Edited News | UNDP , UNITED NATIONS , UNOG
STORYLINE
Guterres urges radical global finance shake-up to help Pakistan after deadly floods
UN-led efforts to encourage the international community to stand with Pakistan after deadly floods last summer continued on Monday in Geneva, where Secretary-General António Guterres urged radical reform of the global financial system, in favour of developing countries.
“If there is any doubt about loss and damage, go to Pakistan,” he told delegates at the International Conference on climate resilient Pakistan. “There is loss. There is damage. The devastation of climate change is real. From floods and droughts to cyclones and torrential rains. And as always, those countries least responsible are the first to suffer.”
More than 33 million people were affected by the flooding in Sindh and Balochistan, which is widely regarded to have been Pakistan’s greatest climate disaster.
Even today, months after the initial emergency, the floodwaters have only partly receded and the disaster is far from over for some eight million people who were forced to flee the rising waters, which also killed more than 1,700 people.
Catastrophic damage on a massive scale
More than 2.2 million homes were destroyed along 13 per cent of health facilities, 4.4 million acres of crops and more than 8,000 kilometres of roads and other vital infrastructure, including around 440 bridges.
The cost of helping communities hit in every conceivable way by the unprecedented monsoon rains in Pakistan that began last June “will run in excess of $16 billion, and far more will be needed in the longer term”, the UN Secretary-General said.
Vulnerable children impacted
In parallel with the conference in Geneva, UN children’s fund UNICEF underlined the ongoing human cost of the emergency in Pakistan.
“Up to four million children are still living near contaminated and stagnant flood waters, risking their survival and wellbeing,” the UN agency said.
Acute respiratory infections had “skyrocketed” in areas affected by flooding, UNICEF continued, while the number children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the same areas nearly doubled between July and December, compared to 2021, leaving some 1.5 million youngsters still in need of lifesaving nutrition interventions.
Paying over the odds
Reiterating the need to help developing countries such as Pakistan become more resilient to the impacts of climate change, the UN chief insisted that the international banking system needed reform “to right a fundamental wrong”.
He added: “Pakistan is doubly victimized by climate chaos and a morally bankrupt global financial system. That system routinely denies middle-income countries the debt relief and concessional funding needed to invest in resilience against natural disasters. And so we need creative ways for developing countries to access debt relief and concessional financing when they need it the most.”
At Mr. Guterres’s side, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif explained why his country needed international solidarity now, more than ever. “We need to get 33 million people who are deeply affected by the floods their future back,” he said. “Their families must stand on their feet and they must come back in life and earn their livelihood.”
‘Tomorrow, we could be the ones who need help’
Representing conference host country Switzerland, Federal Councillor for Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis reasoned that supporting those countries impacted by natural disasters was enlightened common sense: “Today, it’s you, Pakistan, that needs help. But tomorrow, it could be us, all of us. One thing is certain: none of us is safe. We are all concerned by climate change, a global threat that requires a global response.”
Echoing that appeal for solidarity among nations, French President Emmanuel Macron joined the conference by video link to announce that €360 million had been pledged by France “to respond to the challenge of resilience rebuilding and climate adaptation”. But the French President also noted that only 30 per cent of the UN’s emergency funding appeals had been provided, just as winter temperatures have plunged.
UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Achim Steiner highlighted the scale of the global threat posed by climate change and the relevance of the need to find climate adaptation funding for developing countries: “Look to the east, in Australia, extraordinary flood events; look to the west in California, extreme weather events, look to Europe, and people are wondering what happened to snow in winter, we are living in profoundly changing times.”
ends
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/FRENCH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 9 January 2023, Geneva, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
SHOTLIST
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: September – November 2022, Sindh, Balochistan, PAKISTAN
SHOTLIST
Date: 11 October
00:03 to 00:12: Aerial views, panning, flooded Sohbatpur district, Balochistan.
Date: 26 September
00:13 to 00:21: Villagers move through floodwaters on a truck pulled by a tractor in Dadu district, Sindh.
00:22 to 00:33: Views of flooded houses and fields in dadu District, Sindh.
00:34 to 00:41: A UNICEF-supported health worker arrives at a village that is isolated and doesn't have road access owing to flooding in Dadu district, Sindh.
00:41 to 00:45: Devastation caused by the floods in villages situated in Dadu District, Sindh.
Date: 3 November
00:45 to 01:14: Flooded villages in Jacobabad district, Sindh, children pushing raft carrying woman across flooded expanse, a woman walks across a flooded village carrying a baby.
Date: 27 September
01:14 to 01:18: Members of a UNICEF-supported mobile health and nutrition unit load supplies on a boat in Dadu district, Sindh.
01:18 to 01:26: Views of flooded villages in Dadu district, Sindh.
01:33 to 01:46: A woman bathes her son at a temporary camp set up for flood-affected people in Dadu district, Sindh.
01:46 to 01:53: Views of flooded villages and children wading into water in Dadu district, Sindh.
01:56 to 02:06: Roadside views of a temporary camp set up for flood-affected people on higher ground in Naseerabad district, Balochistan.
Date: 11 October
02:07 to 02:16: Drone footage of camp for displaced and flooded villages in Sohbatpur district, Balochistan where villagers cross water between houses on boat.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Institutionalised forced labour by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea constitutes grave violations of human rights – UN report
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Time is running out for starving civilians in Sudan, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday, while talks involving the country’s warring parties continue in Geneva this week.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
DRC faces a severe humanitarian crisis with 25M in need and rising conflict-related issues.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
A gimmer of good news emerged from Gaza on Tuesday as patients returned to at a newly reopened UN health centre in Khan Younis, six months after it was severely damaged and forced to close by heavy fighting, the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN condemns attacks on Kyiv hospitals, calls for immediate action to protect civilians.
1
1
2
Edited News | WHO
In Gaza, soaring temperatures, hunger and unsanitary conditions present an ever more deadly threat to a population under constant attack, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WMO , IFRC
Hurricane Beryl smashes into Caribbean, turns sights on Mexico As Hurricane Beryl’s destructive path shifted to Mexico on Friday after roiling the Caribbean, UN agencies and partners said that the emergency response was underway, before warning that a very long and damaging hurricane season looks increasingly likely.
1
1
2
Edited News | IOM , mcc , UNHCR
Refugees and migrants continue to face extreme forms of violence, exploitation and death on sea and on land across Africa as they attempt to leave the continent, UN agencies said on Friday, in an appeal to border authorities to do more to protect them.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk at the 56th Human Rigths Council, made the following update on the situation of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
New evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army for areas in southern Gaza are expected to impact 250,000 people, including eastern Khan Younis and Rafah, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: People are desperate, they need everything, says UN aid agency Panic and desperation now grip ordinary Gazans struggling to survive, UN humanitarians said on Friday, amid fuel shortages of fuel and dwindling supplies that have prevented aid teams from doing their job.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
UN aid teams and partner organizations remain deeply committed to delivering lifesaving supplies into Gaza, despite the increasing dangers of working there, the Organization’s top aid official said on Wednesday.