I'd like to welcome you all to this press briefing, this virtual press briefing hosted by the United Nations Office at Geneva today, the 9th of January.
For those of you joining us for the first time this year, Bonanee, Happy New Year, hoping that this year will be more peaceful and prosperous.
So I'd like to, on this note, I'd like to immediately turn to our first two briefers, Jens Larke of the Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs in Matt S Marshall of the UN **** Commissioner for Refugees, who are going to brief us jointly on an update on the Ukraine crisis in an announcement of the joint launch of the 2024 response plan taking place on the 15th of January here in Geneva.
Who wants to start maybe?
Thank you very much, Rolando for that introduction.
And from my side and OCHA side, happy New Year.
Turning to Ukraine first, next Monday, the 15th of January, we together with UNHCR, we launch here in the Palit nation this year's response plans for Ukraine and for the Ukrainian refugees and the host communities in the wider region.
People have endured almost two years of relentless hostilities following the Russian Federation's full scale invasion.
More than 14.6 million people, that's 40% of the population in Ukraine, will need humanitarian assistance this year.
The war has also forced some 6.3 million Ukrainians to flee abroad and UNHCR will update you on that in a minute.
Civilians are being killed and injured daily while their homes and critical infrastructure are being destroyed.
The first week of January brought a wave of attacks to Ukraine, starting on the 29th of December and continuing to this day.
Families across Ukraine were bringing in the new year to the sound of air raid sirens, hunkering down in underground shelters and metro stations or in the basement of their homes.
On 2nd of January, humanitarians in the capital Kiev counted over 30 explosions in that city alone.
Haqib in the east was also hit.
At least 5 civilian casualties were reported and 130 people were injured on that day.
The Donetsk region was left without electricity or water as temperatures brought far below freezing point last week and they are still this week.
On 3rd and 4th of January, attacks continued killing and injuring civilians in the Sumi region in the north, in the Donetsk region in the east and in Kelson and Nikolai regions in the South.
All corners of the country over the weekend, no respite.
On 6th of January, another wave of air strikes in the Donets region killed nearly a dozen civilians, five of them children.
And yesterday more hostilities in Donetsk, Dinipro and Kelsey regions killed and injured dozens of civilians, including children, and damaged homes and schools.
On top of the violence, Ukraine is now in the grip of a deep winter.
A continued large scale humanitarian operation is as urgent as it ever was.
So on Monday the Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffith and the **** Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi will present our UN coordinated plans to save lives and address the suffering caused by this ongoing emergency.
There will be a panel discussion to present both plans on Monday with Martin Griffiths, Filippo Grandi, the Humanitarian Coordinator of All Ukraine, Denise Brown, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Irina Vivek Chuk and NGO representatives from Ukraine and Poland, and you, the press, who are invited to attend the launch.
It will be in room 24 from 9:30 on Monday.
The event will also be broadcast on TV.
Good morning everyone and and happy New Year from all of us at UNHCR.
I'll just had a few words on the refugee situation among Ukrainians.
Almost two years after the full scale invasion of Ukraine, some 6.3 million refugees from Ukraine remain uprooted from their homes and the majority of course are in Europe.
This is in addition, as we've heard, to some 3.7 million internally displaced people within the country of Ukraine.
And that of course, makes Ukraine one of the largest refugee producing countries in the world, but it also means around 1/4 of the population is displaced within the country.
As we've just heard, humanitarian needs are growing as intensifying shelling targets civilians and civilian infrastructure in the country.
As we've seen, particularly in the last couple of weeks, temperatures have also dropped to freezing and below, and millions continue to face insecurity, particularly in those frontline regions.
In terms of the refugees, we are concerned that many of them may be falling through the cracks.
We of course welcome the extension of the E US Temporary Protection Directive until March 2025, but the focus must remain on fully and practically including the most vulnerable in national systems in host countries.
UNHCR has carried out a series of surveys of refugees and we've been assessing and highlighting the challenges that they face.
These have shown that the majority, of course, hope to return one day to Ukraine, but just 14% of them plan to do so in the near future.
That's because of security concerns, along with concerns about access to basic services, housing and livelihoods.
The majority of the refugees plan to remain where they are, but they will require continued support from those host governments and the international community there to meet their basic needs and to access key services and build their self-reliance and to achieve inclusion in those host communities.
62% of the refugee population are women and girls and 36% are children and this of course highlights the heightened risk of gender based violence among the refugee population.
Meanwhile, only half of school age refugee children and youths from Ukraine were enrolled in schools in their host countries at the start of the 2023 to 24 school year and this marks the 4th consecutive year of education disruptions for those children.
According to our analysis, between 40 and 60% of refugees of a working age are unemployed and of course, access to work is a key need for them.
Access to Healthcare is another key concern with 25% of the refugee population in need of healthcare reporting difficulties assessing, sorry, accessing their national systems.
The Refugee Response Plan, as we've heard, will be launched alongside the Humanitarian Response Plan on the 15th of January and it will outline those key strategic priorities that humanitarian actors will pursue to provide assistance and protection to those refugees living in the main host country countries.
The plan includes 312 different partners supporting the host governments of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
I will leave it there and hand back to you, Rolando.
Thanks very much, Matt and Jens, and thanks also for sharing the media advisory, which provides more details on the event again taking place this coming Monday, the 15th of January from 9:30 to 11:00 in Room 24.
There's a question actually from Christian asking if you can share the surveys with us electronically as well as your notes.
So thank you both very much.
We have question now from Lisa Schlein of Voice of America.
Over to you, Lisa, and happy to hear.
Thank you, Rolando and happy New Year to you and to everybody else.
And as you say, a peaceful New year, a lot to hope for.
But anyway, there you go.
I, I do have a, a question for both of you and that is a support unfortunately appears to be waning for Ukraine.
We've seen this in the United States and in the European Union itself.
And so I'm wondering how this is affecting your appeals for money, the ones leading up to this, well, the appeal that you're going to be having next and what the consequences are for both the people inside Ukraine and the refugees.
If these appeals are not meant, are not met, and you don't get the money that you need in order to support them, you're going to have to make a lot of draconian cuts, I would imagine.
And how this will affect you, especially now as the weather is getting horribly cold.
Sorry you had trouble on meeting.
I don't know who wants to tackle that one first.
I don't know, maybe Yen's.
Is there anything from your side to the funding?
Thank you, Lisa for for the question.
We, we struggled with underfunding across across the appeals, all of them basically Ukraine is not particularly underfunded in 2023.
I was just checking it's 64% funded out of an ask of nearly 4 billion.
So still a lot of money is going in and a lot of humanitarian work is happening.
Actually on New Year's Eve, we have the, we have convoy #105 for going in.
So that's in 2000 and 23105 aid convoys, many, many of them, as Matt mentioned to really the frontline communities.
So a lot is, is happening if there are cuts or if the the money does not come in, of course there it's the usual either ongoing programmes will have to be adjusted maybe downwards, some programmes that may be new may never take off these kind of of of issues we have in Ukraine and and everywhere else.
So, so that is of course, that would of course be be a tragedy on Monday.
Given the history of generosity from the donors in Ukraine, A key message is very much stay the course, Stay the course as we hear the refugees themselves are not really coming back.
The situation on the ground, as I briefed about is horrific.
They they run in the new year in a reign of bombardments.
So that's a strong call to the donors to stay the course and keep up the funding levels.
Even getting it up a bit would be nice.
OK, We have a question up from Nick of the New York Times.
Happy New Year, Nick, and over to you, right?
And likewise, Happy New Year to you, too and to everybody else.
Can I just check with Jens?
I don't see in your notes any reference to the targeted amount of money that you we just lost your audio, Nick.
Did you maybe try connecting again or fiddling with your mic?
Yes, his mic is open and somehow we just lost him.
Let's see then what we can do.
We don't have further questions.
So unless Nick can manage to reconnect in the matter of a few seconds, we may need to go to our next briefer.
OK, well, let's take a follow up from Lisa and then let's see if Nick can reconnect.
This may be cheeky of me, but maybe Nick was asking for how much?
Maybe Nick, it may be cheeky of me too.
But how much money are you going to be asking for?
I think that may have been the question.
But anyway, how much money will you are you looking for?
I think that was also what Nick was going to ask when we launched the global humanitarian overview in December.
We have placeholder figures in that for the Ukraine humanitarian response plan, we're asking for 3.1 billion.
OK, Thanks very much for that one.
And I believe that was the question Nick wanted to pose because he had his hand up and he put it back down.
So I think with that, I don't see further questions for either of you.
So in that case, I'd like to thank you both very, very much for this briefing and we'll all be tuned in.
There is another question from Nina Larson of AFP.
And there'll be another one afterwards.
Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to check on the on that figure from Jens if, if that's the total figure, if it's for both appeals or if it's just just the internal figure.
I, I was just mentioning the humanitarian response plan inside inside Ukraine from the global humanitarian overview.
We have the base on the number for the regional response plan as well and that is 1 billion.
So those two should be added.
Thanks for that clarification.
OK, it's still a couple more questions in John Zarqosis and then we'll go back to Nick again.
I see you have a 10 day Rolando, it's the lighting.
Yes, Can you hear me right?
Yes, I, I see Matthew Brown is listening in.
I was, I was wondering if there's any special session of the Human Rights Council plan for the war in Gaza #1 and secondly, if Jens has any readout.
Yesterday, the US Secretary of State, Tony Blinken had a phone call with the new, new UN humanitarian coordinator on the OPT, and I'm wondering if any developments overnight on that issue.
Let's take the second question, we can turn to OPT afterwards.
But the first question or a second question rather who wants to take that?
The the second question on on the on the secret tags activities yesterday phone call for banking, was that it?
Yeah, Yeah, I, I got confused.
She, she, she had a number of of, of meetings in New York yesterday.
We have shared with all of you the what we have last night in terms of of readout of that in our lines and I have no further to that.
Sorry I've had a bit of laptop trouble today, but yeah, Lisa got my part of my question right.
And I just wanted to check with you, Jens, you said 64% of the 2023 appeal was funded and I just wanted to check what the number was, how much was requested and how much was received.
So for 2020, 364% funded out of requirements of exactly 3.95 billion U.S.
Thanks again for the clarification of Christian of DPA.
Yes, sorry Yens, I also need to clarify on these numbers because it gets very tricky.
These 3.95 that you just mentioned, does that compare to 3.1 or do we have to add the 1 billion there?
And if it does, are you saying that the humanitarian response plan is smaller than it was last year for 2024?
Yes, thank you, Christian.
Yes, the the 3.9 for 2023 compares to the 3.1 for 2024.
So it is a, excuse me, it is a slightly smaller appeal when we launched the GHOI think we we get quite an elaborate explanation for why is that, why that is happening not only in in Ukraine, but across the appeals.
A much more stringent methodology is being used to really focus on those most urgently in need across the world.
So given that we for a number of years have seen this growing gap between the requirements and the funding coming in, we from the humanitarian community have really done our, you know, our level best to be as focused as we possibly could be really do doing our side of the job before we went out this year and presented these plans to the donors.
Great, thanks very much, Jens.
One additional question from John.
Yes, yes, that's a clarification actually, I to Jens.
What I was asking was the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken had a phone call with a new humanitarian coordinator on the OPT yesterday.
And I was wondering if there's any development overnight following that call given that she's had problems of access like her predecessor.
I, I at this point in time, I do not have any further updates or developments since last night.
Of course, if there are any updates on that, we'll we'll certainly inform you.
I don't see any other hands.
So now I could thank you both very much for joining us and good luck with the meeting on Monday the 15th.
Before we turn to Doctor Peppercorn, I just, I think there was a question for you and John about a special session on OPT, which is our next subject.
I believe we have Matt Brown on the call from the Human Rights Council.
Nice to have you joining us.
I don't know if there's any.
If there's any update on that particular subject now I can answer, John, that there are I've heard nothing about a special session planned.
But as as you know, Member States can organise a special session at any time, but there isn't one in the works on that as far as I know.
But also the the Council addresses matters of Gaza, Israel OPT in many ways and just keep keep your eyes open for what we're planning on that for the next the next session.
Great, thanks very much, Matt.
Of course, we'll make sure to communicate any, any movement from the Council through Matt and colleagues at the council.
OK, on this note, maybe we'll have to come back to you, Matt in a bit later for your update.
But let's turn quickly to Doctor Rick Peppercorn, who you all well know WH OS representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, who is joining us from Jerusalem and, and joining him is Sean Casey, who you also know well, WH OS Emergency medical teams coordinator who is joining us from Gaza.
We'll start maybe with Rick and then over to Sean.
Rick, go ahead and happy New Year to you both.
Thank you very much, Rolando.
And then Happy New Year to all of you and and greetings from Jerusalem.
I say I was in Gaza a couple of weeks ago and Sean is there currently including with another colleague, Doctor Ali Dil Safar Makov.
Let me give you some some general key issues from Gaza and then Sean will focus on some more specifics and more recent visits from him to the hospitals specifically in the middle area.
So first based on on on the latest figures from the Ministry of Health, so we're currently talking about more than 23,000 fatalities of with 70% women and children.
So that is actually 1%, you talked about 1% of the population in Gaza.
We also talk about almost 59,000 people injured, which is close to 2.2 point, 7% of the total population.
So then you're talking about 3.5% of a population very much affected, directly affected.
I want to say also something about the injured because having been there and and and moving around, the Sean will probably be even more specific on this as well.
You talk about multiple trauma and trauma cases and, and patients with multiple trauma and spinal trauma, crush injuries, severe burns, amputees.
I've never seen so many amputees in, in my life, including among children, which if you think about not only the patients themselves, but the family and their communities, this will, this will have such a long term impacts for, for everything.
I mean, I just want to raise that couple of other things.
I think where we and concerns we want to raise first of all, the shrinking humanitarian space and, and the lack of access.
And we're not just talking about humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but also the humanitarian aid and the workers within Gaza so that, that, that the aid can be delivered to the people in need wherever they are in the north, in the middle or in the South area.
And, and if there is, as long as there's no ceasefire, humanitarian corridors are required within Gaza to make sure that this can happen.
And more recently we've seen the hostilities and the evacuation orders in the neighbourhoods of what we call the middle area, what's called the middle area and Khan Yunus and effective access to hospitals for looking now again at health patients and ambulances and making it incredibly complex for WHO to reach those hospitals to provide supplies and fuel.
And the three most important referral hospital in the in in the middle and South area are the European Gaza Hospital and NASA Medical Complex and Al Aqsa.
And they are all near evacuation zones.
And, and these three hospitals are the live line for the South, which is currently hosting 2 million people.
So what we actually see that a constricted flow of supplies and access, but also very important, an evacuation of medical staff from the many hospitals due their fears of safety.
They and their family leave, leave.
It's a recipe of further disaster and and makes the hospital more non functional.
So they they come from functional, partly functional, barely functional.
And then we witnessed this in the North and we want to appeal again also to the international community.
This must not be allowed to happen.
So we have not at WHO not been able to reach the north for two weeks.
Sean will refer to that more specifically.
Actually since 26 December, we have cancelled almost 6 planned missions and and our team is ready to deliver.
We've not been able to receive the necessary permissions to proceed safely and impeach the ability to support and sustain the ailing hospital.
Now the intensifying hostility is also hindering the operations in the South and to move staff and supplies quickly and safely and and because every nation now any moves across Gaza, including the South needs to be deconflicted, which leads to to delays.
So if you, if you actually summarise it from the AT and look at the systems health systems on his knees and a functionality, you talk about 15 hospitals which are partially functionally functional, 9 in the South and six in the north, of which two barely.
And you talk about 3 field hospitals which are functional and from the Primary Health care centres, only 19 from the 72 are partly functional and that's all in the South.
Another huge concern for WHO is a detainment of health worker.
We have actually registered now that that there's approximately 66 health workers who are remain detained often and often that their that their organisations, Ministry of Health, but also Pocs that they don't have any information of their whereabouts nor their families.
Last two points I want to raise is the medical referrals.
We have struggled with this medical referral, medical referral and I would say medical referral into Egypt.
We know that Egypt and many other countries in the region and outside the region, they have offered support to receive this critical patience.
But if it's not working, it's ad hoc.
And we hope that this can really progressively improve over the over the coming weeks.
All the displacement, we've said a lot and maybe we'll get some questions about that.
1.9 million people displaced and, and, and also a lot of people severely food insecure, water and sanitary conditions completely below par and increase in in infectious diseases, etcetera.
My last point I want to make and, and, and, and it's we shouldn't only talk about humanitarian, humanitarian support.
We should also talk about the private sector which needs to get going again into in Gaza.
A private sector is always the lifeline and we cannot have it that Gaza will be the Gaza populations will be dependent on just humanitarian sports.
Thank you very much There we go.
And maybe just before we turn the show on, just a note in terms of putting things more in perspective.
The 1.9 million people, this place you just heard, according to Unruh, that's 85% of the total population is staggering, 85% of the population and 1.4 million of them are sheltering in 155 Unruh facilities, which of course are exceeding their intended capacity.
Sean, over to you and thanks.
To echo a bit what Rick has already said, I mean, we're seeing humanitarian catastrophe unfold before our eyes here across the Gaza Strip.
It's not just that there's 85% of the population that is been displaced.
Many of them have been displaced multiple times Here in Rafa, where I am, There's shelters, spontaneous shelters everywhere.
People are sleeping under tarpaulins, under makeshift tents, in very crowded shelters.
And at the same time, we're seeing this humanitarian catastrophe unfold before our eyes.
We're seeing the health system collapse in at a very rapid pace, hospitals closing, patients lacking access to health facilities, health workers being forced to flee, as Rick alluded to.
And I've been here for the last five weeks, go to hospitals frequently.
And just two days ago, I was at Aloxa Hospital in the middle area, when when I arrived there, the hospital director told us that just in the three or four days before our arrival, he had lost 70% of his staff.
They had fled with their families because they were afraid.
There were evacuation orders in the area, intensification of hostilities in the area.
Just that evening, there was an intensification around the hospital in hostilities and hundreds of patients, those who were well enough to flee or who had caregivers who could help them to leave, left and fled South.
And many of the staff also left.
Actually, it was already a skeleton staff at that hospital.
When I visited and walked through the emergency department, I saw once again, as I've seen in hospitals across Gaza over the last five weeks, patients being cared for on the floor.
Actually, when I was there on Sunday, it was mostly children with gunshot wounds, with shrapnel injuries, children who have been playing in the streets when the building next to them exploded and waiting in some cases an hour or more just to be initially seen with serious injuries, bleeding on the floor.
Just a handful of doctors and nurses and volunteers there to to care for them.
And then that was before many of these staff, these health workers were forced to flee.
The same day I visited Nasser Medical Complex, which is one of the few remaining trauma centres major hospitals in the southern part of the Gaza Strip in Kanyunis.
When we visited there, about 70% of the staff were also gone.
They had fled farther S to Rafa, where almost everybody is is now sheltering, fleeing for safety.
I visited the burn unit where they have over 100 patients with one doctor.
I visited the intensive care unit with 40 patients, three doctors and 12 nurses working 24 hour shifts.
And what we continue to see is the health system suffering health workers unable to go to their workplace to care for patients because they fear for their lives, they care for their safety.
Patients who fear and their families who fear going to the hospital because they may die on the way.
And actually we heard that this morning because of hostilities around a hospital in Kanye's governor that patients and their families are risking their lives to just seek care.
And so these these numbers that represented the 22,000 plus who have been killed, the 58,000 who were injured, many of them are treatable if they're if they have access to care, they have injuries that are treatable.
They have limbs that unfortunately are being amputated because they don't have access to surgery, because the health workers have been forced to flee, because the hospitals have been forced to close, because they don't have safe transport to reach health facilities.
So we're seeing a dramatic interruption in health services, a dramatic loss of access to healthcare, health workers, of which there are many in Gaza.
Gaza has no shortage of healthcare workers, but they are victims of this situation and have been forced to flee themselves.
And as a consequence of that, patients can't go to hospitals, They can't seek the care that they need.
There's hundreds or thousands of patients awaiting surgery.
And it continues to be a shrinking and shrinking humanitarian space and a shrinking of the access to health services across the Gaza Strip.
The last thing I'll say is we're we're seeing this huge push of people to the South.
So people continue to flee to the South.
Every every evening when I drive home from the Joint Humanitarian Operations Centre where I am today, I drive past buses and bands that are chock full of people, just filled to the brim with people and their belongings, fleeing for their safety, mattresses on top of their vans.
This place is being becoming incredibly crowded and it's so crowded.
You, you can, you can barely move around in Rafa anymore.
It takes hours to go a few kilometres.
And these are people who now lack access to Primary Health care as as Rick was saying.
But there is no tertiary hospital close by that's accessible.
There is no capacity in Rafa.
Rafa was a a town of 270 or 280,000 people just a few months a few weeks ago and it now has a million plus people.
And the key hospitals are in evacuation zones or close to evacuation zones.
And so people have no way to access those hospitals and to access care.
So it's a dramatic situation in terms of the living conditions that people are in, the overcrowding, the lack of water and sanitation, the **** risk of outbreaks.
And we're seeing that with dramatic increases in diarrheal disease, upper respiratory infections and other kinds of infections that are related to the water, sanitation and living conditions.
But also lack of access to to treatment for those diseases which could normally easily be treated and injuries which could normally be cared for in the hospitals across Gaza, which are now inaccessible.
I'll stop there and have to do to take questions.
Indeed, that's a very, very dramatic situation.
And I just take note that Christian of WHO has shared some additional notes in the chat, which we'll make sure to include in the the summary of this briefing.
I'll start with Emma of Reuters.
One question for Doctor Peppercorn and one for Sean Casey, please.
How much of A risk, Doctor Peppercorn, is it that the three hospitals around Hanunis collapse given the hostilities?
And what would be the significance of their closure?
I'm talking about Al Aqsa, Nasser and Gaza European.
And Sean Casey, please, could you comment on the hunger crisis?
What signs are you seeing of this and is there a link with the types of diseases that you're seeing in hospitals?
I'm thinking about wasting jaundice, other diseases.
Go ahead and then we'll go to you.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Let me take it first and I'm sure Sean will like to add.
And I just want to mention like I was in Gaza, let's say 2 now three weeks ago for a number of weeks.
And so I visited all those hospitals in the South and a few in the north and in the north.
What's happened in the north?
And we describe to them like that hospital becomes from functional, partly functional, barely functional to non functional.
That's I think it's what we fear now what's happening in the in the middle and, and the South area.
And I remember that when I visited our hospital, which, which Sean was just describing, that was actually one of the better functional hospitals when I was there, it was crowded.
That's three times the capacity of patient, normally 200 beds, more than 600 bed crowded with ID PS within the hospital grounds and, and, and outside.
But it's still a A and emergency department was, was also overwhelmed and crowded, but it was still functional and it had a functional ICU, etcetera.
And within a couple of weeks, what shanders this pride mean very well.
I mean, like it becomes from partly functional, like almost like barely functional, whether it is now with, with not only staff moving out because of evacuation orders, an overload of patients, the, the lack of specific supplies, etcetera.
And, and, and actually overall the insecurity.
And, and that's of course how this hospital changed.
Now the question is what would that mean?
So we've seen what it meant in the north.
Now we're talking now about 2 million people in the middle in the southern area approximately and three to 400,000 still north of Wadi Gaza.
Now in the South we we talked about 9 hospitals partly functioning.
The three most important one is the NASA medical complex, by far the most important European Gaza and Al Aqsa.
They are what we say third level referral hospitals.
They have a lot of special had a lot of specialisations.
Now that is already reduced.
So we have before this crisis in Gaza, there were 3500 hospital beds.
Then every time we reduce 2002 1/2 thousand 2000, we came to 1500.
And I think we should make a new assessment now.
It's actually less now than probably in 1400.
What we look when you look at the injuries and and the type of injuries, we would actually need 5000 beds, which we don't have.
We're like we're trying to expand that with emergency medical teams located to these hospitals etcetera.
But that of course it all depends on the, on the security around that.
And, and you've seen that the, I think the, the announcement from MSF from map UK were both EMTs in Alexa Hospital and they had to really, they did fantastic work.
They did fantastic work with a lot of interaction with them and they had to withdrew their their staff.
There are medical specialists, there are, there are, there are international and national staff withdrew the staff because of the the insecurity levels of insecurities.
So we just say this should not happen.
And international community should also raise it much more strong, stronger.
We cannot afford to lose any hospital, health facility or hospital that now on the number of of diseases etcetera.
I think I want to, it's complex.
I want to make that also that point it's in, in.
I think Roland also described a little bit the UNRUN facilities, the old crowd of UNRUN facilities, the multiple makeshifts shelters everywhere and, and, and the displacement etcetera.
So and one and and and together with WHO we try to assess number of infectious diseases so.
The latest figures we talk about 200,000 respiratory infections, 30,000 escapias and almost 40,000 lice and 43,000 skin rashes.
7000A case of jaundice, which is all with a syndromic diagnostic.
So we, we got testing kits in now, but it's, we don't know if this is hepatitis A or a more dangerous hepatitis E.
What's really concerning we see more than 81,000 cases of diarrhoea and normally the average is like 2000 cases and, and per month.
So we see a 20 falls increase per month of diarrhoea, diarrheal diseases.
Well, that's of course is Siri.
Should we call it an outbreak?
We have we need, we need more information actually on this and more follow up.
Maybe, Sean, you want to add something on this?
Yeah, I'll just add two things.
One, on on the protection of health facilities.
Actually, when I met with the director of Alexa Hospital on Sunday is despite having lost a huge number of the staff, despite all the hardships and the the fear of the intensification of hostilities right down the road, his one request was please protect our hospital.
He said, we want you to come more often.
We want the international community to take action to make sure that this hospital and the other hospitals that are still functioning can continue to function.
And that evening his staff and patients, but because of hostilities and because of fear.
So what we're seeing is really worrying around Al Aqsa hospital and intensification of hostilities very close to European Gaza hospital and very close to Nasser.
We cannot lose these health facilities.
They absolutely must be protected.
This is the last line of secondary tertiary healthcare that Gaza has from the north to the South.
It's been dropping hospital after hospital.
Some of them have gradually reopened.
But the single strongest request that I've heard from any hospital director was protect our health facility.
And, and, you know, they said, actually, can you do it?
We can ask for protection.
We can tell the international community that this health facility needs to be protected.
But that's the responsibility of the international community and the parties to this conflict.
On the the question of hunger in particular, here in Rafa, the the food situation has improved slightly.
Food distributions have occurred, small markets have popped up.
People don't have a lot of money to buy food.
And a lot of those rations are for a a number of days.
And we'll need to continue for people to be able to eat.
The area is farther north.
Because we have had so many constraints to access, food deliveries have not been possible in the north.
There has not been food deliveries.
There have been very limited food deliveries, and everybody we talked to says that they're hungry, that they need food.
The extent to which that can be linked to specific deaths related to starvation or levels of acute malnutrition, we're not in a position to stay right now because we have, in some cases, no communication with hospitals.
We have no communication with entire areas.
So we can't say specifically that, you know, people are dying of hunger, but it's, it's indicative when, when I go to a hospital and see a patient who's just had a double amputation and they asked me for food or they asked me for water, but they're not getting their basic needs that and their caregivers aren't.
And those are those are the people who need it the most.
So the small amounts of food that are getting in are, are not reaching the people who need it the most.
And I think we are very close to seeing a severe food security, food security situation, food insecurity situation and hunger situation that can contribute.
It it's linked with the lack of safe water.
It's linked with the poor living conditions that all of this contributes to the ****** of infectious diseases and spreads and contributes to morbidity and mortality related to these diseases, which should otherwise be preventable or treatable over.
We'll take a question now from Imogen folks of the BBC.
Hi, thanks for taking my question.
Given what you've you've said about the the insecurity and so on around hospitals, we have heard that the conflict is supposed to be becoming more targeted.
Have you seen any evidence of that?
I can take that one, Rick.
I've been in Gaza for five weeks.
I have not seen an lowering of the intensity of the conflict.
You know, just as I was saying earlier, I went to Nasser Medical Complex just a few days ago and saw multiple explosions just in the few minutes that I was driving down the road.
And we hear about the health workers who are fleeing have been in a, in a, in an area of war for 90 days and they haven't fled.
So they're, you know, these are not people who are fleeing because they hear a couple of gunshots down the road.
They're fleeing because they're really afraid for their lives.
So I have not seen a lowering of the intensification.
And we're still seeing, you know, the indicators that we have, which are from hospitals is that the patients continue to come.
Every time I'm in a hospital over the last few weeks, the emergency departments are still seeing a steady stream of trauma, a steady stream of trauma among children who are playing in the street, among people who are in their homes.
So from our side, it's difficult to see that we are still seeing, and I can say this with certainty, is a huge number of casualties and a huge number of casualties related to hostilities.
So shrapnel injuries, gunshot wounds, crush injuries from buildings that have collapsed.
That's still happening every single day.
My understanding is that there were around 600 patients in Alexa Hospital.
What information do you have on what has happened to them since the instruction came to kind of evacuate that area?
I wonder also if you have an update on the number of medical personnel who you have lost who have been killed in the conflict so far?
And thirdly, one last question.
I mean, we've had an endless deluge of of terrible detail about what's going on in Gaza over the recent weeks.
I think it was December the 23rd.
There was a Security Council resolution that was supposed to improve humanitarian supplies to the Strip.
Since December 23rd or since that resolution, how would you assess what has happened in Gaza?
I mean, it has a deterioration accelerated since that resolution.
Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of things.
First, I think I want to add to what Sean says in his former question.
And and you know, some people might argue that the the rate of fatalities and casualties has slightly decreased.
I mean, I just want to make that point.
And what Sean also mentioned and, and, and sometimes in literally in areas which are civilian areas which we which, which they witnessed themselves, I mean like moving around Gaza.
The question on where these patients, where would we get from the hospital director that from the most of 600 patients who left hospital, they moved to Nasamel complex and Al Nigeria.
So national medical complex in **** units and Al Najjar in, in Rafa.
And currently what we get is the latest like there's one in the 45 patients and and one in the 22 medical staff present at the hospital out of a total of 260.
So that's actually is reflection.
We don't have the, let's say you asked about the, the details.
I think on the, on the, on, on the health work killed, we are unable actually to, to, to disaggregate that number of, of, of health workers killed.
And on your last question, I mean, I think it's more for, for, for, I'll say for the people, the team in Gaza, etcetera.
So since the resolution, I think I described already, I think in, in the star that for us, it's what we witness isn't, isn't complex and shrinking Unitarian space because of the also the hostilities moving, moving South and the lack of access.
And, and we mentioned that since 26 December, WHO itself forced to cancel 6 planned missions to the north.
And those were in medical supplies and, and, and, and, and equipment and fuel, etcetera.
And why is it important to all serve there?
And I think everybody agreed that there, you know, there needs to be at least a number of hospitals and refocusing at 4:00 to 6:00 to remain them operational, including, for example, Shiva, that Shiva becomes again, at least a, a functional first level referral hospital.
I mean like that, you know, starting they based on the latest information, they get one operation theatre running again.
So you want to make sure that this is that this is supported and this is sustained.
And this week we help to expand that.
And there's a number of other hospitals.
And what for me is maybe the the.
It's not don't have to write words for not interesting.
But what is incredible that situation changed so quickly.
I mean, when I visit some of this, for example, this AL acting hospital in the North, it was functional.
Two weeks later it was actually not functional anymore.
There was only some junior staff and a week later there's again some medical specialists that and it is still what we call barely slash partly functional.
So it's possibly changing, but we should, should, should help to do that.
At least a number of those hospitals are working in the northern areas and in the southern area, in southern and middle area that we don't lose any of them.
And what we have seen up to all this.
Yeah, since that resolution we unfortunately didn't see much of an improvement at least not in the in the health area.
Maybe I really wanna praise also here the health works in Gaza, this incredible resilience.
I mean like people moving back and are willing to move back to to the hospitals in the north and even talking can be facilitated.
And the same what Shawn said, we work very closely with the director and the team in, in Al Aqsa that were part of The Who in the past trainings, etcetera.
And and that he actually reaches out and tell us please, WHO continue to visit us bring the supplies that we need this kind of protection and we need this emergency medical teams to assist us in this, in this hospitals.
And they are not planning to leave, they are planning to stay and serve.
And I think we should really take note of that.
Maybe Sean, you want to add something on this?
1 is it's, I think it's important to highlight those 600 patients who left Alexa, they went to other hospitals that are already bursting at the seams.
So, you know, they're, they're, they moved to Nasser, which has a very limited staff left and was already very full way over capacity.
And on the JAR hospital, which is a small hospital here in Rafa that's not a large referral facility and it's now bursting at the seams.
So they're moving from 1 bad situation to another.
There's no good place to go in Gaza now.
There's no hospital that you can go to and expect to get care with certainty.
And the other thing that I'll say is just related to the Security Council resolution.
Basically, as Rick said, we've seen humanitarian access shrink.
It's not, it has not gotten better.
It has gotten more limited.
There are fewer places that we can go.
If we can't go to the hospitals, the health workers and the patients definitely can't.
And you know, we're, we're seeing, as Rick said, we, we plan missions almost every day to go to the middle area and to the north and we continuously struggle to get those missions cleared.
And, and that has a huge consequence.
It means that hospitals don't have fuel.
It means that patients don't have food.
It means that there aren't supplies to care for the patients.
And so that's two weeks of not being able to move to some of these most desperate situations, most desperate hospitals in the north.
And we, we continue this to supply the South.
But as I said, the the few hospitals that are remaining are really bursting.
They're bursting with patients.
They're bursting with ID PS and the health workers are barely keeping up.
They really are heroes not only for their bravery, but they're working triple shifts.
They're they're dealing with many, many, many more patients than they should ever have to see and jumping from one critical trauma to another and just barely trying to compete pace.
But they're doing incredible work under the most difficult circumstances.
Absolutely Ditto amazing work they're doing.
Hard to imagine situation there.
John Zaracosta said the Nina Larsen.
Thank you for the update.
Question to Rick and also one to Sean.
Rick, what's the latest in the emergency appeal?
Just The Who appeal for funds for the situation, the OPT, especially Gaza, how much are you funded?
And secondly, Sean, you mentioned because of the lack of surgeons, many limbs of children are not saved.
And how many children are losing their limbs in excess because of the lack of surgeons?
And how many surgeons would you need?
And if you have the number, about a month ago, I think UNICEF told us there were just over 1000 children that had lost their limbs.
I was wondering what the situation is today.
Who's like you're supporting me Bill, go ahead, let me talk.
Let me start the first question from John on the on the plans and on the funding.
So thanks for the question, John, because I think we sometimes forget that you know, we make a lot of comments and analysis etcetera.
But finally it's all about being operational and being able to support Unitarian operations.
So you, you remember there was a flash appeal from the one UN and all partners that was 1.2 billion that was for 90 days.
Then for health that was narrowed down WHO leading coordinating health for 212 million.
And then WHO was asked by partners also to what can you specifically do WHO?
And so we came to a plan with from October till January till actually till the end of this month with a total budget of 100, ten, 110 million.
And of that we secured 49 and a half million with an additional potentially 40 million in flash funds.
So we still, I want to say we've a huge and, and the focus of the plan was restoring and strengthening the health sector, the health sector on the news, including primary care, secondary care, referral pathways position, the emerging medical teams.
Sean was referring at, at a few complementary field hospitals.
And the second component was of course, public health surveillance, early warning, disease prevention and control, everything under bench with a sustained supply line of supplies and and, and logistic support and the coordination activity.
So we still very much the need for flexible funding.
What now WHO is we're redoing and and, and, and, and appeal for 2024 because we are still of course in an, in an, in an emergency humanitarian situation as long as the war is ongoing.
And I think that appeal will be at least even only for WHO in the areas of 200 million plus.
I mean like we are actually making the plans currently and we will have to update our operational plan which will end by the end of of of this month.
So that's over to Sean for the other question.
Thanks, John for the question.
So on the, on the amputations, I mean, I, I don't have a, a figure to give you UNICEF and Save the Children and other some, some estimates.
But actually what's really important about this is not the necessarily the figure, but the story behind it.
So these amputations are happening, one, because of delayed access to care.
So it takes people a long time to get to the hospital.
When they reach the hospital, there's delayed care because there's so few providers and there are so many casualties that the health workers are focusing on damage control and life saving work.
So they are triaging their trying to save a lot of lives at the same time and and struggling to do that.
And then limb, limb saving surgery.
There is a lack of surgeons.
There's also a lack of operating theatre space.
Doing surgery to save limbs takes time.
It requires A vascular surgeon, orthopaedic surgeon, in some cases multiple specialists, and it takes an operating theatre for hours.
And so these hospitals are actually focused on saving as many lives as they can.
And so their initial focus is damage control, which is keeping people alive doing initial surgeries.
And then if they have an opportunity to do follow on surgery later, they do that.
But we've heard about many cases where amputee just because there is a surgeon missing, but because there isn't adequate operating theatre space, because there there isn't the specific specialists that they need who are available at that time and because they just have such an overflow of patients awaiting surgery, they can't keep up.
So even at Alexa, when I visited on Christmas Day on December 25th, they had 120 patients awaiting surgery.
And that's when Doctors not Borders was still there.
That's when most of the staff were still there.
It's, it's not just a story about the injuries, but it's about the health system's ability to keep pace with these injuries and the complexity of saving limbs.
And the, the focus is on saving lives.
We we would love to be able to save lives and save limbs, but with these very limited resources, doctors and nurses are having to make impossible choices and focus on saving as many lives as they can with the limited resources that they have.
Thanks very much, both of you.
Actually, Rick, you wanted to add something on that point before we go to you, Nina.
Yeah, I think WH also shared an audio of an A doctor in I think it was Al Ana Hospital and he was making the same point what Sean was making that they doing at the moment.
A lot of what we call above the knee amputations instead of under the knee amputations.
Because patients come too late, they don't have the right equipment, etcetera.
And and that has also, by the way, a huge impact on the patients when when amputation anyhow, it's port horrific and it shouldn't be there.
But under the amputation and, and for prosthetics and, and for the, let's say the, for the, for your future life is relatively easier than above knee amputations.
So they possibly had to make this kind of choices what we get back and and and and, and when I was in the hospital, the two medical specialists fantastic and an orthopaedic surgeon and a general surgeon, they, they, they greatly admitted that they missed a vascular surgeon as what Sean was referring to.
So they sometimes had to do amputations, which they said in normal cases they would not amputate, you know, did they have an, an, an vascular surgeon there?
So it's an, I think it's an, and it's, yeah, amputation also, I think it requires an, an, an, an whole system and not just supplies.
I mean, like they, you also think about the, the feature therapy, rehabilitation, the nursing care and everything along nutrition, food, mental health, etcetera.
So WHO is actually supporting the the live reconstruction unit for over a decade now?
I mean, like it's part of National Medical Complex.
I mean like that should we should continue to support that and make sure that unfortunately for the future, they will have a massive amount of war over to you.
Thanks very much for adding that very important point.
The point to Rick, Nina Larson, AFPI think this is the last question.
Yes, thank you for taking my questions.
I, I wanted to ask about the shrinking humanitarian space that you both mentioned.
Israel has criticised the UN or aid agencies for, for not moving fast enough and for not doing enough.
And I was wondering if you could sort of explain what it is that's contributing to the shrinking humanitarian space, If it's, if you're, if you see any validity in those that criticism or if you could explain.
And then also in, in Al Aqsa, I was wondering the middle area.
I was wondering if you're also seeing people going hungry like you're seeing in the north, if you could say if that's also something a problem middle or, or the South.
Maybe I would like to suggest to that Sean actually starts because he's been living through this planning for, for for missions over the last 5-6 weeks.
I want to make one general comment on that after Sean.
Sean, maybe you start so the the shrinking humanitarian space is evident.
We we see evacuation orders in new areas every couple of days.
That means that those those are areas that are unsafe, where hostilities are actively underway.
We request coordination, we've coordinate with the parties to the conflict that we can move safely.
And those requests have consistently for the last few days been denied.
We are constantly trying to reach the most the areas in greatest need.
Every single day we make a plan.
Every day we line up our convoy, we wait for clearance and we don't get it and then we come back and we do it again the next day.
So between the, the, the, the, the real risk, the actual risk of danger to aid workers and teams going into an area of active hostilities and just the, the, the efforts made to coordinate movements that are not agreed to.
We have far fewer areas in the Gaza Strip where we can access, where we can deliver supplies, where we can take emergency medical teams.
We have them ready to go.
We have the supplies here.
We have the trucks loaded.
We have the people who are ready to go into the hospitals.
So it's not for lack of WHO or UN effort to reach a lot of these areas, it's lack of access.
Yeah, I I thought just to add, and I've seen this as well in the past.
It would be in really an an, an it's a fortunate maybe that there are so few journalists, you know, present in Gaza because you could assess that for yourself.
I think it's in real would be real unfair statement.
I think not just WHO but many other parts in the UN they're planning actually every day, every day for actually missions and trip, for deliveries, if it is medical supplies, for fuel for WHO, for others, foods, water, etcetera, non food items, shelter items, etcetera.
And and as Sean was saying, they get delayed or or or not approved or denied etcetera for all kind of reasons.
I also want to stress the point that that even if there's no ceasefire, you would expect humanitarian corridors to operate.
If you see that that Unitarian space is shrinking, that at least you know, all parts to the conflict, they work towards humanitarian corridors.
And so make sure that this humanitarian deliveries can take place in a much more sustained way than what's happening now.
It's too little, it's too late.
And, and, and specifically in the north and also because there's no safe space.
So for the UN and I think as what's described by by Shannon and myself now, even for the what we call the South and the middle area missions have to be positively planned and de conflicted everywhere.
So everything takes time and everything is complex and then things get delayed and denied etcetera, etcetera.
So it's an and and and more all of that.
Of course, there's of course also concerns about law and order among population among the population shown described as good to hear that now see that food a little bit better in the in the in the situation a little bit better in the South, but especially of going to the middle and the northern area.
And that's of course also an A very complex phenomena.
But I think I really want to stress the UN the one UN putting WHO and partners they're completely ready for this humanitarian transports everywhere in Gaza.
It needs to be facilitated.
It needs to be happening as such, but they are very, very much ready.
Thanks very much for adding that incredibly important point, Rick, and to you, Sean, for your comments.
Of course, this is what the secretary general has been echoing from day one, maybe just to say that.
Thank you again for printing this.
Oh, Nina, I'm sorry, before I make a comment, Nina, you have a follow up.
I, I, I just wanted to on the second part of my question, which was about hunger in in the hospitals that you're seeing in the middle and the South.
If you could just say a little bit more about what the situation is, is like there compared to obviously the horrific situation in the North.
If it's if it's better in the middle and the South.
Better, better than horrific.
So it's the food situation in the north is absolutely horrific.
There's almost no food available.
And everybody we talked to begs for food and, and comes to us and asks where, where's the food?
We bring in medical supplies.
People help us get our medical supplies through, but they are constantly telling us that we need to come back with food and, and, and that's not possible for a number of reasons, including coordination and, and security concerns.
In the middle area, we are seeing lack of access to food as well.
The, the food is just not, there's not enough coming in and there's not enough to, to feed the 2 million people who were in the Gaza Strip.
And, and it's, there's been, you know, distributions in the South, in Rafa and some commercial activity in the South.
But in the middle area, people are still hungry, including patients in the hospital, including the health workers.
Because we don't have consistent access, food deliveries to the middle area don't happen.
And, and we work with partners like World Central Kitchen to arrange food delivery specifically for patients and health workers, but they are not able to access these hospitals consistently.
And so, yes, there is a hunger situation across the Gaza Strip.
Even here in Rafa, when I say that there's some food on the market, that that doesn't mean that there's not a huge number of people here who are eating one meal a day or who don't have the money to buy the food that's on the market.
So it's a, it's a horrific situation across the board, slightly less bad in Rafa, but dramatically bad across the Gaza Strip.
Thanks very much, Sean and Nina, for those questions.
I was just going to say, well, firstly, just to ask Christian, there are some comments and I see that Christian has responded to say that he will be sharing these notes by e-mail in addition to the chat.
It's very important we get this information correct.
On that note, as you pointed out, Rick, the situation where journalists in, in Gaza is, is, is also very, very difficult.
That's why it's supremely important to have both of you reporting to us from the region to our journalists here to make sure the message gets out.
And, and thank you again very much for painting this very broad picture, very comprehensive, as dire as it is, as horrific as it is.
And as always, you're welcome back.
So on that note, I'd like to end this portion of the briefing, maybe just to stick on the subject of the OPT.
We heard a little bit about the Security Council decision last month.
I should note that the General Assembly at 10 AM New York time, so that's 4:00 PM our time.
In about 4 1/2 hours from now, the GA will hold a debate on the situation as to which veto was cast during the Security Council's meeting on the 22nd of December.
And this is under the title of the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
So this is taking place for PMR time in New York now.
Maybe just the few announcers we have, Matt Brown and Zaina Awad are patiently waiting with us.
I think you have an update on the Human Rights Council.
Yes, this is to announce that tomorrow the Human Rights Council will elect its president for 2024.
The The meeting will take place in room 20 starting at 10:00.
This is unaffected by the closure of the Palais that you may have heard about.
And also, of course, it will be webcast for people who may not want to go to the Palais.
And we you can see from the weather, maybe that's a good option.
There are two candidates standing for president of the Human Rights Council from the African Group, which holds the presidency of of the council this year.
These are the Permanent Representative of Morocco Ambassador Omar Niba and the PR of South Africa Klosi Khalisi Kosi.
The 47 members of the council for 2024 will vote for either of those two candidates in a secret ballot that will take place in the room.
And after the votes are counted, a simple majority will determine the winner.
And this will be announced in the room during the meeting and the, the newly elected President will take office immediately and we'll possibly speak to the to the Council after the election and then the meeting will close.
So that's 10:00 tomorrow morning in Room 20.
I will send a note to this effect to you shortly, later in the afternoon.
Just while we're on the subject, the there will be the second meeting and this is the what we call the selection of the Troikas, which are panels of 33 Member states who are involved in the UPR process.
It's a bit of a technical thing, but it's happening at between 3:00 and 6:00 in Room 20 tomorrow afternoon.
And just to remind you all that the 45th session of the UPR is set to begin on the 22nd of this month.
So that that's my announcement.
Thank you all and hope to see you soon.
I don't see any questions.
I think it was very, very clear.
We'll see you tomorrow in Room 20.
OK, now I will mention, well, concerning the closure, I'll mention something maybe at the end.
But before that, I'd like to turn now to Zaina Awad, who I thank for your patience.
Zaina of the ILO, who has an announcement as well.
Thank you very much and no worries.
Many of you have probably already received an e-mail about the fact that we are publishing our annual World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2024 or though we still report tomorrow, the 10th of January.
We this is when we annually go beyond the headlines and look at what the data is telling us about the the the health of the labour market and what that means for the economy in general.
We're also going to be holding a press release at 12 Local tomorrow and we've got embargoed copies of the report and of the press release that are available and ready to be made to, to be shared with accredited Pele journalists.
So if you would like to join us, please drop us a line and, and let us know.
We can share, you know, all relevant links with you.
And really what we, what the report overall will be revealing is it's going to be looking at the, you know, at, at, at key numbers that show that the labour markets have recovered since COVID-19.
But once we dig deeper, we will see that there are some structural imbalances and and structural issues that go to the core of social justice and raise potential, potentially raise questions about a sustainable global recovery, especially within the context of the many crises some of which we have some of my colleagues have already discussed or touched on today.
So thank you very much and do get in touch with us if you would like any further information or links.
Thanks to you Sena very much and do stay tuned for that colleagues.
I don't see any questions.
If you do have any questions for Sena, please do connect with her.
I'm sure she'll be able to provide more details before we wrap up.
Just maybe as alluded to as, as this briefing, as you know is virtual and the reason being is that we have extended the closure of the building here at the Palais for one additional week.
However, it's not totally closed.
There are a few activities going on as indicated by Matt, the Human Rights Council's meeting tomorrow.
We also have an event which is actually a Model UN event.
It's a Fair Moon event, a fairly Voltaire Model UN event, which is taking place in Room 19 tomorrow at 10:00 AM.
It's an hour and a half, 10 to 11:30.
This is just a note that this is a meeting that was scheduled several months ago, well before their closure was announced.
I should also note that there are a host of ambassadors who will be speaking.
Their Director General, Tatiana Bolovaya, the Director General of the UN office at Geneva, will also address the event at the open at 10:00 AM tomorrow in Room 19.
So I just wanted to mention that I don't have further announcements.
So I see a question from Nick, New York Times.
I'm just curious how much money did the UN expect to save by prolonging this closure by a week And perhaps you can give us a New Year gift, which is a date that you will commit a week's salary to to get us into our new press room.
Well, it's if it was up to me, Nick, you know, I would be happy to wrap it and put a bow on it, but it's not up to me.
But I can tell you in terms of your first part of your question, the initially as as we had announced earlier the the the original closure, the full closure took place between the 20th of December to the 7th of January.
So last Friday or until Sunday rather the day before yesterday.
With the idea was that this 19 day closure of most of the Palais was estimated to have saved 133,500 francs which is about $141,000.
And this is primarily from reduced requirements for utilities etcetera.
This is a cost saving measure.
There are budget shortfalls, which we're contending with, **** energy prices which we're contending with.
So we're doing everything we can while trying to maintain business continuity.
Again, the extension this week is meant to sort of perhaps save a little bit more money, even though there are a few meetings taking place.
We are on path to to reduce our footprint and to save as much as we can.
So I would be happy to provide more details if you wish.
Christian Yes, happily, a bit more details.
Could you tell us what is the reason why there's not enough money?
Is that countries not paying their dues, and if so, which ones?
It's part of a liquidity crisis.
Due to a lack of dues being paid.
I think maybe I would defer.
I'd recommend that you contact our colleagues in New York to get the details.
A lot of this information is available online.
I should point out it's very public.
We're very transparent about regular budget assessment.
Who's paying up and who's not paying up.
But of course it's, it's, it's a business, you know, it's, it's a very expensive operation that we run here.
I should note that of the Geneva, Geneva is about 2.2% of EU NS regular budget.
The UNS regular budget overall is just under 3.4 billion and about 77,000,000 for the UNOG operational cost.
That's about 2.2% of the overall regular budget, just to give you that perspective.
But there are some details which I cannot perhaps recite just here.
I'd need to dig a little further, but I'd be happy to share this with you if you want to reach out to me afterwards.
But indeed, in terms of membership, members who are not paying their full dues, maybe the best if you contact our colleagues in New York who are have their finger more closely on the pulse on that in that regard.
No, I don't see that's the case.
So on that note, I'd like to thank you very much.
And again, happy New Year to all of you.
Let's hope for a more peaceful 2024.
