The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Bi-weekly press briefing - 28 November 2023
/
1:19:22
/
MP4
/
5 GB
Press Conferences | UNICEF , UNHCR , WHO , UNCTAD , UNDP , UNITAID , OSE
Bi-weekly press briefing - 28 November 2023
PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
28 November 2023
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Development Programme, and Unitaid.
Humanitarian situation in Gaza
Responding to questions from the media, James Elder, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking from Gaza, said that the situation in Gaza was devastating. The current moment of respite provided a chance to get aid in and for people to look for their loved ones. Mr. Elder spoke of seeing people drink the water the very moment it was delivered to them. Sorrow and stress were visible all over, said Mr. Elder. Cramped in temporary accommodation, people were waiting for hours just to go to the bathroom. The right type of aid was getting in now, but the necessary quantities could be secured only if the humanitarian truce was expanded and turned into a permanent ceasefire. In the absence of sufficient fuel, trees were being chopped off for heating and cooking. There were a lot of humanitarian workers on the ground, particularly UNRWA staff, whose bravery had to be highlighted, said Mr Elder. Still, there were nearly not enough programmes to address children’s psychological traumas, for example. Conditions in which children were living in were not fit for their recovery. Most children who had lost their parents had been absorbed by extended families and communities, and their stories were heartbreaking.
Answering further questions, Mr. Elder said that fuel meant access to clean drinking water because desalination plants needed fuel to operate. The aid coming in these days was just a start. If the fighting were to start again, there was no way that there would be sufficient fuel to run the plants. All the aid coming in now was but a triage, he reiterated. Mr. Elder further said that the situation in Gaza was worse than he had anticipated before going there. He spoke of having seen children receiving health care while lying on mattresses in parking lots. Everything in Gaza was emergency care right now. Lack of access to safe water was crippling, leading to many gastrointestinal health problems. If the hostilities continued at the same scale as in the past eight weeks, it would mean allowing this horror to proceed. What happened to the human instinct to protect children? asked Mr. Elder.
Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that for weeks now, hospitals had managed to accept and treat patients thanks to the bravery of the health workers, but the conditions in health facilities were simply dismal. On 24 November, the WHO had carried out an assessment mission to UNRWA shelters in the north, where it had noted problems with waste disposal and the lack of safe water, hygiene, food, and medical care. There was a rise in diarrheal and respiratory diseases. There were many cases of diarrhea among infants but no adequate treatment, which could mean a death sentence to those children. UNRWA staff were conducting surveillance in this regard. Chronic health conditions would become acute conditions which would kill those patients; eventually, more people could die of diseases than of bombardment. Dr. Harris stressed that the needs were massive, and the amount of aid coming in, while increasing, was still only a trickle. Vaccinations could not be conducted unless there was safety, she explained.
A continuing, true ceasefire was needed, stressed Dr. Harris. The neutrality of health care ought to be respected at all times, and health workers had to be neutral. She spoke of “patient transfer” rather than “evacuations” of patients, as some patients were simply being moved from hospitals where they could no longer receive medical support to places where they could possibly receive at least some care. ON the matter of the health workers in custody, Dr Harris said that during the transfer of critically ill patients from Al Shifa, the convoy had been kept at a checkpoint between the north and the south parts of the Gaza Strip for six hours; some medical personnel who had been in the convoy had been detained by the Israeli Defense Forces. Dr. Harris said that the human rights of those medical workers had to be respected. The loss of the Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s most advanced hospital, was devastating. It should be restored to its full functionality as the Strip’s main tertiary level health institution. Ms. Harris said that there were some 20,000 health workers in the Gaza Strip; the skills where there, but what was needed were safety and more functioning hospitals. There was need for continuity of the fuel and the safety to do necessary repairs and for medical personnel to know that they would not be hurt or killed while doing their jobs. Safe, functioning, well-equipped places where doctors and nurses could perform their tasks were an absolute necessity.
New findings on climate change and health products
Herve Verhoosel, for Unitaid, said that Unitaid welcomed that for the first time ever, the organizers of COP would include an official Health Day on 3 December to draw attention to the interconnection between climate and health. This was a key moment to put health at the core of climate action. The climate crisis was putting pressure on an already overstretched global health system and bringing access to basic healthcare in danger once more. The irony was that a sector that strived to keep people well was also contributing to the problem, accounting for approximately 4.6 percent of global net carbon emissionsNew Unitaid report with findings on climate change and health products drew attention to the fact that key health products and medicines used by practitioners every day around the world to respond to diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, improve women's and child's health, and respond to global emergencies, might not be fit for purpose in a changing climate.
Unitaid was calling on the global health industry, policymakers, governments, research institutions and major buyers of pharmaceutical products to act now, before it was too late. Key health products had to remain accessible as the climate changes, or else we risked backsliding on hard-earned gains in responding to infectious disease and improving healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. Unitaid had already begun advancing these solutions with a goal of introducing 30 key health products by 2030 that are more “climate-smart” as part of its new Climate and Health strategy, which would be launched at COP28 on 3 December.
Vincent Bretin, Unitaid Director of Results, said that it was known that climate change put health system under stress, the health sector contributed significant emissions, and health supply chains impacted the environment. In its study, Unitad had looked at ten key health products in global health, the absolutely vital products in global health, such as medicines for HIV, TB or malaria, malaria bed nets, diagnostics for TB, or oxygen facilities. Key findings showed that the absolute quantities of carbons emitted in the atmosphere from those ten supply chains was very large – over 3.5m tons/year, which, for a comparison, was bigger than the emissions of the city of Geneva. Unitaid’s research showed that a main source of impact related to the release of toxic chemical waste at the point of manufacturing. Significant impact was also linked to waste at the point of use of disposal; for example, bed nets alone generated 57,000 tons of plastic waste every year with currently almost no recycling solutions in place.
The last series of findings, informed Mr. Bretin, related to climate risks on supply chain. He provided an example of malaria treatment, a product used by hundreds of millions of people every year, whose supply chain risks had to be addressed. Mr. Bretin reiterated that Unitaid would present these key findings at COP 28. Unitaid’s Board had just approved a Climate and Health strategy last week, which was centered on the concept of climate-smart products. Unitaid called on our partners to support broader action around this agenda, as many solutions existed, and a concerted effort could go a long way in addressing the issues identified in the report.
Nansen Refugee Awards
Matthew Saltmarsh, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), informed that the UNHCR had just announced the winners of the annual Nansen Refugee Awards. Those were individuals who went above and beyond to help refugees, displaced, and stateless people. The 2023 winner was Abdullahi Mire, a former refugee and journalist who had championed the right to education while putting 100,000 books in the hands of refugee children in Kenya. The four regional winners were: Elizabeth Moreno Barco (Americas), a human rights defender who advocated for communities affected by armed internal conflict in Colombia; Asia Al-Mashreqi (Middle East and North Africa), founder and chairperson of the Sustainable Development Foundation, which had assisted nearly two million individuals in Yemen affected by conflict; Abdullah Habib, Sahat Zia Hero, Salim Khan, and Shahida Win (Asia-Pacific), four Rohingya storytellers documenting the experiences of stateless Rohingya refugees; and Lena Grochowska and Władysław Grochowski (Europe), a Polish couple whose hotel chain and foundation provide shelter and training to refugees. The Awards would be presented in Geneva on 13 December during the Global Refugee Forum. UNHCR press release can be found here.
UNDP : Human Climate Horizons
Sarah Bel, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), informed that UNDP was launching today its Human Climate Horizons - a data platform providing localized information across 24,000 regions in the world on future impacts of climate change across several dimensions of human development and human security. The platform provided multiple policy scenarios through the end of the century on the potential human costs of climate change to influence behavior and support to accelerate mitigation and adaptation. Full press release is available here.
Announcements
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said that from 30 November to 12 December, UNCTAD would participate in COP28, where UNCTAD would highlight the close links between climate change and the dynamics of global trade and finance. UNCTAD would also advocate green trade and industrial strategies that not only accelerated the global transition to low-carbon energy but also ensure a fair and equitable transition for the most vulnerable. UNCTAD, the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Trade Centre, and the World Trade Organization were organizing a pavilion dedicated to trade, "The House of Trade", dedicated to finding solutions to make trade a gas pedal of climate and sustainable development efforts, and to ensure a just transition to a low-carbon economy. Ms. Huissoud reminded that UNCTAD’s main reports of 2023 had all dealt with economic issues in relation to COP28, and their main messages would form the basis of the organization’s participation at COP28. More details can be found here.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service, informed about the dedicated UN page, which would be regularly updated with news and developments from COP28: https://www.un.org/climatechange/cop28.
Alessandra Vellucci, speaking on behalf of the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), informed that today at 4 pm Geneva time, Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi would brief the Security Council. Her remarks would be distributed afterwards.
Ms. Vellucci informed that on 6 December at 11 am, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk would hold his end-of-year press conference.
On 29 November, an event to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People would be held at the Palais des Nations, in Room XVII at 11 am. More information is available here, and the event would be webcast at webtv.un.org.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was concluding this morning its review of the report of South Africa.
The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families was revieing today the report of Uruguay.
Teleprompter
OK, let's start.
Good morning.
Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service of the UN in Geneva.
Today is Tuesday, 28th of November.
We have quite a few items to discuss, but before going to the to the list of speakers that you have received, we have the pleasure and and the honour because it's really complicated.
But to have James Elder, the spokesperson of UNICEF online from Gaza and he doesn't have briefing notes active for you today.
But since he's connected and, and I said, they said that the, the connection is not great.
If you have any questions for him, let's ask him now and then we will go to the list of speakers that you have received.
So James, thank you very much for being here.
I guess the situation there is not easy at all.
Thanks for being connected for our journalists.
And I see already that Emma has a question for you.
Hi, good morning.
James.
I was wondering if you could describe the situation with aid deliveries in the South.
We're hearing that there is water being distributed and food, but there's very, very long queues.
Could you describe the situation and what about children and what they're going through and cases of trauma that you may have seen?
Thank you, James.
Hi, Emma.
Hi, everyone.
Thanks so much, Alessandra.
Yeah, Emma, the desperate situation now is, of course, giving people a a moment of respite.
It's great.
James, Sorry we lost the first sentence.
I'm I'm, I'm sorry you came all broken for the first sentence.
If you could start again.
Your answer.
Sorry.
Not at all.
Yeah, it's it's devastating.
Emma, this is, of course, a moment of respite.
Critically, to get aid in and also for people to take the heartbreaking task of looking for loved ones, looking in hospitals, burying loved ones.
In terms of aid, it started obviously it's been the, you know, the biggest distributions in the last four days, particularly to the north for for a month.
And the situation there was desperate.
I was in Gaza City on on Sunday.
You can see the gaunt look in people's faces when there was a delivery of water.
People would drink the water at the moment it was given to them in the South, as you rightly point out, where we're also trying to focus because, you know, we have 1.8 million people displaced now, all of them bearing the marks of these horrendous attacks.
You know, you really do see sorrow and stress sort of taking root here in Gaza.
So yes, there are long queues.
You see queues for 2-3 hours of adolescent girls just trying to go to the bathroom.
And they will say time and again, you know, why we've lost everything, why we've been denied our dignity.
So the right type of aid is coming in now.
The quantities need to increase.
And that can only happen with a continuation of this pause, both because it would be callous and cold to think we could turn around and start destroying homes and children and families lives again.
But also, of course, because this aid needs to multiply.
Yeah, it's getting cold.
We need tents.
We need warm clothes.
People will constantly talk water, food, medicines.
And they will ask the question as well.
To be honest, Emma, time and again I'm asked, particularly in the North, are you going to stop the war?
Now?
My response to that, unfortunately, is no, your, your life is being decided by people elsewhere.
We're here to to stem the bleeding.
The last part I would add Emery is is cooking gas.
You know there are everyone is chopping down trees everywhere.
Unfortunately, normally here firewood is is for a BBQ, a bride or for people to have a nice fireplace in their homes.
They use, they use cooking gas.
And I've seen queues of more than a kilometre of people, not of vehicles, of people standing there in the rain waiting.
And of course, like everything, it runs out and half the queue goes home empty handed.
So it is desperate.
It's the right type of aid.
But the quantities required for trauma, deeply traumatised people will only happen if the pause turns into a cessation, turns into peace.
Thank you, James.
Christiana.
Yes, James, it's Christiana here.
German Press Agency.
Can you talk about trauma in particular?
Are there any practitioners?
Are there any people who are taking care of the kids?
There are, you know, there are a lot of, of people on the ground and, and I have to make it very clear, the, the, the bravery, the, the immense workload, you know, the, the UNRWA colleagues who are many of their Idps themselves, many, many of them have lost loved ones.
And many of them will have some training because of course, UNRWA has so many education facilities.
They will be those frontline people.
But in terms of those with the training, in terms of the deep psychological trauma that many children will be, no, there are not.
There's nowhere near enough of the programme for that right now.
And equally, Christine, when, when I'm in camps and you see the conditions people are living in and you see the the stunned faces of families, then you realise this is not a place where children are going to recover, certainly not where they wait, as someone said, you know, biting fingernails to see every day or, or next day if there's going to be another pause.
So again, peace will be part of a big part of that solution, but the condition that children living in are not fit for their recovery.
Right now.
UNICEF is working with partners to try and now create some safe spaces that will give children again a moment of respite.
It will also help us understand how many children are unaccompanied because such is the the warmth of this culture that the vast majority of children who've lost parents are absorbed.
I met a boy the other day whose whose story I've told Omar and he, you know, sits in my head and heart and and he's there are hundreds of Omar's across the country when his family home, Christine was when it was when it was hit.
His mother was killed.
His father was killed.
Omar's twin brother was killed.
Now, his story is not unique.
And yet when you talk to an Omar, he would perpetually just close his eyes.
And I asked his auntie why?
Why does he he do that?
He's very articulate for a boy who's endured all of this.
And she simply said he's he's picturing.
He's picturing them.
He's terrified that he will forget what they look like.
And he knows he's lost them here.
He doesn't want to lose them.
In his mind, that is a part of the trauma of the children, adolescents, the elderly are facing here and we can only start to address that in any meaningful manner once we have a meaningful piece.
Very, very hard.
James, Nina.
Yes, thank you.
Hi James.
I was wondering, you mentioned now trying to get an overview of how many children are unaccompanied.
Do you have any estimate yet of the of the numbers?
And also I was wondering on the aid that's coming in, if you're seeing any fuel going into hospitals in the North.
I mean, if there's anything that looks like those could get running again.
Yeah, Thank you.
I'm sorry, I just lost the first part of the crowd.
Fuel, fuel in hospitals.
I got, I missed the first part.
I'm sorry.
Sorry.
The first part was about the children, how you mentioned unaccompanied children or children who've lost their, their family members.
I'm, I'm wondering if you have any sort of estimate of the percentages we're talking about.
Thank you.
We, we, we don't, but we're working on.
I literally spoke to a colleague half an hour before he is going off to shelters to start the kind of UNICEF and partners work around child friendly spaces where we will draw out children for for both to give them a break from this horror and to work out who doesn't have a family member or an extended family again, such is the warmth of this culture that so many children are absorbed.
It strikes me as being ironic, to be honest that you know, we would hope that any conversation around this conference starts with empathy.
Certainly that is the position of those in Gaza, the way they absorb children.
We need that compassion, of course, to be across the board.
Those have the those who have the power to end to end this fighting.
But I will we I'm I am seeking a number, but I don't I'm sorry, fuel my understanding.
But I would defer, of course, to our WHO colleagues is at least.
For example, Schieffer sent a message yesterday for those people who needed cancer treatment that they would would return.
I think that speaks of fuel.
But I would defer, as always to WHOI know here that fuel equals water.
UNICEF's work on desalina tion plants is really critical.
And we're getting fuel to the north.
We've done assessments, we're looking at there.
There is structural problems as well, but we're looking to get those desal plants going again.
And that's on the back of fuel.
That's critical.
It's a start.
It cannot stop in two days when we again bite our fingernails to see if we can extend this pause.
Thank you.
On the hospitals later on, we should have Margaret.
So maybe ** *** will have some some more information to give.
I saw another hand in the room.
I don't know if I'm wrong.
It was you.
Yeah.
OK.
You had to follow up.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
James, do you have any update on the 28 premature babies that were evacuated, what the health is?
And the question last week that wasn't possible to be answered was are there orphans among them or how many of them are orphans?
No, my apologies, I haven't.
It's I guess it's good news.
They're they're they're out of Gaza.
So I just, you know, naively assumed their their, their safety and health.
I will find out for you.
Certainly the first question will be straightforward.
The second one, not so much.
My apologies.
I'll find it out for you today and get back to you.
Thank you.
In a moment, we'll also have Margaret.
She's coming to the podium now.
But I had Nick coming.
Bruce had a question for you, James.
Yeah, thanks, James.
Can I just come back on fuel and desalina tion plants, When do you expect to get them up?
And do you have enough fuel for sustained operations or are we going to have them running for a week and then the whole thing will collapse again?
And secondly, and this is a question that perhaps Margaret might want to chime in on as well, what kind of access to PDF paediatric care is there for kids in Gaza at this point after all the aid that's been coming in?
Thank you.
So it'll be a slightly more anecdotal Nick, but but in short, no echoing the secretary general that this is a this is a start.
All the aid is a start.
It's the right start.
It's definitely the right type of aid.
Fuel, medicines, food, warmth.
When it comes to water and the diesel plants, there's no way.
And This is why the message is time and again is the pauses have to turn into a ceasefire.
If we turn around in two days, seven days, and there's, there's there's attacks again, the fighting begins, then there is no way there will be enough fuel that has been able to get to the north, get to those detailed plants, the type of machinery that's needed for repairs, and we will be back to where we are now.
Except of course, people have started from a position of a nightmare and they'll only have, yeah, they'll be, they'll start from zero and go down.
So, So no, all this aid is, is triage.
There's no doubt.
And it's not even enough for triage.
So that's on the fuel and that's that's on the food and that's on the the cooking gas and everything else.
Paediatric care.
You know, Nick, there's those phrases of things that, you know, every child or a war zone or nowhere is safe.
Was only coming in I I expected the worst incoming and I was surprised that it was even worse than I'd imagined.
Hospitals for children, hospitals.
War zones.
I see children with with horrendous wounds of war in car parks, on makeshift mattresses, in gardens everywhere.
Doctors having to make horrendous decisions on, you know, who they prioritise remembering.
Of course, when a mortar shell hits a family home, the injuries to a child are not one or two.
But if I think of the little boy I saw coming from Schieffer who'd spent three or four days on a bus in that 40 kilometres because of checkpoints and so on, had not had any help and his missing left leg, the smell was clear that that was decomposing.
That boy had that had shrapnel over potentially was blind and had burns to 50% of his body.
It's not an outlier.
Those, those wounds are everywhere.
The hospitals I see here, hospitals where, where I went to in the north, it's the same the, the church at the hospital I was at in the north had been turned into an emergency ward.
It too had marks of, of shells or some type of some type of weaponry.
So paediatric care, everything here is emergency care right now.
A young last word.
Sorry Nick, but I met a young woman yesterday who's 21 and just finished the fourth year of her medical degree.
It's a seven-year degree.
She struck me as one of those young women who'd been studying 4 hours a day.
She was 10, just phenomenal brain and heart and all she's ever wanted to do is be a doctor.
And this was her year of being able to go and do practise and so on.
And she bought her stethoscope and her gown and she said but I see the doctors here, they're not doctors, they're just burying patients.
Now of course what they are doing is saving immense lives.
They work tirelessly.
It's phenomenal, but I understand her point there.
The the the the world of doctors and healthcare workers is is not what they would ever have signed up for, but it's a war zone and and they are doing everything in the most trying conditions.
Thank you.
And maybe Margaret, you'll, you'll give us a little bit more on on on the situation in the hospital.
But before Gabriella has a question to James.
Yes, thank you very much, Alessandra.
Thank you.
James, if you can elaborate or just clarify on the situation with the regard of drinking water, how many Desalina tion plants are working?
The population, especially children are drinking salty water, water that has a **** content of salt.
So how many children can die in these conditions because W2 and experts say that thousands are at risk of dying from severe diarrhoea.
Do you see this scenario like there?
Good answer.
Yes, I wish I had the way of when we went to the north.
One of the things that assessment has been done, fuel is going, getting the desal plants working.
I hope in about 90 minutes to get an overview and I will share it with everyone even just on that group in terms of the status of desal plants and what water is coming in, who is absolutely right in that concern.
We've reiterated that a Doctor Who I met in the north, who'd spent four weeks in Shifa and before that at Turkish Hospital, was very clear when he spoke to me that the threats to children are very much from the air and now very much on the ground.
He was terrified as a medical professional in terms of the disease outbreak that is that is lurking here and how that will devastate children who are immune systems and lack of food already is making them perilous, perilously weak.
Again, anecdotally, as a non medical professional, when I'm in hospitals, yeah, it's children with wounds of war and it's children with gastro and who are sick everywhere.
And I meet a lot of parents who are medical professionals or at least have master's degrees.
They know exactly what their children need.
They don't have access to safe water and it's crippling them.
And the clearest thing that that spoke to me about both that and the trauma here was a young guy in his 30s who had a 2 year old and a nine month old in the hospital very sick for gastro because he just had not been able to get them clean water.
He knew what they needed.
And he simply said to me, James, it's just one thing I want to do when this war ends.
And I asked him what thinking of some type of celebration.
And he simply said, I just want to cry.
And what he means is the brave face.
Everyone is trying to keep that face to their children as if they they've got this.
But they are so close, so close to the edge.
Indeed, Laser, Thank you, Alessandra.
I want to talk about in the worst case scenario, if the post does not extend it or return to a ceasefire with the volume of eight entered during this post, how long people in Gaza can survive as well as hospitals and shelters can operate.
I wouldn't have the the the knowledge of across the different sectors of health and nutrition and and water to to give a number.
But if hostilities continued, if the attacks continued with anything like anything like the ferocity of the first six or seven weeks, you see, you see the mass, mass killing of children and civilians.
We've already seen that.
And now, as I say, as, as, as Gazans have told me here, they're starting from the position of a nightmare.
If it was to continue with the, the, the perilous position that children find themselves in terms of their health, with families having lost everything, with living outside, with the rain coming, with disease threatening and with, with threats from the air, then I mean the, the world time and again says never again.
And then watches it happen again.
That would would be a would be a dark stain on everyone's conscience.
But much more than any language I can I can share here, James.
Thank you very much.
I'd like to give the floor to to sorry to Margaret for WHO.
But if you can stay it's it's up to you really.
I know that it's it's complicated.
So, yeah, if you can say a little bit more so that we have the the Gaza issue a topic just to give the floor to Margaret for an update on the situation of hospital.
Thank you, Alessandra, and thank you so much, James, for being there in a really dangerous place to bear witness to what is going on, particularly with the children, but with all the people who are suffering.
And as a parent, I just can't imagine keeping your children going all this time and being able to somehow keep it together with the hospital.
So you had a question about how they could keep going.
In fact, they haven't been going for weeks in a sense, not in the sense of a hospital that we understand.
But they have managed to accept patients.
They have managed to try to treat patients as best they can because they're healthcare workers and because a hospital is where a sick person needs to be.
Now, at the beginning of this pause, one of the things we also did was go try to get to the north, which we were able to do to do an assessment of the people in the shelters.
Because remember, it's not just the hospitals.
Everybody everywhere has dire health needs now because they're starving, because they lack clean water and they're crowded together.
They're in terror.
So they've got massive mental health needs and they, and there are.
Continuing a rise in outbreaks of infectious diseases, particularly diarrhoea, all diseases and respiratory diseases.
And I'll give you some numbers from our assessment in honour.
Bear with me because I've just managed to lose the spot.
So yeah, the, the report back was that at the beginning from the end on entry into the force of the pause, we on the 24th of November, who carried out an assessment mission to the UNRWA shelters north of Gaza.
And the things they noted were the lack of waste collection around the shelters, the extremely limited access to medical consultation.
So basically if you're sick, your child is diarrhoea.
If you've got a respiratory infection, you're not going to get any, you're very unlikely to get any medical care because it just isn't available.
No medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food.
A very, we saw a very **** number of cases of diarrhoea among infants and again, there was no treatment available for them.
You know, if you have a child with diarrhoea, you need to give them rehydration to in order to keep them going until they get better.
And if you're not able to do that, they can die very quickly from dehydration.
Patients suffering from chronic conditions.
And we know there are hundreds of thousands of people with different chronic conditions ranging from diabetes, heart disease, cancer.
They don't have access to any of the critical drugs they need.
So they were being kept going like as we all are if we've got any kind of illness.
But that stopped, they don't have access to those things.
So those chronic conditions will become acute things, acute conditions and those acute conditions will **** them.
So eventually we will see more people dying from disease then we're even seeing from the bombardment if we are not able to put back this health system and provide the basics of life, food, water, medicines and of course fuel to operate the hospitals.
I think there was also a question about supplies of fuel.
We understand that the fuel has been provided to those hospitals that are still functioning, but I do not have numbers.
We have certainly provided fuel to ICRC to continue their work.
I I'll stop there, but you know, take any questions, Christian.
Yes, Margaret, thank you.
You were talking about the situation on the 24th of November and surely this medication has been delivered now what?
What is the status of medication for diarrhoea, for example, supplying the UNRWA shelters and the hospitals?
What has WHO been able to do in the meantime?
Thank you.
That's a very good point.
But remember, you don't just magically get supplies.
You bring them in, you bring them to a distribution point, then they are sent to the different places.
So the reason that assessment was done, particularly in the shelters, was to understand who needs what and where.
Now the needs are massive.
The amount of aid we've been able to get in is a trickle still, even though it's more than before.
As the secretary general said, it's not.
It's barely registering.
One of the things we did do that was important to be able to do was move the vaccination.
We had a vaccination, vaccines go through them to see if any of them were no longer functioning because of the lack, lack of power.
And we weren't able to get to the store of the vaccines before.
But you have to then go and see, are these vaccines still working?
We've checked through them all.
Most of them still were suitable and we moved them to a place where they receive a steady supply of power.
So indeed the vaccination can start.
But again, you can't vaccinate until you've got safety.
I mean, you could try, but essentially you're putting your teams in danger, particularly in the areas where you've got the children who will, who do need the catch up vaccination.
It it becomes, it's something that you really should only be doing when there's no bombardment.
Of course we have been doing it.
We have been vaccinating because children need to be vaccinated.
But we really, really need a true ceasefire, A continuing real ceasefire.
And on the other medicines, yes.
So we have been able to bring in quite a number of medical supplies.
Most of them honestly are trauma supplies because of the huge need of the of the many people who've got so much physical damage due to the bombardment.
But indeed we've also brought in, let me get the supplies we've brought in.
We moved the 7600 doses of vaccines.
We were able to deliver intravenous fluids for 45,000 patients.
And so far, we were able to get 160 trucks, 66 trucks with medical supplies.
That's not just our sets partners as well.
And these will offer serve the different healthcare needs.
So it's not only trauma, as I said, most of it is trauma, but also the medications for continuing chronic conditions.
And that's for 417,500 people.
But remember, we're talking 2 million people who need our help indeed.
Emma.
Hey, Margaret, good morning.
Thanks a lot for coming to brief us.
Can you tell us what the overall plan is for trying to get the health sector back on its feet?
I know it's difficult.
You don't know how long the ceasefire will last, but is it really evacuating the northern hospitals to the South or are you going to try and get some operational up there?
And could you say a word about the four medics that were taken?
I believe that they were taken from Awho convoy.
This is the Al Shifa director and others are.
How worried are you?
Are you involved at all in in trying to get them released?
Thanks so much.
So on the, on the medics who were in the convoy that was moving patients from the north, these were people who had critical conditions, who needed dialysis, who had had been severe, severely ill trauma patients, people with spinal disorders and also pregnant women were all being moved.
And yes, there was a period of six hours where they were detained at the checkpoint and some medical officers who were in that convoy were kept.
We're very concerned.
We made it very clear that their human rights must be maintained and they must receive all the appropriate care and, and treatment.
I do not have any more information about that that I think you'll have to speak to the those who've detained those healthcare workers.
But it's very important that the neutrality of healthcare worker be healthcare be respected at all times.
And healthcare workers are and should must always be neutral on the you asked me, oh, hospitals, yes, that's a really important question.
So we don't actually call that an evacuation.
We call that a patient transfer for a very good reason.
We are transferring people from a place where they can no longer get the care they need for their conditions to another place where there's a better chance of getting that care.
Now, in fact, in Gaza, for many of these patients, there is nowhere that can really provide the level of care they need because of the and the degradation of the health system, the overcrowding.
I mean, it's every hospital that we've moved patients to is already at over 100% capacity.
So simply transferring patients is a very difficult thing to do.
So yes, we would like to see the hospitals to be back up and running.
And we've had enormous goodwill from around the world, many emergency medical teams, specialist teams from different countries have offered their services and we would like them to plug in to the hospitals that are there to work as teams within the hospitals.
So we don't want to see a separate system evolve.
There's sort of separate system or the healthcare comes in and then it goes away.
What we need to do is to build back the system, ideally even build it back better.
But at the moment we're not even anywhere near there.
The best place for all the patients is in a well functioning health system.
Nina, thank you.
Hi Margaret, I was wondering on this.
OK, sorry, I had a similar question.
But just on looking at what was said about the AL Shifa hospital earlier when who was referring to it as an evacuation at that time and talking about it being a death zone.
I'm just wondering if you know how long it might take to get something like that up and working.
And has there been any fuel going into those hospitals in the north?
So far from what I've heard there hasn't been, but maybe I'm wrong.
Thank you.
Sorry, I don't have the specifics on the on the fuel.
I've just looked.
I've just asked colleagues if they can provide that.
And if I get that, I'll, I'll, I'll bring more, but I don't have numbers or places or any of that sort of granular detail that I'm sure you want.
Yeah.
The destruction, the degradation of Al Shifa Hospital and the services that provided is tragedy.
This was Gaza's most advanced, most complex hospital, providing the services that that are needed for people who with severe complicated illness, including women with severe with complicated pregnancies or babies who were the result of a complicated pregnancy.
So basically, if you had something really difficult to manage, Al Shifa was the place you would go.
So if you had your, you needed something that would save your life that you couldn't normally get done in a normal hospital, that's where you went.
And that's why we want to see it restored to its function.
Because again, in a health system, you need the basic hospitals, the cottage level district hospitals, you need the secondary hospitals that can do the maternity surgery, blah, blah, blah.
And then you need the tertiary hospitals, the really complex hospitals that can deal with the stuff nobody else can do.
And that's what makes a really good hospital system.
And that's what has now been essentially destroyed for by the the the loss of Al Shifa hospital.
Although again, one of the main reasons that was not functioning, remember, was lack of fuel.
So we we've not really done a full assessment of the physical damage to the hospital.
But again, it could not function because a complex hospital cannot do those jobs unless it's got power Musa.
Messi, Alexandra Good morning Margaret.
I sent you an e-mail 2 days ago about accusations against against The Who.
In fact, the Aero Mediterranean Observatory says that a group of doctors, including the director of Al Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmi, were arrested by Israeli forces during the evacuation from the Shifa to the South of Gaza and this evacuation coordinated by the World Health Organisation.
Can you please explain me what happened exactly in this case?
What is the role of WHO?
Thank you.
Thank you.
As mentioned before, that there was a an evacuation, a transfer of patients from Al Al Shifa that had been organised with definitely WHO and Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
And during that, that that transfer of patients, a number of the medical staff came as well, along with many of the patients, relatives, patients, companions.
They were stopped.
It was unexpected.
The the agreement had been that any screening of those going would happen at the AL Shifa hospital itself, but they were detained or stopped at a checkpoint between the north and the South.
And they were kept that this convoy was kept there for six hours.
And during that.
Some of the medical staff that had come from Al Shifa in the convoy were detained by the Israeli Defence Force personnel.
And that's, that's really all I have at this stage.
But as I said, we call for their human rights and their rights to be protected.
Gabriella.
Yes, thank you very much.
Hi, Margaret.
Just a very quick question is, is there an update on how many children have died from diseases such as diarrhoea?
Are these deaths being recorded in in timely way?
And also thanks to James for speaking to us from Gaza.
If you can tell us about your personal experience of being there on the ground comparing with others or something like that?
Thank you.
OK.
I'll start with Margaret and then we see if James is still connected.
Thanks.
Yes, that's a very important question.
And there is certainly surveillance going on looking at the number of cases of diarrhoea.
We're relying very much on our colleagues in in UNRWA who are doing that surveillance.
As for the number of deaths, I do not have a number.
I expect that we would not have that level of detail for quite some time.
Honestly, the deaths from overall are generally counted in the hospitals.
They're to be really horribly graphic.
These it's bodies in the morgue are identified as dead, identified as a person and then that number is counted.
So at the moment, the counting will be any, if anything, quite an undercount.
James, I see you're still there.
Thank you very much.
Would you like to answer Gabriella's question?
Yeah.
Hi, Gabriella.
It's difficult, of course.
I think it can be almost embarrassing to indulge in a context like this for someone like me who, who will, you know, be part of an extraction at some point.
Look as a humanitarian, as a father, Gabriella, it's, it's perplexing for me to think that we keep going day by day and chances are at some point apparently that the the attacks will, will continue.
I find that very difficult.
Obviously, the, the, the, the state of children is, is incredibly hard to see.
I personally make myself, you know, look at the situation of children.
I guess this is the first time I find it very difficult in a hospital and a father's asked me to come and talk to someone and another burn victim, another burn victim.
That's a very, that's very difficult, a very difficult thing, but you know, it's what's happening and we we should be here to, as Margaret said, bear witness.
So I guess for a personal sense, I, I always believed that we had a human instinct to protect children and and I've certainly here asked myself if we're perhaps not losing that.
Thank you, James.
Yes, it's a lot of courage.
Thank you very much for bearing witness of this.
I take the last two questions and then we will move on to the other subjects.
Sorry, three last questions.
No, no, I can't.
I can't.
I'm sorry.
You've had a lot of chances to speak.
We have more people to listen to and John has not spoken and and Isabel either.
So I'll give the floor to John's across this.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you for these updates.
I've just got a follow up to the questions earlier by Emma and Musa.
Margaret, what's the situation?
What is The Who at the headquarters level, Doctor Tedros and at the regional level Doctor Al Mandari?
Have they touched base with the Israeli authorities concerning the four detained medical personnel?
And also, James, do you have any data on number of children who have been amputated because of injuries in in the Gaza Strip?
Thank you.
Thanks, John.
I don't have any information about whether those contacts have happened and I wouldn't actually honestly essentially we would all those sorts of bilateral meetings remain confidential.
James or Margaret, any information on the amputations?
No, John, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
There's no anecdotal, certainly different children's the ones I've spoken to this morning, but one child that that I physically helped with his father get off a bus who would definitely have that leaded an amputation because part of his leg was missing.
3 hours later, the boy was still on the hospital floor waiting for attention.
And I'm talking to medical staff who I'm pretty sure had worked about 36 hours straight and were quite literally running, running between people.
And again, this was day two of a humanitarian pause.
So I would see someone bleed out over there, someone screaming over here, a mother screaming because someone had died there.
So health workers doing everything they can and prioritising.
I imagine knowing that that children, I guess that child was not his life was not in danger at that moment and their amputation would come.
I don't know.
I'm drifting into medical areas.
So only anecdotal and I hate to think when that number will come.
John, John, you have a follow up and then I'll go to visible and then we yes to James and perhaps Margaret can follow up as well.
I was wondering, James, given the needs that you're graphically describing to us on on the ground, are there orthopaedic surgeons and other specialist paediatricians that have volunteered to assist UNICEF's work in the Gaza Strip?
And same goes to Margaret.
Are you getting tapping into your international field hospital network?
And what is the possibility of getting, getting, getting an increase in medical personnel on the ground given the needs are so dire?
James just mentioned the child waiting 3 hours on the operating theatre.
Thank you.
I think he was on the ground.
Not even in the operating theatre.
No.
Yeah, he was.
Yeah, he was on.
He was on on the floor.
John, I defer to Margaret on specifics.
I've met more than a handful of people here in camps who are volunteering in a medical, in a medical sense, who have, you know, a medical background and, and have been displaced and are volunteering absolutely everywhere.
This is the, this is the culture of support that that abounds here.
If you're alluding to people coming in, obviously they're, they're, you know, Jordanians are building a field hospital.
Those things are those things are happening.
But I defer to Margaret for the rest, please.
Thanks, James.
And there are in fact 20,000 healthcare workers across GARS of many of them have been displaced.
So the the skills there, the personnel are, even though we are losing too many, we've lost over 100 doctors, but the skills are there.
What's needed is safety.
So the hospitals are not being bombed.
What's needed is more hospitals.
We've got so few now functioning.
I think we're down to 8, but I'll have to check my numbers.
And of those quite often they're what they can offer is reduced simply because they like the fuel, they like the supplies.
Now we've, as I said, we've been able to bring in some, but it's mountain that's required and a mountain that's required to get everywhere.
And you need the continuity of the fuel.
You need to be able to do the repairs to the physical damage.
And ultimately #1 you need safety.
People need to know they can go to work and just be doctors and nurses, that they are not going to be bombed, that they are not going to be killed.
And that applies to the people coming in.
So yeah, you're right, John.
We've had a number of different international medical teams, many with skills in orthopaedics and neurosurgery, in burns management, all of them very much needed.
Also, the ones that can provide extra primary care to boost.
But once again, they need to have a place they can do their work.
So they need the supplies, they need the fuel, they need the food, they need the water, as I keep saying, and they need the safety.
They have to know death is not going to rain down on them from the air.
And also maybe just to remind you that to have a look at the UNRWA Situation report #40 that we've distributed to you, I think it was yesterday, they are also doing an incredible job in terms of treating health patients that from the beginning of the war, they've treated over 600,000 patients.
And they are telling us that on the as of 26th of November, 9 out of the 22 on RAH health centres were still operational in the Middle and South areas recording 10,697 patient visits including Palestinian refugees and non refugees.
And there are many other data on dental emergency, dental services, national vaccinations, etcetera as well.
I'll refer you also to to those numbers.
Last questions from Isabel.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you very much.
I would like to ask on the again on the the arrest of the medical, this medical stuff as WA show I understand participated in this operation in this transfer as a guarantor of the of the operation.
So could you be clear if, Margaret, please, if these bilateral meetings or contacts that you refer to are happening and that these contacts are happening at the highest level to know where are these medical staff, why they were detained and what are their, their conditions?
Thank you.
Isabella, I maybe I wasn't clear.
I have no information about any meetings going on.
I was saying that if there were meetings going on, I wouldn't be reporting them, but I have no information about any meetings going on.
But of course, we are very concerned for the health and well-being and and the protection of the rights of those who were detained.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, James.
I, I, we really appreciate that you were that brief us from Gaza.
I, I really please take care of yourself, stay safe and thank you very much and come back if, if you're still there on Tuesday, sorry on, on, on Friday.
We'll be really glad to see you and thanks and, and good luck with your very important work.
And thanks, Margaret, for, for briefing us on the health situation.
We have now a, a session on COP 28.
So I'm asking the people who are briefing on that to come to the podium.
And while we're doing that, I give the floor to Matthew Salt Marshall, who has an announcement about the Nonsense Refugee Award 2023.
Matthew, thank you very much.
Alessandra, just a quick announcement from our side.
And during a rather bleak news environment, it's nice to have a more positive announcement for you.
The announcement is that today we put out a press release with the winners of Unhcr's annual Nansen Refugee Award.
This honours individuals, groups, organisations who go above and beyond the Call of Duty to protect refugees, displaced people and stateless people.
The war was established in 1954, and it celebrates the legacy of Friedorf Nansen, a Norwegian scientist, explorer and the first **** Commissioner for refugees.
So this year's winner is Abdullahi Mire.
He's a former refugee and journalist who's championed the right to education.
He was born in Somalia.
Mire grew up in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya.
He was eventually resettled to Norway at a yearning to serve his community.
It drew him back and he found work in Kenya as a journalist and set up an organisation called the Refugee Youth Education Hub.
This is a refugee LED organisation that has opened three libraries in the camps, all stocked with donated books and has expanded learning opportunities for 10s of thousands of displaced children and youth.
There are other winners as well.
We have 4 regional winners that we announced in the press release.
These are from the Americas.
Elizabeth Moreno Marco, she's a human rights defender who advocates for communities affected by armed internal conflict in Colombia.
From the Middle East, we have Asya Al Mashreki, founder and chairperson of the Sustainable Development Foundation, which has assisted nearly 2,000,000 individuals in Yemen who are affected by conflict.
From Asia Pacific, there are four winners who are Rohingya storytellers who have been documenting their experience, experiences of statelessness in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.
And then from Europe, there's Lena Grotkowska and Lodzlaw Grotkowski, a Polish couple whose hotel chain and foundation provides shelter and training for refugees.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony here in Geneva on the 13th of December.
That's the first night of the Global Refugee Forum and that is open to all journalists attending the forum, although there is a separate registration that's required.
The press release should have gone out to you all yesterday for release this morning.
Thanks, Alessandra.
Thank you very much, Matt.
Let me see if there are questions for you in the room.
Christian, was that a hand or no?
OK, let me look at the platform.
I don't see hands up, but you are absolutely right.
We really need to hear good stories at the moment.
And so thank you very much for this briefing.
And maybe one of the next briefings will hear more about the Global Refugee Forum and the the organisation for it.
So thank you very much, Matt, and let's go to the several colleagues who would like to brief you about the the conference of the parties that will take place in the United Arab Emirates from the 30th of November until the 12th of December.
Yesterday, the Secretary General was coming back from a trip to Antarctica has given a press conference with distributed to you the transcript.
Among other things, he said that we are trapped in a deadly cycle.
He was particularly referring to us because he had the chance to see several in Antarctica.
And he said ice reflects the sun raises, it vanishes, more heat is absorbed into the Earth atmosphere.
That means more heating, which means more storms, floods, fires and dry, which means more melting, which means less ice, even more heating.
This is a terrible cycle that must be break a bit.
At the COP, he called for solutions and especially for the political will from the leaders who must act to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, protect people from climate chaos and end the fossil fuel age.
The Secretary General said we need global commitment to triple renewables, double energy efficiency and bring clean power to all by 2030.
And indeed, the COP 28 must deliver an ambitious and credible global stock take outcome that responds to the gaps in mitigation, finance, adaptation and but also to operationalise the new loss and damage fund with early pledges.
And to hear more about this, we have Sarah Bell from UNDP Katherine use we sue for ank Ted, but I'll start on my left with every also who has brought us Banson, the unitary Director of results to speak about the investment in climate smart health products and the new report.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alison.
Before leaving the floor to Vincent Britain with our Director for results, I want to tell you that you all receive this morning the text of our interventions and the report.
And we will both be with our chair at COP in Dubai.
And please feel free to put us in contact with your colleagues there.
And before talking about the report I have, it's few important points that I want to raise on behalf of United.
United welcomes the fact that for the first time ever, the organisers of COP included an official health day at COP 2828 on the 3rd of December to draw attention to the interconnection between climate and health.
This is a key moment to put health at the core of climate action.
The climate crisis is putting pressure on an already overstretched global health system, and it's putting access to basic healthcare in danger once more.
The irony here is that the sector that strives to keep people well is also contributing to the problem, accounting for approximatively 4.6% of global net carbon emissions.
At the same time, the degradation of nature and rising of temperatures are threatening the effectiveness of health products and the availability of key active ingredients to life saving medicine.
These health aspects of climate change are often overlooked.
The report draw attention to the fact that key health products and medicine used every day around the world to respond to diseases like HIV, TB and malaria, improves woman's and child health and respond to global emergencies may not be fit for purpose in a changing climate.
The need for greener and more sustainable healthcare and resilient health system is clear, but the development of climate resilient health products in medicine, change to transport system and appropriate legislations will take years.
United is calling on the global health industry, policy makers, governments, research institutions and major barrier of pharmaceutical products to take action.
No, before it's too late, we must ensure key health product to remain accessible as the climate changes or else we risk backslidings on gains in responding to infectious diseases and improving healthcare in low and middle income countries.
As an organisation focused on products introduction and market shaping, Unitate has already became advancing this solution with the goal of introducing 30 key health products by 2030 that are more climate smart as part of the new Climate and health strategy that United will be launching at COP 2828 in Dubai on the 3rd of December.
But I would like to leave to vessel the floor to, to develop quickly the finding of of this report.
Thank you, Alvin.
And if I start by health products and climate, I think there's a few things that we already know.
We know that health products are sensitive to climate risk potentially.
We know that the health sector contributes significant emission.
And we know that health products supply chains also have an environmental impact.
What we realise we don't know so well is what it means for specific products.
And we found lots of studies that are either very generic or very specific to 1 product and one specific issue.
And This is why we decided to do a study that was very ambitious in terms of scope, looking at 10 different health products that are vital products for global health.
HIV medicines, TB medicines, TB diagnostics, bed Nets for malaria.
We've also wanted to look at a whole range of issues.
We've looked at the full value chain of those products, the eight steps from acquisition of raw materials down to the the disposal, use and disposal of those products.
But also six types of climate and environmental impacts from carbon emissions and and water pollution, for instance, and nine different types of climate risk that could be posed on those supply chains.
And finally, we involved 23 partner organisations in this effort to solidify the findings and to create broader ownership.
The first series of findings relate to carbon emissions.
And what we found was that those 10 health products are associated to very significant carbon emissions, 3.5 million tonnes overall, which is more than the emissions of the city of Geneva.
A very concrete example, Dolutegravir based HIV regimen.
This is a daily pill that is taken by people living with HIV.
Within that pill you have 650 milligrammes of three active ingredients, pharmaceutical ingredients.
Each of those ingredients is manufactured from 4 to 5 steps of chemical reactions, meaning that to manufacture those 650 milligrammes you need to you emit 200 grammes of carbon dioxide.
But then this is a pill that is taken every day.
So for a person in a year, you need to multiply of course by the number of days in a year and you get to more than 70 kilogrammes of emissions per year.
And you have 30 million people taking this treatment every year, which means you get to 2.7 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
This is why we call the report from milligrammes to megatons.
Milligrammes of an active ingredient in a daily pill can result in megatons of carbon emissions.
Our analysis also looked at potential solutions.
We identify more than 20 technical solutions that can help reduce those emissions.
Those are solutions around process efficiency in manufacturing, improving circularity of raw materials in manufacturing, or redesigning products.
What is striking is that those solutions taken together can help reduce 70% of the emissions identifying the report and 40% of those emissions could be reduced without increasing the cost of production.
And 40% happens to be actually very close to the 43% reduction target for 20-30 of the Paris Agreement.
Meaning that for those products that are very important for us, that are very important in terms of affordability, we could be in a position to almost reach the Paris target without increasing the cost of production.
Carbon emissions is not the end of the story.
There are environmental impacts associated to those products.
I'll give 2 examples.
The first one relates to the impact of manufacturing and the release of toxic, toxic waste chemicals in the environment near manufacturing sites.
This is an issue that is well known.
The solutions exist and in the report we flag in particular the potential of green chemistry.
Green chemistry is a way to redesign chemical processes, which, for instance, for TB drugs could lead to reduction of the use of raw materials by 55 to 66% and increase the yield of the manufacturing process from 18 to 43%.
Those are the types of approaches that need to be embraced more because they could help us reduce the waste of chemical, the release of chemical waste.
They could help us reduce, reduce the number of emissions because we use fewer products and they could also help us reduce the cost of manufacturing.
So it's a true win, win, win solution for green manufacturing.
We also identify in the report impacts in terms of plastic pollution, the example of malaria bed Nets, which as you know are used extensively in the prevention of malaria.
More than 200 million bed Nets are distributed every year and this produces more than 57,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year that is at this point not recycled or managed.
The last series of findings relate to the opposite effect, climate impacts, health products, supply chains and this is best illustrated with one example.
Malaria treatments, Artemisinin combination therapies, which are given to hundreds of millions of people every year and the journey of those treatments starts in China.
In China is produced Artemisia Anwar, a plant from which is derived one of the ingredients of the treatment.
This is a plant that is sensitive to heat, to dry climate and with climate change there is a risk there that the yield of producing the active ingredient is impacted by weather events.
The journey continues in India where most of those medicines are manufactured.
And actually we found that 75% of the manufacturing sites for this product happen to be in two regions of India, very localised around Mumbai and Hyderabad.
And those are regions that are subject to floods today and that will be even more exposed to flooding in the future.
2nd, risk on the same supply chain.
And finally, those products continue their journey mostly to Africa.
Take the example of Nigeria, the country where more than 30% of the malaria burden is.
And Nigeria is a country that we see heat waves increase by a factor of 2.5 between now and 2050.
And this is a product, a medicine that happens to be sensitive to heat and that loses efficacy when it is exposed to extreme heat.
This is 1/3 risk on the same supply chain of the same product that is so essential.
So what this example shows is that we need to pay a lot more attention to supply chain risk overall.
As a conclusion, what are we doing as you needed about it, First, we're going to publish all those findings.
The report is going public today.
We will communicate the the key results at COP 28 in a few days from now.
And we're taking action, our board just to prove a climate and health strategy that we're going to implement.
It will allow us to take steps towards climate smart products, address some of those issues through market shaping actions, and we also call on our partners to join those efforts and to help us take this agenda for one.
Thank you very much.
Thank you both very much and sorry for the mistake with the plate.
I'll open the floor to questions and then I'll go to the other colleagues.
Christian Eric is our correspondent of the German Press Agency.
Thank you.
My question is, can you give us one or two examples of the 40% of technical solutions that don't cost any money as concrete examples as possible?
Thank you.
So I've given one, one example already around green chemistry.
There are things around process improvements, for instance, So I'll take another example.
In those chemical processes, there are many solvents that are being used as part of the chemical reaction.
For one kilogramme of active ingredients.
For instance, for the HIV product I mentioned, you need 400 kilogrammes of solvents.
Those 400 kilogrammes correspond to, of course, a lot of emissions because it's a chemical product that you need to manufacture and you need to use a lot of energy for that.
There are solutions where you can recycle the solvent.
So use the same solvent in the manufacturing process so that you don't need to re reuse another 400 kilogrammes of solvent for the next kilogramme of active ingredient that you manufacture.
So if in a manufacturing facility you implement this kind of process, you can reduce the associated emissions.
Ben de Mendez sector Pharmaceutic Global whisk yeah common majority certain region by example in industry pharmaceutical developer merci na pretty much pure Pono Francais say effective on global essential more who see the fabrication may OC an awesome design gradient.
So it is in the fabrication lichen, the provisional pharmaceutical container said have a pressure set up.
They don't name the fabric or Swiss or general von amporte de material MMM or general fabricate or non washing.
The look at the notion.
The value of the no produce contravel buku avec de Fabrico or nano Tamo is a truth called a prepare des emissions.
So swan and swan Shin what to come as you do, don't question in English or in French.
I don't see any.
So let's continue.
You can say we we we continue with a cop and related subjects.
Maybe I'll do the platformer now and I go to Sarah and then we'll finish with Kathleen.
Sarah, you also have a a report to launch, right?
Hi, yeah, Mercy book.
Well, it's on harm Mercy book collect as we're continuing on on, on clay.
UNDP has launched today's human climate Horizon.
This is a data platform that provides localised information across 24,000 region in the world on future impacts of climate change across several dimension of human development and human security.
This is where the result of a joint work of Climate Impact Lab and UNDP Human Development Report Office.
So the platform aggregates data and provides multiple policy scenario through the end of the century on the potential human cost of climate change.
And the the objective of the of the of the platform is to influence behaviour change and support support policies to accelerate mitigation and adaptation.
The specific release that I shared with you this morning through a press release bring forward the effect of climate change on coastal land and flooding.
It builds upon available research and data on climate change effect on mortality, labour and energy demand.
And there there is a good statistic on how many low lying region along the coast of Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia will face a severe ****** of permanent inundation and and how flooding will trigger a reversal in human development in coastal communities.
Well worldwide.
This is only the first release and there there will be further released.
The next one is plan to focus on food production system.
So as I said, you receive the press release that include the link to the platform.
Please have a look at the platform and I can ask one of our colleagues to walk you through the data and the functionality of the platform.
Just in addition, I will coordinate the media request at COP.
Our senior leadership will be on the ground throughout the the two weeks including UNDP administrator at the beginning of CUP, the original director for Africa, the original director for Arab States and our head of negotiation with throughout the the two weeks.
So please reach out if you're looking for specific information.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sarah.
Any question to the NDP?
I don't see any in the room on the platform, no.
So thank you, Sarah for this update.
And then let's conclude with Kathleen Rebecca Greenspan de fundra de strategy commercial a industrial vert accelerate transition versus energy carbon making guarantees OC transition a remedial principles of symmetry economic development specific Organism pavilion de de O commerce Isabel la Maison de commerce Organism.
This solution metre permit commerce sweat and accelerator dizzy forum fibre ducrima Edu development Duhab EQ peace contribute and transition just very an economy of fab emission carbon you see Rebecca Greenspan the politic climatic commercial.
Do I have functioning awesome.
I love column and develop more inclusive.
The adaptation and the transition where this economy are fabulous on carbon if if offers a de contractino Sierra fiscal may you see the infrastructure, the construction, the Maison plus the institution adequate it acce eliminated with technology or competitors or connaissance auto capacity necessary development economic le peon development of busuan de simil milia DC demitrante.
It's a unique model de peon development le commerce de venir enforced or service dubian this institutional exist le role source exist le finance more exist le finance exists 1 seccomo legerate crestafer emerging put involunte politique le leader que por La Porte la finos polyclima E central Nos ET question.
And development keeper made the service don't like that the system proposes system, system don't development participate active.
The.
Well, I don't know to the web, to the programme or can you participate?
OK, like you said it active cop is just we have a disposition.
I want the formula sorry, switch back to English and before we we close this this page on the cup 28, just to to let you know, I've put it in the chart, but you can also easily find it on on the web.
The UN web page for the Cup 28 is available in six languages.
It's an easy link un.org climate change COP 28 that put you the link in the in the chat and there will be all kinds of updates during the COP on this page and also links to the other agencies worker.
So don't hesitate to go and consult these.
I have two short updates for you.
Also.
First of all, I've been asked by the Office of the Special Invite for Syria to let you know that today at 4:00 PM Geneva time, 10 AM in New York, the Deputy Special Envoy for Syria and Ajat Rushdie will be briefing the Security Council.
And as usual, as delivered remarks will be distributed when she concludes quickly.
Also just a reminder of the press conference of the **** Commissioner Folker took, who will speak you on Wednesday, 6th of December at 11 AM.
This is the the usual end of year press conference of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights.
He will also, of course, speak about the 75th commemoration, 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also speaking about a wide range of topics.
So I'm sure you'll be very numerous at this press conference.
I also would like to remind you, oops, sorry to remind you of the invitation we have distributed yesterday, I think to the special meeting which will be held at the Paladin assume on Wednesday 29th, this time 29th of November, to mark the annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People.
Spoken a lot about that already.
And this is an International Day that we always commemorate here at the Palais.
The our Director General of the Tierra Balu Via will be opening the meeting within actory remarks and with the statement of the Secretary General.
We will also have representatives of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inaliable Rights of the Palestinian People, Special Committee to investigate Israeli practises affecting the human rights of Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied Territory, League of Arab States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Non Aligned Movement, the African Union.
NGOs are credited to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the State of Palestine.
They will all send representative who will speak at this event.
This will be webcast live on web TV, on UN Web TV and will open at 11:00 AM in Room 17 of the Palais.
This is going to be lasting about about one hour and a half.
Very, very last point is the fact that the third is concluding this morning, the report of South Africa.
They are left with Bulgaria and Vietnam to analyse the reports of these two countries.
The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants, Workers and Members of their Family that opened yesterday, it's 37th session, is reviewing the report of Uruguay.
Today.
They will have also the reports from Kyrgyzstan and South America and principle to examine.
And I think this is all I had for you.
So I don't know if there are any other questions to my colleagues on the podium or to me.
John Zara Costas yes, thank you, Alessandra, it's just a housekeeping observation.
That would be quite a few colleagues have mentioned this to me and I'm speaking as a committee member of AKANU.
It would be helpful when there's major meetings in the Palais that the agency's concern come to the regular briefing to give us a heads up.
There's 2 events this week, 1, the business and human rights in the Palais right now.
And secondly, the annual meeting of IOM, neither of these meetings were flagged in the regular briefing on Friday.
Thank you very much, John.
I take notes of this comment.
Yes, indeed we will.
We will inform our colleagues of of this remark.
And as I was saying before, as you all know, there are two major events happening in the week of starting the 10th of December, ending in the 15th.
1 is the 17th, 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the other one is the global refugee from as we said before with Matt, they will brief you on this event that's going to happen in Pallexpo, but it's aun event.
So they the premises will be UN there.
And of course the anniversary you'll hear more from Forker took.
But I know that Elizabeth is planning to come and brief you on the events for the anniversary, I think next week, so you will have this information.
But points were taken for the meetings happening at the Palace.
And now I also think that next week on the 5th and the 6th, we have a big event on human rights and sports.
So I would ask the colleagues maybe to tell us something about that on Friday.
There are no other points.
Thank you very much.
Oh, sorry Catherine.
Thank you so much Alessandra for reminding us about the human Rights and Sport event the 5th and the 6th December.
Would the people in charge be kind enough to send us now the programme and not wait the last minute?
Thank you.
I may be wrong, but I think it is available on the on the web.
But let me let me ask for confirmation and and and and ask colleagues in any case to inform you about this.
But I think I think I've downloaded it from the web.
So maybe this is the case.
Katherine, we try control it.
Yes, Alessandra, I mean I did my homework and as you just mentioned I found that out by looking on the web already a couple of weeks ago.
But I mean there are no details.
So I mean, it would be very, I mean, appreciated that they send us the programme directly or a link directly to the page which has the programme because we cannot spend hours on the on the website searching.
OK, well noted.
I refer.
Thank you very much.
And Bon Appetit, I want to thank you and all the team behind the scene.
That's all.
Thank you very much for the thank you.
Thanks to everyone for following this long briefing and Bon Appetit and I'll see you on Friday.
Thank you.