of the package without assurances that resources will be available.  Due to the increased demand for assistance for Haiti following the hurricane, it is apparent that resource mobilization for the support package will not be easy.

Still, this is extremely important.  This is about the Haitian people.  And this is the right thing to do for the Haitian people.  It is also the right thing to do for our Organization and for our ability to continue to do good around the world, often in very challenging environments.  I hope you agree that this is a collective moral responsibility of the entire Organization.  In that case, what level of funding will you be willing to provide so that we can deliver on our promise?

We have started consultations on these questions.  Today, we would like to hear from you.  The key words for how we must support Haitians now and in the future are:  solidarity, speed and solutions.

We anticipate that total funding for the two tracks will be $400 million over the next two years.  An early expression of your intended engagement would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you very much.

Now, I would like to turn to [Special Representative of the Secretary-General] Sandra Honoré and [Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General/Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator] Mourad Wahba who are joining us from Port-au-Prince with the most immediate updates.