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UN remains focused on ‘critical needs’ of Ukraine’s people

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United Nations News
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UN remains focused on ‘critical needs’ of Ukraine’s people

Achim Steiner, head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Vice-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group told delegates he had just returned from the war-torn country, noting civilians’ “extraordinary determination to adapt, to recover and to rebuild.”

“The UN had developed a clear picture to inform a targeted recovery through a Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment developed with our partners”, he said.

He added that the UN continues efforts to provide assistance to all of those in need, including in areas currently under Russian control where humanitarian access is extremely limited.

Farming and environment 

To chart a way forward, Mr. Steiner said the UN and partners were developing a damage assessment with a focus on agriculture and the environment.

He said that in 2023, the UN scaled up its recovery efforts, implementing $1 billion of recovery and development programming in line with the Government’s priorities, driven by 24 different UN offices and more than 3,700 personnel.  

Mr. Steiner highlighted that the UN’s pledge to stay and deliver in Ukraine is characterized by community-level recovery – jointly planning, sequencing, and layering our humanitarian, development, and support for social cohesion.

Rescue workers killed and injured 

The World Food Programme’s (WFP) senior humanitarian official on the ground, Matthew Hollingworth, has condemned an attack on Kherson on Tuesday that killed and injured rescue workers from Ukraine’s emergency services.

He said the incident was yet another example of the human impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reminding the country of its obligations to protect civilians, including rescue workers, under international humanitarian law.

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday that agencies were continuing “to work non-stop” to help those impacted by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, assisting the “remarkable work” of volunteers and government responders.

“Two weeks since the disaster, UN agencies and humanitarian partners organized 12 inter-agency convoys, including two by boat and amphibious trucks, delivering 50 truckloads of vital supplies to help people in the Kherson Region and those living in the Dnipro Region”, aid Mr. Dujarric.

Access to drinking water continues to be extremely limited due to the disaster. 

“Overall, and across all affected areas, the UN – along with our partners – delivered more than two million litres of water, 130,000 ready-to-eat food rations, hygiene items, medical supplies, shelter kits, sleeping bags, blankets and other essential items.”

‘Marshall plan’ approach needed to stop landmines wrecking economy

Another by-product of Russia’s invasion is the scourge of landmines planted by invaders during their occupation of the country since February last year.

Tens of thousands will need to be cleared to put the country’s economy back on track and enable food to be grown for the rest of the world, said UNDP on Wednesday.

The UN agency has been mandated by Ukraine’s Government to address the economic impact of mine contamination “in years, not decades”, UNDP’s Paul Heslop, who leads mine action in the country, told reporters in Geneva.

He told reporters in Geneva that a “Marshall Plan-type approach” to mine clearance was needed, so that agricultural land can be returned to use as quickly as possible.

The plan devised by the Truman Administration in 1947 helped restore the economic infrastructure of post-World War Two Europe.

“I think it is very realistic for us to say to the international community, make the commitment over the next five years, and we will see Ukraine retake its place as an agricultural powerhouse, and that will affect the world”, said Mr. Heslop. “It will bring down food prices for everybody.”

UNDP believes that with “the right resources and the right commitment”, the world can help Ukraine remove 75 per cent of the economic impact of mine contamination by 2028, Mr. Heslop said. 

He stressed this will require harnessing innovation like satellite imagery and drones alongside traditional demining techniques.

More investment in training and equipment will also be needed and new lending arrangements so farmers can clear land.

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Afghanistan mission chief to Taliban: Bans on women and girls cost you legitimacy at home and abroad

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United Nations News
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Afghanistan mission chief to Taliban: Bans on women and girls cost you legitimacy at home and abroad

UN Special Representative Roza Otunbayeva was briefing the Security Council on the dire situation facing the country and the international aid effort, with UN women workers among those now prevented by Taliban edicts from working.

“We will not put our national staff in danger and therefore we are asking them not to report to the office” she said, adding that the UN Assistance Mission she also heads, UNAMA, has no intention of replacing them with male staff.

No assurances

She said the Taliban had given her no explanation for the ban, “and no assurances that it will be lifted.”

She said she had been “blunt” with the all-male leadership about the obstacles their decrees and restrictions on women in public life were creating, which include denying schooling beyond primary level, bans on visiting parks, gyms and playing a role in public life in general.

She has conveyed that while they persist with the human rights clamp down on women and girls, “it is nearly impossible that their government will be recognized”.

Half the population suffering

She said based on UNAMA’s engagement with civil society around the country: “it is also clear that these decrees are highly unpopular among the Afghan population. They cost the Taliban both domestic and international legitimacy while inflicting suffering on half of their population and damaging the economy.”

The UNAMA chief called on ambassadors and the international community to do more to ensure the future stability of the Afghan economy, especially in light of an expected decline in humanitarian funding this year. 

The spotlight on women’s rights has also obscured some “more positive achievements” of Taliban rule, she said, mentioning the growing evidence of an effective ban on opium poppy cultivation.

Stable economy

The economy too “remains stable” with inflation down and exchange rates steady – due in part to a reduction in high level corruption.

“This macroeconomic stability, however, coexists with severe household poverty” with 58 per cent struggling to satisfy basic needs, according to the World Bank.

On other areas of concern, the UNAMA head said despite concerted counter-terrorism efforts, the terrorist group ISIL-KP continued to target both Taliban official and civilians.

Although the Taliban takeover has led to a sharp fall in civilian casualties, she said the UN Mine Action Service was reporting there continue to be around 100 casualties per month from unexploded ordinance. 

In conclusion, she told the Council that UNAMA and the UN system in Afghanistan would continue to engage with the Taliban, building on “established reliable working channels”.

“We could do much more however, if the Taliban rescinded its punishing restrictions on its female population.” 

Fanning the flames

Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the co-founder of Afghan girls’ education non-profit SOLA, told ambassadors she had lived through the darkness of Taliban rule in the 1990s and the secret schools she attended, are back.

“I am the inheritor of the bravery of Afghan women and men too, who kindled fires in the darkness of our nation as the world’s attention drifted away. Those fires are burning even now. The secret schools have reopened in Kabul and the provinces. My school SOLA, forced into exile, is thriving in Rwanda”.

She said a record 2,000 applications had been received from Afghan communities spread across the world. “2,000 fires in the darkness, and each one represents the unquenchable, and unconquerable desire for access to the basic human right of education.”

“It is our task – the world’s task – to ensure that these flames never go out”, she said. 

“What we want is summed up in a single world. That word is stability. And what makes that word possible is education.”

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With needs at a record high, underfunding is chronic Guterres tells humanitarians

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United Nations News
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With needs at a record high, underfunding is chronic Guterres tells humanitarians

With 360 million people worldwide in need of humanitarian assistance, up 30 percent since early 2022, global humanitarian needs have yet again reached record levels.

In a video message to the Humanitarian Affairs Segment, a platform created by the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to find solutions to pressing humanitarian aid issues, Antonio Guterres cited some shocking figures: more than 110 million people have been forced from their homes, while more than 260 million face daily difficulties getting food.

Famine is a growing risk for many.

While the figures change, the reasons driving them up do not. The Secretary-General referred to the devastating impact of unresolved conflicts, that “grind on while new wars are launched” and the global economic turmoil triggered by COVID and aggravated by the worldwide impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Another hostile factor driving up fatalities and displacing millions is climate change, he said.

And as the most vulnerable are hit hardest, “sustainable development – the ultimate prevention tool – has stagnated or gone into reverse,” warned Mr. Guterres.

Crisis of funding

Many responsible for rising conflict are violating international law, attacking hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure. Rampant human rights violations are being committed, including against women and girls.

In response, humanitarian aid agencies and UN partners on the ground are finding new ways to provide emergency aid around the world, said the UN chief.

In Ukraine last year aid workers ramped up deliveries to support some 15.4 million people. Another 17 million people in Afghanistan, 2.8 million in Nigeria and 2.5 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have received humanitarian aid since the beginning of this year.

The Secretary-General assessed those operations as “huge” and regretted that financing for them cannot keep up with rising demand.

Halfway through 2023, the Global Humanitarian Appeal is only 20 per cent funded.

“This is causing a crisis within a crisis,” Mr. Guterres believes. Shortages of funds are causing rollbacks of food aid in Syria, Bangladesh, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Afghanistan, and Yemen. Without a solution to the funding crisis, further cuts are inevitable, warned the UN chief.

Solutions focus

Antonio Guterres encouraged meeting participants to consider ways to increase humanitarian resources, to deliver aid more efficiently and effectively, to better protect individuals in crises, to reduce food insecurity and to increase resilience by investing in climate adaptation. 

ECOSOC’s Humanitarian Affairs Segment brings together UN Member States, UN organizations, humanitarian and development partners, the private sector and affected communities.

They meet each June to discuss how to best tackle the most recent humanitarian concerns and crises.

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Promoting healthier environment for healthier lives

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Newsdesk
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