Humanitarian issues

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message, as recorded for delivery, to the Brussels donor conference on Syria, today:

Experts briefing the Security Council during a 29 June videoconference meeting warned that cases of COVID-19 are likely to spread “like wildfire” amid Syria’s displaced millions — already suffering from hunger, spiking food prices and a health system decimated by war — while urging members to promptly renew the country’s crucial cross-border aid mechanism amid the pandemic.

In the biggest humanitarian undertaking in its history, the World Food Programme (WFP) plans to assist up to a record 138 million people.  WFP estimates the number of hungry people in the countries where it operates could reach 270 million by year’s end, up 82 per cent from before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

A new report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that ongoing efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions are expected to spur further investments in green energy production. These investments have been steady, standing at $600 billion per year on average.

In Nepal, the United Nations team is helping the Government cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting the repatriation of Nepali migrants returning from the Gulf and Southeast Asia at entry and transit points, with quarantine sites and isolation centres.  Some 25,000 returnees are expected in this first phase.

A new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report finds that universal child benefits such as cash payments or tax transfers — crucial to fighting child poverty — are only available in 1 out of 10 countries.  Officials say that they are needed now more than ever amid the economic fallout of COVID-19.

More than 55 million domestic workers — 37 million of whom are women — are at risk of losing their jobs and income amid COVID-19 lockdowns, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is warning.  Only about 10 per cent of domestic workers globally have access to social security safety nets.

The United Nations is scaling up life-saving aid for north-west Syria, including health items to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic.  In May alone, it sent 1,781 trucks from Turkey, the highest number since cross-border operations began in 2014, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the opening of the Economic and Social Council Humanitarian Affairs Segment, in New York today:

For the first time since 2018, the World Food Programme has been able to send a humanitarian convoy from Kenya directly into South Sudan through the Nadapal Border crossing.  The nine-truck convoy carried 280 metric tons of food, enough to feed 20,000 people for a month.  The route’s reopening cuts travel times in half.