Syria

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have agreed to work together in implementing Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment — GLOBE.  UNEP and GLOBE will cooperate on citizen science and in collecting and distributing environmental data.

A new Food and Agriculture Organization report finds that 41 countries — 31 of which are in Africa — require food assistance, as cyclone damage and rainfall deficits in 2019 caused significant agricultural production shortfalls in Southern Africa, and severe dryness in East Africa negatively affected harvests.

At its 82^nd meeting, on 9 July 2019, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the second report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, agreed to convey the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:

The cholera outbreak in Yemen has reached more than 460,000 suspected cases in 2019, exceeding the 380,000 total suspected cases in all of 2018.  While the United Nations and partners operate 1,200 treatment facilities, funding remains an urgent issue, with only 32 per cent of the $4.2 billion response plan met.

Following Sunday’s demonstrations in Sudan, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on the authorities to lift restrictions on the Internet and launch proper independent investigations into allegations of excessive use of force, specially attacks on hospitals.

The World Food Programme is scaling up its relief operation for conflict-displaced people in north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo, where renewed inter-ethnic violence has forced tens of thousands from their homes. The country faces the world’s second-largest hunger crisis after Yemen, with 13 million people food insecure.

More than 1.4 million refugees in over 60 host countries will need resettlement in 2020, the High Commissioner for Refugees finds in its report, “Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2020”.  Those most at risk include refugees from Syria (40 per cent), South Sudan (14 per cent) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (11 per cent).

Fighting in Syria’s Idlib Governorate presents a powder keg for regional escalation, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy in that country warned the Security Council today, as he urged the Russian Federation and Turkey to help stabilize the area and called more broadly for renewed support for the creation of a constitutional committee as a central component of plans for peace.

Today is Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Day.  Under the theme “Big Money for Small Business:  Financing the SDGs”, it focuses on how small businesses can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, those related to promoting innovation, creativity and decent work for all.

The International Organization for Migration says intercommunal violence and floods in the Mopti region of Mali are aggravating a fragile humanitarian situation for 50,000 internally displaced people while 210,000 others are food insecure and only 2 per cent of communities can access safe drinking water.