Welcome back to the press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva.
We will continue with our topics of briefing.
And I have the pleasure to have with me on the podium Matthew Salmarsh, the spokesperson of UNHCR, who has brought us Arafat Jamal, who is the UNHCR Coordinator for the 2023 Global Refugee Forum.
As you know, next week we are going to have the organisation of this very big events.
It happens every four years in Palliixpur, in Geneva.
And I don't know who would like to start.
Matt, who are Arafat with the information about the brief name, the forum, please.
Thank you so much, Alessandra, and good morning to all.
So, as mentioned, my name is Arafat, and I'm the coordinator for the second Global Refugee Forum, taking place next week.
At the end of a devastating year marked by new, resurgent and unending refugee situations, you can sometimes feel like we're on a precipice.
Humanitarian needs are outstripping resources, and for a 114 forcibly displaced and stateless people, including 36 million refugees, conflict is tearing lives apart.
It is also taxing the communities that have so generously hosted these people.
Yet there is hope and a promise of action.
Next week, Geneva hosts the world's largest gathering on refugee issues.
We meet in a spirit of solidarity, determined to mobilise political will to relieve the stress on hosts and refugees and to seek lasting solutions for refugee situations.
Act today and we bend the arc of history upwards.
Delay and the consequences will be all too obvious.
Four years ago at the Global Refugee Forum, our **** Commissioner Filippo Grandi, when asked about the outcome of that forum, said we have the makings of success.
In the four years since, what we have discovered is that we now have the engine for that success and that engine is our approach and the means by which we intend to achieve our goals.
The approach is whole of society, it's multi stakeholder.
In addition to UN member states, we have 14 other groups involved.
These include mayors, athletic organisations, NGOs, international financial institutions, in short, whole of society.
The motor by which we will achieve success are the pledges.
These are not simply financial pledges, although these are always welcome.
Rather, these are thematic and situational pledges around specific issues of great need.
Refugee education, for example.
Only 60% of refugees are enrolled in school climate adaptation.
As we all know, nobody flees simply because of changing climate.
They flee because they are unable to adapt to that climate.
We have pledges around this, we have pledges around self-reliance, we have pledges on economic inclusion.
And then we have situational ones, including those concerning Afghans, including refugees in the Horn of Africa, Rohingya refugees, Central Americans and Central Africans.
At this Global Refugee Forum, we are having quite **** level representation from a number of governments.
We're expecting around 7 heads of state, vice presidents and Heads of Government, 3 deputy prime ministers, 30 ministers of foreign affairs plus 95 ministers and deputies.
The Co conveners of this forum are Colombia, France, Japan, Jordan and Uganda.
This time around we will also have 300 plus refugee delegates.
That's around 10% of the attendees.
This is a meaningful and overdue input to our discussions.
The highest levels of sport and business will also be present, alongside charitable institutions, financial institutions, UN agencies, humanitarian and development organisations and many more.
A word about the Global Compact on Refugees, from which the GRF emerges.
This compact was ratified in 2018 and the first forum was held a year later.
At that forum, we garnered 1700 pledges and initiatives.
That was an amazing demonstration of support for objectives, but it was also somewhat confusing and difficult to keep track of.
This time around, the pledging is focused around some of the themes that I mentioned.
It is multi stakeholder and there is a greater level of accountability built in.
In other words, we will now have the capacity to very precisely track who has pledged and how they're meeting their pledges.
Just to reiterate the four objectives of this forum.
The first one is easing the pressure on host communities and refugees.
There most over 2 thirds 3/4 of all refugees are hosted in the so-called global S.
Those countries providing this service to refugees are should be recognised as providing a global public good and we are taking action to reward them for that service.
Secondly, self-reliance for refugees.
A refugee who's unable to work is a burden, one who can work as a net contributor to a country.
Many host countries have taken their responsibility on this and have lifted restrictions on labour access and other access to other institutions.
We hope to support them in these noble gestures.
3rd is resettlement and complementary pathways.
This is a means by which wealthier countries may may demonstrate global solidarity by taking in other refugees.
When we call it complementary pathways, we're also expressing A notion that it's not simply an act of charity, but it may actually be in yourself interest.
It may be labour migration, for example.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, but least subscribed to, is creating the conditions conducive to voluntary return.
It's all very well to celebrate a refugee and to compensate countries that are hosting them, but far better it's it is to find a solution.
This is 1 area that is the least subscribed to and perhaps the most important.
Ladies and gentlemen, I myself, like many of you in Geneva, have worked on the front lines of humanitarian emergencies for over 2 decades now.
The accumulation of human misery that one witnesses in such situations can be overwhelming.
Myself, I take heart from the times that we can provide life saving assistance and I draw hope when we work with partners towards real solutions, even under imperfect circumstances.
We are taking this imperative and this ethic to the GRF, working towards solutions together where we can find them.
And I think that with focus constructive and what Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning economics professor, has called constructive impatience, I think that we can mobilise our allies towards hopeful substantive commitments and actions that counter complacency and stabilise and resolve refugee situations.
The Global Refugee Forum provides us with such a platform.
It's a moment for unity and action and a chance to engage in modern multilateralism and help to make things go right.
Thank you very much, very much.
You want to add something on the.
Thanks Alessandra, and good morning everyone.
I'll just add a couple of words on some of the media logistics.
So in terms of the arrivals and the plenary session, the media access will be pulled for that.
And we've been in touch with correspondents here, but but do reach out to me if you have questions about that.
There will be a press conference on the first day of the forum at approximately 2:30 with **** Commissioner Filippo Grandi.
He'll also make some remarks to the press at the end of the event.
I can give you the logistics of where these events will take place.
We have a planner for the PAL Expo, so do get in touch with my team around that.
There'll also be other briefings from other parties that are at the event and the announcements on that will come from Alessandra's office and from Eunice during the course of the events.
The programme has been updated online, so do go and have a look at that at the Global Refugee Forum website.
There's a host of panels, as Arafat said, some of them focusing on themes, some of them focusing on different regions.
A lot of interesting speakers there, many of whom will of course, be open to interview, and we can help to facilitate that if there's interest in that.
Accreditation closed for the event last night for the media.
And then in terms of audio, visual questions and requirements, we can provide detailed information on that for those who need it.
And I believe there will be a dedicated press centre at the.
And maybe taking the advantage of being the chair.
I would also like to say that in the framework of the very many side events that have been organised around the the Global Refugee Forum, our office is also organising a special session of Cineunu.
That's going to be a screening of the film The Swimmers lineages that will happen on the 12th in the evening the night before at 8:30 at the cinema Ampere.
You may have heard about this movie which tells the story of two sisters who two refugees from Syria who swam their dengue together with other two swimmers to safety because they were almost drawing and exceptionally before the screening.
Usra Mardini, the protagonist of the film and UNHCR goodwill ambassador and Olympic athlete will be there to tell you about the story, her story and we'll have a short discussion with her and with Osna Dobrani, the UN Women Geneva head of office, together with another Olympic Refugee Foundation member.
So I hope I'll see you at the cinema and pier at 8:30 on Tuesday the 12th.
And now I'll open the floor to question.
I'll start with Stefan Bisar, the the correspondent of Leto.
Yes, thank you for this briefing.
You were talking about the Global Compact.
What, what impact has this Global Compact since it it's adoption in 2018 have on the global issue and what did the countries, the countries that didn't adopt this global compact miss since then?
I think if we, if we say that the 1951 Convention solved one problem, namely the question of access to safety and it by and large has, has met that what the Compact has done is it's recognised the, the, the, the, the, the issue of the quality of asylum and the need for intervention in countries of large asylum.
And I would say that perhaps the biggest victory at the moment of the Global Compact has been in the in the recognition that there are no humanitarian solutions to refugee problems, but rather that solutions have to lie in the development and the peace building sphere.
The most significant element of this has been the involvement of the international financial institutions, in particular the World Bank, but also others.
Just to give an example, at the first GRF, the World Bank pledged $2.8 billion under a window for hosts and refugees.
These are grants, not loans, and they're provided to countries providing that global public good of hosting large numbers of refugees.
So I would say that is one of the the big victories.
Yes, it's true that some countries have have not signed on to the to the compact.
We encourage them to do so.
Other question in the room before I go to the platform.
Dirk Everman is a correspondent for several German speaking newspapers.
It's a question on, of course, on the Global Forum.
I was wondering, do you cover only refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR or do you cover the entire population of displaced people?
That's the first question.
And the second question is basically a follow up to my colleagues question.
I could you please elaborate more on the success rate of the pledges of the 2019 pledges?
So how many of these pledges have actually been implemented successfully?
And could you please repeat the numbers you gave from the World Bank pledge?
Thank you Stefan for your question.
Regarding the 1st about the population groups covered under the GRF.
So first, refugees versus non refugees.
Internally displaced people are not specifically part of the Global Compact.
So it is a compact on refugees, not ID.
PS In as much as the populations may be mixed, they can be covered at the GRF, but they are not part of the GRF as such.
Secondly, vis a vis refugees themselves, there are two refugee agencies, UNHCR and Unrah.
Unrah has a very specific mandate as you're all aware to pertaining to Palestine refugees in five areas of operation and UNHCR does not.
Their commissioner is also part of the GRF and he will also be speaking at the at the GRF.
Secondly, you asked the question about the the pledging and the success rates from 2019.
As per the books, the the official rate of closing of pledges is around 1/3 of the 1700 pledges made in 2019 have actually been closed.
However, I think this is not, this doesn't indicate that 70% have not worked.
Rather some of them are ongoing and they will continue to be ongoing and some of them indeed have not been implemented.
This is the reason why just to give a a contrast between the 1700 pledges we we have then we have a much lower number at the moment.
They're still coming in, but off the off this 40 are quite significant because 40 are what we call multi stakeholder pledges and off these 40 maybe six or seven will emerge to the level of a transformational pledge.
So we are all pledges are welcome, but rather than have 1700 pledges as at the first one, we're grouping them and we are now also focusing on sort of transformational mega pledges as well.
And there was a question on the numbers, if you could repeat the figures the, the number of sorry, the World Bank, yes, the so that's the window for hosts and refugees.
That was a $2.8 billion in grants and I think it was over a three-year.
That they were to be dispersed.
Thank you very much, John.
John Zarro, Costas, Franz Wancat and Lancet.
I was wondering, Sir, if you can elaborate a little bit the timetable for the VIPs and when they plan to address the forum?
And also if you have the list of the heads of UN multilateral agencies that are partners with UNHCR, if they besides the head of UNRA, if for instance, the head of UNFPA will address the conference or the head of Ocho, Mr Griffiths or others.
And secondly, do you have a compact document that captures all this stuff for the journalists as a heads up?
And if I may ask, the other day you had a pledging conference in the Palais.
Do you have a summary of what was in the end agreed by the various donors and what is the shortfall going forward in terms of refugees and asylum seekers?
So John, thanks for the question.
I mean, in terms of briefing pack, we will, we have produced an advisory already.
We have the briefing note today.
But in terms of logistics, yes, we'll pull together a media kit that will be available at the start of next week.
So we'll make sure that you get that.
In terms of the arrivals of VIPs, it's forecast for on the first day of the forum, Wednesday between 8:00 and 9:00 AM.
And thereafter, the plenary will start at 9 and will run through till approximately 1:30 and you'll hear addresses from the Co conveners, from the hosts and from various other people who are involved in the forum as well.
After that, the plenary will become will go round to the different member States and we'll we'll hear that many of the different pledges.
The pledges will also emerge, we think through some of the side events and the panels.
So if you have a specific interest in a specific area, I think it would be good for media to follow those panels.
I think that was it in terms of the logistics.
In terms of the arrivals, we are doing a polling system which will include wires and of course some photographers from the official delegations and we'll be in touch with the Correspondents Association to arrange that for next week.
Yeah, I think there were two other questions.
One was on the UN participation and then last week's pledging conference on the UN participation.
Apart from Martin Griffiths and the Secretary General, all the the main UN agencies will be represented.
I am not certain about their level.
I think that there are a few featured in some of the side events.
I'm sorry we could get back to you for for sure on that.
Secondly, on the on the pledging conference, I just wanted to make, I'm sure that there is a report out which I don't have, but just to make a distinction because obviously it is confusing since it's the same word.
The pledging conference is pledges that are that are made towards Unhcr's programmes.
The pledging at the GRF is not to UNHCR, it is to the situations or to the theme.
And in fact, we're encouraging pledges to go directly to countries or even to other organisations.
It's not a UNHCR pledging, that's clear.
I think there was a little bit good to present to make the correction.
So, but I see John has a follow up.
It's a clarification, Matt.
I was aware of the pooling for the arrivals.
I'm more interested to have the timetable of the keynote addresses by the VIPs the way we have it say when the Human Rights Council, so journalists know exactly when the various heads of state or the Secretary General will be taking the platform.
And secondly, will the event Alessandra be webcast on UNTV or not?
The answer to your last question is yes, and I'd let not answer the other.
Yeah, I can't give you the exact run of show now, John, but we will put that in the media kit that we get out at the start of next week.
But I mean, I think the key time will be between 9:00 AM and approximately 1:30 for those keynotes and then followed by just after lunch, the press conference.
So Peter Kenny, all African news.
So you mentioned that they're going to be some heads of state there and national leaders.
Are you able to name some of the heads of state and national leaders you're going to be there?
Yes, I mean those, so those that have confirmed through an official not for a ball include for example, there is the King of Jordan who's one of the the Co conveners.
There is the Vice President of Colombia who has also confirmed.
There is the Prime Minister of Lebanon, the Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
And I think there's one more.
These are some of the ones that have confirmed.
Obviously this can be subject to change, but this is what we have at the moment.
MFA of Japan is MFA of Japan.
So we we have over 30 Mfas.
Japan is at the MFA and and about 95 line ministers, an impressive number.
Thank you very much, Stefan, Sorry, I forgot you you had a follow up.
By the way, is Macron coming?
Because everybody was talking about Macron.
I, I would, I would ask you to direct that question to the French permanent mission.
France will be represented at a very **** level.
I know that they're having some scheduling issues, so they will, they will confirm that later.
When the Global Compact was adopted in 2018, it fuelled a lot of disinformation and set off a lot of very strong reaction from extreme right movements and parties.
I was wondering here, how today are you afraid of of that coming up again?
And have you noticed over the last five years some kind of kind of big instrumental instrumentalization of the Global Compact by extreme right movement?
So I wouldn't necessarily say that the causality was at the compact triggered different reactions to it.
And obviously, as, as we know, migration is, is a is a very hot topic surrounded by clouds of disinformation and often short term political manoeuvring around it.
All I can say on that is first of all, we should, if we look at it historically, the issue of refugees has never been a left right issue.
It is in fact enjoyed a lot of consensus in many different countries from different sides for different reasons.
Because refugees have been seen as escaping tyranny.
Refugees have been seen in the in the view of of human rights.
So various different political shadings have seen refugees as as a good thing or the act of of receiving refugees as a as a good thing.
I think what we need to be able to do at this GRF is to rise above this polarisation and to take a longer term view.
We don't get involved in these, in these discussions at, at at the domestic level.
Rather what we want to demonstrate is that you can, you can show unity, you can show solidarity, even if things might be troubling at home because the act of hosting refugees is a stabilising factor globally and it needs to be supported.
So we're trying to pass those messages vis A vis the, the, the polarisation of today.
And I would say also that we see examples where countries that may seem unlikely to be refugee supporters because of what may be going on domestically are actually very strong supporters in terms of international assistance and political support for refugee issues.
I'd like to thank our colleagues of UNHCR, both Mr Jamal and Matt.
We will hear much more on the on the Refugee Forum and good luck with the event.
Let me just do some housekeeping.
So we have a lot of other points to to treat with the other hosts.
We are now going to WHO to hear about the situation in Sudan and then to our friends of the International Committee of the Red Cross to have an update on Afghanistan.
And then we will have also a guest from Rome talking about the global food commodity crisis.
And then we will have also some announcement, including from Christian and Key.
So quite a long list of things to do.
So just for your information, I will now go to Christian.
Christian, hello, you have brought us Doctor Mohamed Tawfik Mashal who is calling in from Port Sudan and Doctor Mashal is Deputy representative officer in charge and medical officer for Sudan and he can give us an update on the situation worsening situation in Sudan.
So I don't know if you want to start or we go directly to Doctor Michelle.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
Let me maybe just say we already shared the the speaking notes.
They should have been received by now.
So you can follow very nicely.
And you did all the introductions.
So please go ahead, Doctor Michelle.
OK, Thank you so much, colleagues.
Thank you so much, Christian, and good morning.
Good evening to all our journalists and other colleagues in call.
It is almost 9, It's almost 8 months since start of the conflict in Sudan, which affected the life likelihood in the health, the health system and the health services delivery is overstretched by this conflict, particularly in the hotspot states.
It's also affected by population movement in ID, PS in the states, which are relatively stable, the service delivery in Primary Health care centres as well as in hospitals.
According to the most recent information in data that we have from Adlai, more than 12,000 people unfortunately lost their life and more than 33,000 of Sudanese injured as reported by the Federal Ministry of Health.
So the burden of non communicable diseases very ****.
Even before this oral conflict.
51% of all deaths amongst you that is reported to contribution of non communicable diseases disease such as diabetes, renal disease and chronic heart disease are on the top of the list.
The communicable disease is also another public health problem in Sudan.
To protect the public health emergency.
Recently, Sudan reported the outbreak of cholera, but we also have protracted outbreaks of measles, malaria and dengue fever.
Population movement because of the conflict is another challenge for us.
According to most recent data, 6.8 million people forced to displace from their home.
In other words, every 15 Sudanese actually displaced from their home.
So with all of these challenges, W2 stay in delivered in Sudan.
We are working with the federal and state ministries of health, with other UN agencies, with our implementing partners in order to sustain essential, most needed and life saving health services to the most needed people of Sudan.
Do you need these services now more than ever?
WHO also to work with other HealthPartners and UNICEF completed mass immunisation campaign for other cholera vaccine in response to cholera outbreak in Sudan.
We vaccinated 2.2 million target population from age one year and above in six localities of two states, Jazeera and Gadar.
The reported coverage is 98%.
W 2 is also working overall in case management, in surveillance and risk communication, community engagement and also in a Wharf in order to stop the outbreak of cholera in Sudan.
So we are committed for ensuring better health of the people and also to responding the urgent need of the health of the people in Sudan.
We are also calling on the international community to support the Sudan Health Emergency Response Plan for the urgent need of the people on ground.
We are also calling them to support the health system of Sudan in long term in order to build back better a resilient health system.
I'm grateful for your attention.
Thank you very much, Sir.
And I will now open the further questions.
The journalist in the room, let me see if there's any hand up.
So I go to Peter Kenny, all African media.
I was just wondering, is there any particular area of Sudan where the need is greatest because as we know, Sudan is a huge country.
And if so, what are the reasons for the needs there?
We answer one question after the other.
Thank you so much for this question.
Yes, Sudan actually has 18 States and the impact of this conflict is different from state to state.
The most affected states are 5.
And the situation over there, particularly in part of the Khartoum, most part of the Khartoum and some part of the Darfur is very difficult, unpredictable, fluid and also security wise it's unaccessible.
So if you see the population moving, it's also hugely from Darfur region.
We have 5 of course and as well as from capital Khartoum.
That is actually because of the fact the the war over there or the conflict were there, the armed conflict were there is much dominant compared to the other United States that we have in peace and not part of the country.
John Saro, Costas France von Khat and The Lancet yes, I have a question, but on another topic for Christian, I'll wait.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America yes, good morning.
I would like to ask you what sort of access you have to people who are in need of, of health interventions, particularly in Darfur.
But the, the conflict is pretty ripe throughout the country.
So, and also if you would talk about the level of malnutrition, what is happening in regard to the children whether and women, whether many of them are dying because they're not getting the health care that they need.
And I understand that sexual violations is peaking in many places.
And if you would discuss that and what sort of an impact that is having not only on the physical but also on the mental problems of the people who are involved.
I'm not sure whether I mentioned Darfur, but that situation, do you have any access to the people there?
Sorry, just one more thing.
I think you are calling for international support.
I get the impression that perhaps you're not getting enough.
So what is it that you need and how much are you getting?
Lisa, I think you work for questions.
First, in terms of access in Door 4, there are several efforts in place in order to reach out as much as possible to the needy people of Door 4.
We have interagency cross-border missions from from chart particularly reach out to West Norfolk and through that as sometime to also to North Norfolk as well.
So we are delivering over from there the supply including medicine and medical equipment and other commodities inside Door 4.
In addition to that, W2 actually activated 3 apps here for supply and digistic.
One is in Red Sea, the second in Jazeera state and the third is in White Knight state.
So through White Knight state, we are also dispatching supply together with the other UN agencies convoyed based on the opportunity that we find for the ground reality which is enabling us in order to move this convoyed.
Recently we dispatched supply of media sand and non medical equipment to centre door for over there.
And then there are implementing partners like international indios who are helping us in order to reach out the supply to the end user and health facilities.
On your second question regarding the malnutrition, yes, in total 43% of Sudanese population or at risk of **** risk of the food insecurity among children.
Under 53.2 million children under 5 are reported to be acute malnourish.
Within these 3.2 million, around 700,000 of them are severely acute malnourish and within this 100,100 thousand of them are severely acute malnourish with medical complication which require hospitalisation and hospital care through.
So that is why W2 activated 20 stabilisation centres across the states, W2 providing medicine over there as well as operational support to these stabilisation centres.
In terms of gender based violence, yes, this is one of the unfortunate event in most of the conflict settings.
According to the information that we have total 4.2 million women in girls or at risk of the gender based violence in Sudan here.
So in that I think also very unfortunate event in the countries with violence in countries where which are vulnerable for such kind of situation.
Regarding the need for response, yes, we already developed our health emergency response plan, which cost it $98 million.
Up to now, we only receive $39 million, meaning the plan is cost budgeted like 40% in total.
We are still in need of $60 million.
That's why we are calling on all international community in order to fully funded this plan and to enable W2 for implementation of the plan activities for the urgent need of the of the people.
I hope I cover your questions.
Did I don't see other questions for you.
I haven't forgotten the chance.
Question to Christian, I hope Christian, please, I know you also have an announcement.
So hopefully Christian will stay.
But now I would like to thank very much Doctor Michelle for, for updating us on the dire situation in Sudan.
And good luck with your work.
And I'll go now to my right to introduce you to Mr Elwa Filion, who is the outgoing Head of delegation in Afghanistan of ICRC.
And he is here to give us an update on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
Thank you for having me this morning.
Indeed, I've just completed my last assignment in Afghanistan for the last two years and a half, a bit more than that.
And I've been starting this assignment just a couple of months before the the takeover and, and up to now the the situation has been evolving in terms of humanitarian response in in a dramatic way, starting from an ICRC perspective to not only maintaining and here I'm talking.
Mid 2021, maintaining long lasting ICIC operations in a in a country where we've been answering to the needs of Afghans for more than 4 decades while responding to the consequences intense conflict which was spreading into many cities of the country involving displacement, destruction, destructions of infrastructures are picking up the wounded and the dead on the battlefield and so on and so forth.
And this was followed in August 21 by a dramatic change of a regime that you've all you've all witnessed, which forced humanity enactors and ICS in particular to review their operations.
And from 21 to 22, ICSC has more than tripled the size of its operation in order not only to maintain existing activities exist existing services delivered to Afghan in need, but to compensate for the dramatic immediate suspensions of the massive international funding which was participating to the running of the public services in in Afghanistan.
And here a few organisations such as the ICF, on top of what they were already doing, started to fill the gap left by development actors leaving having left the countries and and other international financial institutions such as the World Bank and others.
And here we had from an ICRC perspective, focused on supporting the health services to to Afghans.
We have engaged into bringing the finance necessary to support the 33 biggest hospitals of of Afghanistan, paying for the salaries, the running cost and the supplies.
Similarly, we have engaged into bringing finance necessary to support electricity and water authorities in order to continue running services for large amount of urban populations across Afghanistan.
And this extra effort that we were engaging into in order to support public services to Afghans which were left without the the finance necessary to function.
We, I mean this engagement was meant to to be only temporary while development actors and international financial institutions would be back in activity in Afghanistan, which unfortunately for all the reasons we know in terms of the political impasse that we are all facing in Afghanistan may be mainly revolving around continuous restrictions on women's rights.
This has not allowed basically development actors, private investment in all this too to be done in Afghanistan and the the support that an organisation like ICOC was bringing to public services, specifically the hospital sector, couldn't be maintained on the longer term financially wise.
And we are facing today in Afghanistan not only a crisis linked to decades of conflicts and its consequences, the fact that since the change of regime, they are international sanctions that have a negative impact on the development of the economy, but as well on many humanitarian indicators, be it's in health or in nutrition.
We are now facing a large contractions of humanitarian fundings available 4 Afghanistan, which forces many organisations such as the OCOC to reduce its its programmes.
And when we look at 2024, huge concerns are coming from a humanitarian perspective.
There's no prospect of the economy improving.
And we see these engagements from ICRC, but as well from other organisations in the support that we've been giving so far to many vital public services to Afghans, which will have negative consequence on humanitarian indicators in health, in nutritions, in others.
And this is of course bringing a lot of concerns for the the well-being of the Afghan population for the for the future.
So this is a bit where we are at after to the mission of just complete.
We are maintaining from an ICRC perspective a robust operation in Afghanistan next year, but not to the scale of what it has been for the last couple of years.
And 1/2, which is of course, I mean in an environment where the needs of Afghans are not, are not reducing, which of course is raising a lot of concerns for the for the future of the country.
And I know that we don't have much time.
So we'll stop here and leave the floor for questions.
And I'll start with Chris Vogg, ISP.
Thank you for taking my question and thank you for the briefing.
Could you just give us a better idea of the how much you're forced to scale back?
So tell us how big you were, how much you have to scale down.
And I guess we all understand what that means for the Afghans, but OK, I know that's, that's a very key question.
Look, from 21 to 22, we more than triple the size of our operations from an ICRC perspective on only which was basically the tripling of our budget.
We maintain that and we, we manage in 22 to receive the the the funding necessary to manage that huge increase.
We maintained the same level of operations in 23 because the needs and the environment was not changing and but we couldn't in 23 receive the same amount of fundings that we received in 22.
We had to cut down very dramatically into our operations and and we from the initial plan that we had to the beginning of 23 and the realisations of that plan at the end of of this year, we have got about a good third of what was initially planned.
That's the reality today.
And when we project ourselves, we have today launched our appeal for for next year's operations, which includes of course the plans for Afghanistan.
We are projecting ourselves into an operational size budget, which is about 1/3 of what it was in 22 and initial plan in 23.
So going back somehow to the size that we were in before the takeover, while the value for money is not the same in 24 compares to 21.
So with the same amount, we will be doing less, that's for sure.
And in an environment where other actors, especially from the development sectors, but as well private actors, are not back, there's no alternative to what the humanitarians were doing to fill the gap left by the departures of others.
And the needs are not decreasing.
On the contrary, economic indicators are going down, humanitarian indicators are going down and they will be going down even more rapidly next year than this year because there's many of us, the humanitarian organisations are forced to disengage from the support to vital public services to to Afghans.
And this is the main concerns we have.
Stephane, you sadly, Tom, thank you for this briefing.
You were saying that in 2023 you didn't get the same amount of funding for your operation in in Afghanistan.
And as your President was saying, you have, you have now to concentrate on core, your core business.
Is that the case in Afghanistan?
You have to concentrate on your core business and what kind of activities did you did you have to get rid of?
Look, yes, in Afghanistan as well, we had to review our priorities and to focus on what we believe was where the, the most important part of our, of our output for the, for the Afghan people.
So we, I mean we have looked into the specific identity that we have in Afghanistan compares eventually to, to other contexts in order to decide which of our programmes would be prioritised against others.
The main, the main focus will remain in Afghanistan on our protection activities, the work we do in detention, the support that we do to families to re establish the, the, the link with their missing family members and so on and so forth.
The assistance programme that that we have in the health sector, because we are still running 7 orthopaedic centres in Afghanistan, which are serving yearly 250,000 disabled patients and, and that's something that we cannot interrupt.
We have to continue delivering that service.
So the health support that we're providing to Afghans will continue to be prioritised, such as the specific engagement that ICRC has with armed and security forces as well as armed groups across Afghanistan in terms of engaging into a dialogue for, I mean, linked to their behaviour, not only behaviour in combat, but as well behaviour in maintaining law and order today in Afghanistan.
And the the support that we are giving jointly with other the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement partners present in in Afghanistan, the support that we are giving to the Afghan Red Crescent Society and that will be the main focus for our priorities next year.
While other activities that were on the increase for the last couple of years and a half, especially livelihood programmes, cash assistance to very vulnerable communities, the support that we were giving to water and electricity authorities in a different provinces to maintain the service delivered to to urban populations mainly.
All this will be dramatically cut in volume next year.
Other questions to ICRC in the room or on the platform.
John, I believe this hand up is still the one of before.
So I'm not giving you the floor now.
Yeah, this question is for the representative from ICRC and I still got my question in pending for Christian.
So ask the question to me.
Yeah, in, in, in context of funding, you mentioned it'll be 1/3 of what it's been in 2022-2023.
Can you give us the amount in Swiss francs or in dollars that going forward, what will be the budget for the ICRC operations in Afghanistan and if you are cutting back in, in staff or not?
And if you could repeat the figure on the number of disabled people you're looking after?
The number I mean the, the figures of disabled patients receiving services through ICRC orthopaedic centres in, in Afghanistan reaches now about 250,000 patients a year.
And these are regular patients that are coming for treatment plus all those new patients that, that are registered in a year.
Looking at budget figures, we are looking, I mean we, we have been reaching a budget size in Swiss francs of over 220 million last year, which we couldn't keep at that level.
So we have to cut that of about a good third, as I said.
And next year the budget figures that we are projecting in, in analytical terms will be rounding around 100 million Swiss francs.
I don't have the precise figure now because the calculations were finalised over the last few days, but that's about it.
Yeah, thank you very much.
So I don't see other questions for you.
Mr Filion, thank you very much for coming and briefing us on this situation.
And thank you and thanks and congratulations for the end of your mandate.
I'll go now to our last guest who is connecting from Rome.
We have the pleasure to have, I mean, we, we, we know him well and thank you for being with us again.
Mr Parigal Keti Arachilaj, Senior Economist of FAO Markets and Trade Division.
So you have an update on the, your monthly update on the global food commodity prices.
And also I think he has a short announcement and then we will go to Christian.
My briefing is on the FAO food price index which we released this morning at 10:00 runtime.
Now in November, FAO food price index remain unchanged.
That's what we have as a decline in the cereal price index and a marginal drop in the meat price index were counterbalanced by increases in the other three indices, namely the vegetable oils, dairy and sugar.
International food prices are now 11% below what they were in November last year and if you were to compare the prices current prices with the peak it reached in March 2020, they are about 25% below now.
As for the cereal price index, the index fell fundamentally reflecting declines in maize and wheat prices.
Maize prices fell on increase the farmer sales of old and new crops in Argentina and seasonally **** supplies in the United States.
Seasonally **** supplies in Argentina again as well as in Australia, and good progress in harvest in the Russian Federation led to lower wheat prices.
Meanwhile, international rice prices remained stable due to contrasting price movements across origins and market segments.
Moving forward to the FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index, it increased after declining for three consecutive months with higher palm oil and sunflower oil prices.
More active purchases by leading importing countries underpin the increase in palm oil prices, while seasonally low outputs in major producing countries led to a moderate increase in sunflower oil.
By contrast, well soy oil prices dropped slightly on subdued global import demand, outweighing the impact of lower production prospects in Brazil.
Moving on to the FAO dairy price index, which also increased for the second consecutive month reflect increases in butter and milk powder prices may increase the purchases by North East Asian countries which coincided with limited inventories and increase the internal demand in mostly in Western Europe.
Now whole milk powder prices increase the relatively moderately as seasonally **** milk production in Oceania's current season, I'm referring to the 20/23/24 production season basically kept the price increases.
Cheese prices, however, fell further on **** exportable availabilities, especially for cheddar cheese, despite seasonally tight milk production currently in Europe.
If your sugar price indexing increased, reflecting market concerns over global export availabilities in the current season, this reflects worsening production prospects primarily related to the El Nino weather condition in particularly in two countries, Thailand and India, Plus shipping delays from Brazil and the strengthening of the Brazilian real against the United States dollar also supported the sugar prices, but was somewhat moderated by a strong pace of production in Brazil.
Lastly, the FAO meat price index fell marginally.
Basically, this is the 5th consecutive monthly drop in meat prices as global exportable availabilities were more than adequate to meet currently subdued global import demand.
Uh, despite challenging production conditions due to animal diseases.
Here I'm referring to mostly to, uh, avian influenza virus related production setbacks in many countries and challenges to exports.
I stopped here and uh, colleagues are question any questions more than happy to answer.
Is there any question for FAO on this matter or on the platform?
Sorry, I don't see any hands up apart from John and I believe this has been there for the question to Christian.
So if there are no question for FAO, Kim, maybe you want to just give your announcement and then we will go to Christian.
So I'll keep the announcement very short.
So from FAO, we would like to do a short announcement for the upcoming International Mountain Day happening next Monday on December 11th.
And this year's theme will be restoring mountain ecosystems and it will be a contribution to the UN Decade on ecosystem Restoration and to the five years of action for the development of Mountain regions.
And for this, on this occasion, a new publication jointly developed by FAOUNEP and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat will be launched that day at the FAO Pavilion at COP 28 at 2:00 PM GST, which is 11 AM CETCET.
And this report, titled Restoring Mountain Ecosystems, explains how mountain ecosystems and the millions of rural people who depend on them are under ****** and particularly vulnerable to climate change, with case studies from around the world it it will demonstrate what needs to be done to preserve and restore them.
So for those interested, there will be a press release out next Monday and I will also share the launch.
The launch webcast after this briefing.
Thank you, Keith, is there any question to yes, Riannovosti Sepaporelle?
So that's not for you, sorry.
So I don't see other questions for FAO.
I'd like to thank very much Mr Arachilaje to connect for connecting from Rome and Key for this announcement.
So let's go to Christian and I believe there are questions for you.
Christian, just wanted to say something about next week.
A key has mentioned the International Mountain, Mountain Day that is happening on Monday.
Monday we have quite a few other events.
And I would like to remind you that on Monday we are also having the launch of the 2024 Global Humanitarian Overview.
This is on the occasion of the launch, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair will host an event in Geneva on 11th on Monday.
As you know, the overview is the annual, the GHO is the annual overview of humanitarian trends and needs worldwide and the interagency plans to respond to the crisis.
You've already, of course, spoken about it with Mr Griffiths.
So until Monday, hold your horses because we will hear more on that morning about the situation, about this overview.
So the event will take place from 10:30 to 12:00.
Legend the time in room 17.
Of course, you can access the room as media accredited to UNOG.
This is one of the three events that will be happening during the day for the launch of the overview.
The other two will be taking place in Doha and in Addis Ababa.
We'll have a recorded message by the Secretary General which will be followed by opening remarks from Mrs Joyce Msuya, the Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator.
This will be followed by a **** level panel to discuss humanitarian action, community engagement and protection risks in the context of the climate crisis.
The panel will be moderated by our USG, Melissa Fleming in person here, and we'll include the following speakers.
Mr Janets Nenarchic, Commissioner for Crisis Management of the European Commission, Mrs Kelly Clements, the Deputy Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Wazim Ahmad, the Chief Executive Office of Islamic Relief, Mrs Asalama Michaelma Grimmer Ari, the Committee de Genesee, Leader Uniger, and Dr H Kit Miyamoto of Miyamoto International.
And of course, we'll be happy to answer your questions about this event.
The week will be extremely complicated and in addition to the event on Monday, you know, because this has briefed you about it, we will have the two days of the event related to the 75th commemoration of the Human Rights Universal Declaration and in general the situation of human rights.
There will be some limitations in terms of access to the parley because of the **** number of VIPs that we are, we will be expecting.
So please, as much as possible, use the Shimano Fergate and if possible public transport.
That would be even better.
We will give you some information in addition to that on security arrangements.
But as you know, Monday and Tuesday you can use your badge, your UN badge to access those events.
And then of course, as we have heard from Matt, on Wednesday and Thursday we will have the events at the PAL Expo.
So lots of things to do next week.
I also would like to give the floor to Christian because I think on Monday you will also have a press conference at 4:00 PM.
So maybe you want to tell us a little bit more about this.
Thank you, Alessandra and hello everybody.
Just to add on the the long list of events for next week, the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023 details the state of scale of Global Rd traffic depths and the progress in advancing laws, strategies and policies to reduce them around the world.
We will have an embargoed press briefing, a virtual press briefing on these key findings of the Global Global Status report on Monday at 4:00 in the afternoon.
Embargoed material will send out a press, press advisory, media advisory this afternoon and there should be an address on it where you can before the briefing already over the weekend, I assume get the embargoed material to work with this beforehand.
We will have Doctor Etienne *****, the director of the Department of Social Determinants of Health in from WHO with us and Doctor Nan Tarandi, head of the Safety and Mobility Unit.
So those those will be the two speakers on Monday.
The the launch of the report itself is on December 13th, Wednesday.
So obviously the material, everything embargoed until Thursday.
Today, the lawn, the virtual press briefing on Monday at 4 O clock in the afternoon, we received Christian.
And just before we open the floor to question, let me remind you of the press conference that will take place at 1:30 today.
This is today by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
They will present the findings of their analysis of the reports of Bolivia, Morocco, Germany, South Africa, Bulgaria and Vietnam.
And the four members of the committee will be there to brief you.
And maybe just one last point on the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which will close this afternoon.
After having reviewed the report on Uruguay, Kyrgyzstan and settlement and Principal, I think I've given you everything I had.
And so now let's go to the questions.
And I have to start with John because he's been waiting for a long time.
Yes, good morning, Christian.
It's a logistical question concerning the special session of the Executive Board.
Will there be a resolution, draught resolution discussed at that meeting or not?
Or will it be just the Director General's report on the health situation in the OPT?
And if we could have the list of participants from the board membership who might be at ministerial level, and I understand it might be hybrid, those that are not in Geneva and might connect from the capitals.
And if you have an update on the humanitarian situation in in the OPT?
All right, thank you, John.
A list of questions here.
So let me start with the special Executive board, the Executive Board special session that that's officially called on Sunday to remind you everybody, this is the executive board who calls for this and that is it needs to be at least ten members of the executive board that requests a special session.
This is then when the executive board has to hold that session.
The secretariat is obviously facilitating it, but it's the member states were asking for it.
The executive board has 34 members.
The, the, the composition is on the, the web.
There's a short agenda, provisional agenda available on the web as well.
It's, it's exactly 1 item on it.
And that's the, the discussion of the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including E Jerusalem.
We will have a report by the DG.
We will have most likely also report by the emergencies programme on, on details and then discussion.
I understand that 16 members have been of the EB.
Sixty members of the EB of the Executive Board have been sponsoring A draught decision that will be discussed and whenever that comes to a close, this whole discussion or around the session and around the decision, it will be communicated.
That means we cannot give you really any time frame.
I can only tell you logistically from our side, we're prepared from 9:30 in the morning until 9:30 in the evening.
There's a provisional timeline also also on the web and the link to the to the webcast is also ready on the on the web.
It's all ready for for Sunday.
Members participating should be made available some 24 hours before.
That means we shouldn't expect that today, but most like it tomorrow or during the day tomorrow.
Yes, it's a hybrid session.
Some members are coming in person, some will join remotely.
We also don't know who's coming remotely, who's who's, who's joining in person and for yeah, and, and, and that's it.
So the easiest is to watch it live the whole session from Ada said through webcast.
Before I come to the next point, maybe are there any, let me take over here Alessandro, any questions further on the special session, maybe we can do that first before we go to the to the other part.
And I see that John has a follow up hopefully on this.
Otherwise, yeah, yes, I think this question was asked Tariq on Tuesday.
We still don't have the letter from the sponsors that requested the special session.
I don't see it on the website yet, which is highly unusual.
Why is that letter not posted yet of the people or the countries that asked for the special session?
And secondly, will the Director General address the Security Council meeting today on the triggering of Article 99 by the Secretary General?
The the names of those members requesting, I understand they were not being made public.
Those requesting a session or the the sponsors look out for them again 24 hours before whatever we can publish, we will publish in the approximate 24 hours before.
I don't at the moment have information about the the special session today at the the Security Council.
So I don't have don't have any feedback on that with me.
Maybe I can get that in the remaining minutes here.
Yeah, as you know the secretary maybe the founder you have more.
No, not on Doctor 10th, but yes, of course at this afternoon, Geneva time, morning in New York, there will be a meeting of the Security Council and the exact title is the situation in the Middle East including the Palestine question and the Secretary General will address that meeting and you can find a link on UN Web TV.
But before we go to the Gaza issue, can I ask Robin and Antonio if the questions they are they want to ask is around the meeting of Sunday of the committee?
If you do you know when Doctor Ted Ross will be speaking?
Is he going to be, you know, in in the morning session?
Is he going to be first up if he, if you just have an idea of of when that might be?
So to my information, that's one of the first items obviously because the report by the Director general and then possibly followed by the emergency health emergencies will also be a part of forming the the, the, the the the discussion.
So yes, that should be one of the first items.
Antonio, also question on the meeting, yes, a very fast one.
Maybe you have mentioned already.
Christy, I'm sorry, but what time does it start the session?
But again, everything is literally just coming together as you as you know, this has been called very shortly.
I just put the link to some of the documents that the available documents in into the chat.
930 is what we have on our list for starting.
But yeah, I I don't expect it to start earlier.
But just to note, keep an keep an eye on the proceedings if if you want for the day and you read that on the same match.
But this is not about Gaza.
So I don't know if I can, but if it's not for WHO, let me finish with Christian so we can free him.
Any other question to Christian on this Sunday event?
So OK, so let me go back maybe Christian.
Now you want to take the questions start with the first question on Gaza from John and then we'll go to Musa, right.
So let me, let me give you a bit of an update on, on on what's going on because we received a bit of an update on the situation today.
But let's also remember it's 8 December now today and seven December yesterday marked two months of a really sad anniversary.
So it's been two months since the these horrendous and horrific attacks by Hamas and other armed groups on Israel.
It's been two months of that, that the sort of killing of innocent civilians in villages and, and kibbutzim.
It's all it's two months that we saw the chasing down and the slaughtering of peaceful young people at a music festival in Israel.
It's two months that 200 plus hostages were taken and in a in a very horrific way and kept away somewhere in Gaza.
But it's also two months since the start of Israel's campaign, not only in self defence against Hamas and armed groups, but against the whole population of Gaza.
It's it's in a campaign against innocent civilians, women, children and men that have been targeted since the last two months in what even the closest allies of Israel called is indiscriminate bonding.
It's cutting off Israel from water.
It's cutting off Gaza from water, food, anything which is necessary for any sort of life.
It's a cruel campaign and right now it's even worse with the continued cramping down and pushing the people of Gaza further down to the South.
Now even from the once before called safe zone around Kanyunis to Rafa, in Rafa, supposedly to specific areas, the situation is getting horrible, more and more horrible by the day.
If there's any possible escalation at all in, in describing that scenario.
We've been, we had discussions or we had the report from our own staff in Gaza right now yesterday evening.
And this really described some horrific scenarios of, of children and people actually begging and crying for water.
We're at that level where the most normal and basic supplies are not available anymore.
I think the humanitarian colleagues who counted out the recent days that normally in any refugee situation, any camp situation you would have, it would calculate with 7 litres of water per per day per person to fulfil their basic needs.
Right now the calculation for Gaza is between 1:00 and 2:00 litres of fresh water a day.
And that's water for everything and not only for drinking.
And you know that we are calculating as a for a normal person on the normal day, three waters of drinking water alone in order to survive and remain healthy.
We also have some scenarios where they would describe that people are starting to cut down telephone poles to have a little bit of firewood still to do any keep warm to maybe cook if they have anything available.
So we're at that level where really the civilization, civilization is about to break down.
The society is about to break down.
Our convoys had been stopped on the road as they were trying to bring medical surprise to the north.
They've been stopped more than one time only to be tried to force food and water out of them until they realised it's medical supplies and hence the Conway could move forward.
A very understandable situation and the situation that you have in many in in in any scenario where the population has been being pushed beyond comprehension is being forced into a horrible scenario that all civil society breaks down.
That's where we are today.
We had a convoy supposed to go up to with medical supplies and to evacuate 12 patients from Alali in the north to the South.
That mission, we were told this morning, had to be suspended because of the security situation.
We're trying to evacuate some patients to the UAE and and that's maybe the only positive note of the day this afternoon.
Our teams in Gaza in, in Egypt, sorry for that.
So our teams in Egypt want to visit the the hospital where the babies that had been evacuated a couple of weeks ago to see about their whereabouts and about their health conditions to have a, a slightly positive note in that hole.
Again, to summarise, it's the the situation in Gaza is beyond belief, literally the health system is on its knees.
Gaza cannot afford to lose any more health facility any any more single ambulance anymore hospital.
We're seeing what we're fearing that the South will experience the same as the North, and with all rhetoric around what's going on in the individual places.
In Gaza, we should not let get ourselves distracted from the realities on the ground.
We see these pictures everyday.
We have people on the ground to see it.
We have all UN agencies somehow present and bringing reports.
Let's not get distracted from what's going on the ground, whatever the narrative out there is.
Thank you very much Christian.
And I think you have abundantly answered John question.
But I see the Moussa has a question also Merci Alexandra, the personal progress and update Gaza W HO.
Don't belong to Christian.
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Sorry, I did not get exactly the the part about the 3000.
Please, please repeat that.
Musa, sorry this this is nearly turning into a personal question here.
I think we and I particular have been talking about the victims in Gaza and in Palestine territory a lot, if not daily.
We have been mentioning the 10 minutes a child death list every day in every moment.
We have been showing you and telling you the figures, about 70% of the victims in Gaza and in Israel being children and women.
Other colleagues have been pointing the the children victims everywhere out at every occasion.
So I don't think your, your comment is appropriate here.
I must say it as as clear as I can here.
At the same time, we have 17 about, we're approaching about 17,000 deaths in Gaza now and it's a horrible death.
And I also been mentioning, as you pointed out the first part of my, my intervention here, I also pointed out the attacks against Gaza from day one on.
I think I did that and I hope everybody could hear that amongst these and now soon 17,000 deaths, we have at least 7100 children at least, and that's many of them who are under the rubble who have not been counted for.
And this does not include the ones which I also mentioned who are begging for food and begging for water on a daily basis.
So we are pointing out, I think that more than many others, the plight of the civilians in Gaza and in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem on a daily basis, the many victims, the many needs and the absolute horror on the ground in Gaza.
And I also send you remind you, Musa, pardon for say you will run.
Oh, oh, that date, you know, you can resuade UNWRA.
We'll see West Bank that that sis Jordani, the first one was able to shift E company or suja de zafo de la sis Jordani.
Christian, you mentioned some evacuations to the UAUEA field hospital, from which hospitals are, are the patients coming and do you have any figures even approximate?
Antonio, thank you for that.
I don't have figures yet.
It's actually to to the information I have.
We're working on evacuating actually not to the specific UAE hospital, but outside of Gaza to the UAE.
But again, once we have more, once we have figures, once we have also more success on that, we will, we will certainly communicate.
I'll take a last question from Muhammad.
Yeah, thank you, Alessandra.
My question for also Christian WHO?
There are reports saying that Israelis planning to flow to the tunnels in Gaza with salt water claiming to fight terrorism.
The Israeli government also didn't deny this.
I was wondering what do you think about such methods that will make Gaza's lands in fertile with salt and destroy its resources, water resources?
Do you have already a call to Israel on behalf of humanity for such methods?
I see I can get all the questions and representing the all UN agencies here now.
No, I don't because A, it's, I can't verify it and B, it's not a primary focus of WHO let's I get, I get that our focus is on the health system in Gaza on, on all the needs, the health system in Gaza.
And while yes, of course, if that happened and then this might impact the health, but still the health system in Gaza is what, what is our focus and the needs of the people on the ground.
And as I said before, and let me let me say that one more time, Gaza cannot afford to lose any single more hospital or any even single more hospital bed.
Health workers don't have food.
The health workers need to flee and and take care of themselves on top of it.
They don't have food, they don't have water to continue working.
Patients are bleeding on the floor.
Trauma yards resemble battlefields, literally.
This callousness must end.
We need a ceasefire and we need it now.
OK, So thanks, everybody for having followed this very long press briefing.
I had promised you the floor.
Fatima was here in in person, but she's gone.
And I don't know if she's connected.
Maybe you can address your question directly to her.
So thank you very much to everyone.
Brace yourself for next week because we're going to have a lot on our plate.
Thank you very much for following this press briefing.
Just one last point, please.
Because of the situation at the pallet and the great number of people coming in and the technical complications, the press briefing of next Tuesday, press briefing on next Tuesday, which is the 12th, will be virtual only.
So don't come to this room.
We will only have the connection.
We will be doing it virtually fully virtual.
And of course, all the rest will be in person at the Palais in Room 19 and 20.
Thank you very much and I'll see you next week.
