The Secretary-General attended the opening of the Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa today, urging world leaders and ministers to agree on an outcome commensurate in ambition with the sustainable development goals and calling on them to exercise flexibility and compromise and to overcome narrow self-interest in favour of working together for the common well-being for humanity.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The Secretary-General addressed the International Ebola Recovery Conference stressing the need to forge a partnership for a future free of Ebola and urging the international community to support Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in returning to a path of sustainable development. Applauding the African Union and its plan to convene an International Conference on Africa’s Fight against Ebola later this month in Equatorial Guinea, he asked donors to continue to give generously to help impacted countries carry out their plans for recovery over the next two years.
The Secretary-General has received assurances through his Special Envoy from the Houthis, the General People’s Congress and other parties to the conflict in Yemen of their acceptance of a humanitarian pause starting Friday. The Humanitarian Affairs Office reports that 80 per cent of the nation’s population needs food aid.
Ahead of South Sudan’s Independence Day tomorrow, the Secretary-General said he will never forget the hope he felt as the flag rose for the first time over the United Nations’ newest Member State. Those memories are all the more painful to recall today, he said, as that hope, four years later, is in short supply.
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
The Secretary-General is pleased to announce that he has conveyed the report of the Independent Panel of Experts on the death of the late Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, to the President of the General Assembly along with his own observations.
The Secretary-General continues to follow the situation in Burundi very closely. He urges Burundians to express their views peacefully and exhorts relevant Burundian authorities to exercise restraint in their management of security incidents.
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator convened today an ad hoc Principals meeting to discuss the activation of an Inter-Agency Standing Committee system-wide level 3 emergency response for Yemen. More than 21.1 million people - over 80 percent of Yemen's population - now need some form of humanitarian assistance.
The Secretary-General says, three years after the Geneva communiqué on Syria was agreed, the suffering of the Syrian people continues to plumb new depths; more than 220,000 are dead, parts of the country are controlled by a patchwork of Syrian and non-State actors, and its cultural heritage is under assault.
The Secretary-General spoke to reporters this morning after speaking at the General Assembly’s High-level Event on Climate Change. He reiterated that 2015 is a year for global action, stressing the importance of the twin priorities of sustainable development and addressing climate change.