The International Renewable Energy Agency, United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank and the World Health Organization released a report showing that basic energy access is lagging even as renewable energy use is growing, with 675 million people still without electricity and 2.3 billion still relying on harmful cooking fuels.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The Resident Coordinator in Haiti today signed with host authorities the five-year United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework — a road map to boost sustainable development and address the root causes of instability.

Officials with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) say they have asked all staff - both men and women - to work from home, following the Taliban’s decision to ban Afghan women from employment with the Organization. An operational review is under way to plan for all possible outcomes.

The World Food Programme today urgently called for $26.7 million to support 541,000 people impacted by Cyclone Freddy in Mozambique who have no alternative for meeting their basic needs. This crisis is unfolding at the beginning of the main harvest season, exacerbating the already high levels of hunger.

The United Nations resident coordinator’s team in Peru is responding to ongoing heavy rains and floods, which have left more than 500,000 people in need of aid. The World Food Programme (WFP) is also providing emergency cash transfers and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is treating cases of acute malnutrition.

In Papua New Guinea, the International Organization for Migration and humanitarian partners are helping with rapid assessments coordinated by provincial authorities after the magnitude-7 earthquake in the Chambri Lake area, which, due to the remote location, requires seaplane and canoe to be reached.

In Türkiye and Syria, the United Nations, along with partner organizations, have provided water, sanitation and hygiene support to more than 440,000 men, women and children impacted by the earthquake. Rehabilitation work and emergency repairs have also restored water and sanitation access for some 250,000 people.

In Vanuatu, the World Food Programme’s Pacific Humanitarian Air Service today transported 15 metric tons of critical medical and food supplies for over 250,000 people, about 80 per cent of the population, that have been impacted by the two category 4 cyclones and earthquakes that hit the country in early March.

A convoy of five trucks today reached the front-line community of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine where repeated shelling has destroyed or damaged many homes, and delivered shelter materials, solar lamps, medicines and other medical and hygiene supplies to the town’s remaining 3,000 people, one sixth of the population.