The success of a new United Nations strategy against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) would depend on the willingness of all the actors to support and implement the proposed actions, correspondents were told today at a Headquarters press conference on the potential impact of the initiative.

The Joint Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, announced today that the Action Group for Syria will convene at the ministerial level this Saturday, 30 June, in Geneva. Also, today, Deputy Joint Special Envoy Jean-Marie Guéhenno told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that, at the moment, all sides appear not to believe in the possibility of a political solution.

Fashion design and production could provide a major platform for sustainable development in Africa, the Secretary-General’s Millennium Development Goals Advocate said today at a Headquarters press conference to introduce Fashion 4 Development, an initiative created with the aim of mobilizing the industry to support attainment of the targets.

The UN refugee agency and more than 40 other humanitarian aid organizations appealed today for nearly $200 million to help meet the needs of the growing numbers of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. In the past three months, humanitarian agencies in neighbouring countries have been registering an average of more than 500 Syrian refugees a day.

The Secretary-General is leaving today to attend tomorrow’s Action Group for Syria meeting in Geneva, and we anticipate there will be a press conference by the Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan, possibly at around 1 p.m. Geneva time, that is 7 a.m. New York time.

The high-level segment of this year’s Economic and Social Council substantive session will focus on productive capacity, employment, decent work and development cooperation, the President of that main United Nations organ said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The swearing-in has taken place of the new Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Jan Eliasson. Mr. Eliasson said he was deeply honoured and proud to be serving as Deputy Secretary-General and that he was committed to finding “good solutions” to the many issues that face the United Nations. The Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, was also sworn in.

Global labour leaders unveiled at Headquarters today a comprehensive, multipronged strategy aimed at tackling the global youth unemployment crisis, which has already put 75 million young people worldwide on the unemployment line and forced more than 200 million to work for less than $2 a day.

With the crises in Syria and Mali, a broad reassessment of peacebuilding schedules and many peacekeeping mandates coming to term, July looks very busy for the Security Council, the Permanent Representative of Colombia, which will hold the 15‑member body’s rotating presidency for that month, said today.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, has welcomed an agreement to end the recruitment and use of children in the national armed forces of Somalia. Mr. Mahiga, who signed on behalf of the United Nations, said it is critical for the professionalization of the security forces and will contribute positively to efforts to stabilize Somalia.