The Secretary-General was traveling from Poland to Ukraine this morning, and recently arrived in Kyiv. Tomorrow he will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba there, and we expect him to also address the press. Last night, upon his arrival in Rzeszów, Poland, en route to Ukraine, the Secretary-General was received by the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda.
Today, the Secretary-General addressed, in a video message, the first meeting of his High-Level Panel of Experts on Net Zero Emissions Commitments by Non-State Entities. He told them that it was essential that we ensure the credibility and environmental integrity of the net zero commitments.
This morning, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed addressed a meeting of members of the Council of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Ms. Mohammed noted that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to violently derail progress in achieving the 2030 Agenda, while more than 100 million additional people have been pushed into extreme poverty in 2020, dramatically reversing a two-decade downward trend.
This morning, the Security Council heard a briefing by Huang Xia, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region. He told Council members that while the past few months have been characterized by an encouraging dynamic of dialogue, cooperation and a willingness to address the root causes of instability in the region, the security and humanitarian crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been aggravated by the resurgence of the armed group M23.
Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, briefed the Security Council yesterday afternoon. He told Council members that Syria is a hot, not frozen conflict.
The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that the government is currently organizing a week-long regional forum in Bangui to raise awareness and build digital media capacity to prevent hate speech conflicts in Central Africa.
Yesterday, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said donors had pledged nearly $1.4 billion to respond to the Horn of Africa drought – the region’s worst in four decades – which left more than 15 million people severely undernourished. insecurity in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
An estimated 2.8 million people – nearly 40% of the population of the English-speaking Caribbean – are food insecure, up one million from April 2020. This is according to the results of a recent survey conducted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the World Food Program (WFP).
Khaled El Mekwad from Egypt assumed the role of Resident Coordinator in Bahrain on April 16, and in Guinea-Bissau, Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah from Ghana began leading our team in the field on April 18.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has been named the winner of the 2022 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, following the recommendation of the international jury of media professionals.
A new report from our colleagues at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification indicates that up to 40% of the planet’s land is degraded, threatening around half of global GDP, or $44 trillion.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that measles cases worldwide have increased by 79% in the first two months of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021.
The United Nations reiterates the Secretary-General’s condemnation of the February 1, 2021 military coup and reiterates the call for an immediate end to violence and repression, respect for human rights and immediate release of all political prisoners in Myanmar.
Tomorrow, my guests will be the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic, Veronika Remisova, as well as the President of the UN-Habitat Assembly, Martha Delgado, and the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif. They will be here to discuss tomorrow’s high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
Botswana, Jamaica and Uzbekistan have now paid their regular budget contributions. There are now 91 fully liberated member states.