Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Information Service in Geneva.
Today is Friday, 22nd of March and we are going to hear immediately from our colleagues of WHO Margaret has brought us, Doctor Burema Hama ***** who is The Who representative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Dr Rosamund Lewis, the technical lead for MPOX.
I believe she is talking from Geneva.
So let's start by giving the floor maybe to Margaret to introduce her colleagues and to hear about the challenges faced by the people in DRC on the situation of epidemics, violence and shocks.
Margaret, you want to start?
Well, in fact, I think you've made a perfect introduction already, Alex.
Alessandra Indeed, we've got our representative from for WHO, Doctor Borema Hamasamo, who's going to give you an outline of the many challenges, the really serious health challenges people are facing in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
And then Rosamund, Dr Rosamund Lewis will add a little bit more for the what we're doing at global level on on mpox.
So over to you, Doctor Borema.
I can see, I can see Doctor Brema, but I don't see him moving.
We do it from here, but you also needed to do it from there.
Yes, now you should be on.
Good morning to all and thank you for the opportunity to speak about the multiple challenges in DRC in Republic.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the overall health situation is worsening.
The challenges faced by the people of DRC have reached alarming levels, exacerbated by combination of violence, climate shocks and epidemics.
In many parts of the country, particularly in the eastern part of DRC, civilian are tragically caught in renewed fighting and hospitals are overwhelmed with injured people.
DRC is the second largest displacement crisis globally after Sudan, with more people faced to flee forced to flee violence.
Since the start of the year, close to 10 million people are on the move.
Poverty and hunger affect 1/4 of the population or 2425 point 4 million people.
The spread of cholera and other infectious diseases was significant ****** to the population's health combined to malnutrition.
Diseases are increasing of and are increasing the risk of mortality, especially in children and putting even more pressure on the health system.
Women and girls are praying the **** price of armed conflicts and displacement.
30,000 cases of gender based violence were reported in GRC in 2023.
These numbers are among the highest in the world and certainly are also underreported.
In addition to comfort related challenges, severe flooding has recently ravaged communities, exacerbating the risk of diarrheal and water borne diseases and compounding the strain on the already fragile health system.
Out of spots in the country And to implement, sorry, I was saying.
In addition to the conflict challenges, severe flooding has recently ravaged communities, exacerbating the risk of Darrell and water borne diseases and compounding the strain the strain of already fragile health systems.
The humanitarian needs are soaring, with women and children particularly vulnerable.
Close to 20 million people require health assistance in 2024, yet the crisis as health response remains severely underfunded.
On disease outbreaks, DRC is facing the worst cholera outbreak since 2017 with 50,000 suspected cases and more 170 cases of death recorded in 2023.
The risk is particularly **** in internally replaced people who score IDP sites where living conditions are deal with water supply, hygiene and sanitation services.
Inadequate conditions that favour the spread of cold air in DRC is also battling the largest epidemic of measles recorded since 2019.
We've closed to 28,000 cases and 70 and 750 fifty 750 deaths so far in 2024 alone.
The combination of measles and malnutrition has a severe health impact on children under 5 of age, and the lack of access of of vaccine and vaccination services further exacerbate the situation, and trucks and plagues have also been affecting the communities in eastern DRC in the last month.
In addition, the still emerging outbreak of monkey pox has been on the rise across the country since December 2023.
Close to 4000 suspected cases and 271 death recorded so far in 2024, which represent the highest case facility rates from the global world.
Over 2/3 of cases are reported in children.
In children, young children are particularly at risk of death.
There is geographic expansion to previously and affected provinces, such as almost all provinces, including Kinshasa, are now reporting cases.
This also represent effects of expansion to neighbouring countries and beyond.
Since 2023, there is a newly documented sexual transmission of monkey pox due to the more virulent cleared one of the virus with outbreak among sex workers and among men having sex with men.
Recently, WHO is supporting the health authorities to respond to monkey pox hotspot in the country and to implement the national Monkey pox response plan, including through integration and collaboration with national HIV, AIDS control and immunisation programmes.
Despite all these compounding challenges and also to say in addition to all these outbreaks I mentioned, DRC is facing many other outbreaks such as meningitis, polio, both type 1-2 and three yellow fever, silk, COVID-19, rabies, Ebola virus, diseases with a daily ****** and many other man made diseases.
But despite all these compounding challenges, W continued to support the government and the HealthPartners in responding to this this complex crisis.
WHO scales up its health response to Eastern DRC since well last year through delivering supplies to prevent and response to disease outbreak and supporting patient management, including through the setup of cholera treatment centres.
Vaccinating more than 5 million people, including displaced people against cholera in November 2023 in most affected provinces, including N Kivu in the eastern part of DRC.
Strengthening Luton immunisation activities in eastern provinces and vaccinating more than 25,000,000 children under five years old against polio.
Supporting partner to provide health services to survival of sexual and gender based violence and scale up.
Scaling up mental health and psychosocial support in North and South Kivu provinces.
WTO is calling on all partners to ensure access to life saving health services through civilian and to protect health facilities.
The world should not turn a blind eye to the situation that could have served knock, knock on effects for security and health in the region and rewards.
And I guess now before I open the floor to questions, we would give the floor to Doctor Rosamund Lewis for her remarks.
Sure, thank you very much.
I will keep it very brief because Doctor Hamasambo has has covered it as far as Mpox is concerned.
So just to emphasise some of the key points and the reason that WTO is concerned about the situation regarding the epidemic of impacts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are several epidemiological features that are cause for concern.
So one is the expanding geography with new provinces affected.
The second is the very **** case fatality ratio, which is, which is higher at a national level than it's been reported in the past, but also very **** in young infants and children in the endemic areas.
The newly reported sexual transmission of Cleib one virus.
Obviously we saw this in the global outbreak with Cleib 2B, but this is a new feature of this outbreak and the remote geographic locations in which some of these outbreaks are occurring make it difficult to to reach the populations that need support.
So WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to the global outbreak, which is ongoing with 29 countries having reported cases of M global lease in 20 in February alone.
And also turning support towards the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which includes supporting with technical guidance, supporting surveillance, laboratory diagnostics and preparing the terrain for introduction of vaccines, as well as supporting with case management and infection prevention and control.
There are a number of other activities ongoing and WHO is strengthening support to the country office through our WHO representative, Doctor Borim Assemble and this work will will continue through this year.
And I'd like to add that as Margaret has written in the chat, the notes are, have already been sent or are being sent of what the Doctor said from DRC.
So I'll open now the floor to questions in the room or on the platform.
Lisa Shrine is our correspondent of Voice of America.
Lisa, you have the floor.
Alessandra, first, please, where is the doctor ***** speaking from?
Is he in Kinshasa or Geneva?
You you haven't mentioned that.
I understand from DRC, but maybe he can tell us from exactly where in DRC.
For for Doctor Sando, first I'd like to ask how much money do you need in order for your humanitarian operation and how much have you received?
You say that asking the world not to turn a blind eye to the DRC.
So I gather that that it's not getting the amount of money that that it needs.
And also, it's a live conflict and I'm wondering about your problems of actually accessing the areas, the people that need aid.
Are you able to do this or are you being hindered by the fighting that is going on?
And what are you doing in order to compensate for that?
And then for I'm sorry, Doctor Rosamund, I may not know your last name.
On, on mpox, I'm really sort of concerned and interested that you say that your main concern is about Mpox monkey pox in children and it's a sexually transmitted disease.
I thought that it was sexually transmitted primarily with men having sex with men.
How how does this happen with the children?
Are they being, I don't know, assaulted or anyway if you would illuminate me on that?
I'll start with the doctor from Kinshasa as we heard, and then we will go to Doctor Lewis Rosamond.
And I'm sorry, actually, maybe Miss Lisa didn't hear from you because my mic was muted.
I was saying good morning to all from Kinshasa.
I'm speaking to you from Kinshasa.
So thank you on the health response.
But overall last about last month, we have launched what you call our humanitarian response plan for DRC.
We have actually a costed plan of about 2.6 billion and the health response of the humanitarian crisis in DRC and WHO leads the health class coordination coordination.
What we need for the plan is about let's say 1st 20, about 20 million people are actually in need.
8.7 million people are targeted when they come to the health sector and we need it's about 624 million out of those.
We have barely been able to mobilise 14% of this amount.
And also in addition to what I have said, maybe it's important to mention that DRC has been hit this year by a severe flooding.
18 out of the 26 provinces have been affected and it is estimated about 20 million people are what you call what in the IPC.
This is a severe acute malnutrition ******.
So we're certainly the health needs are mounting and the overall health plan has been largely underfunded.
Thank you very much and thanks for your question, Lisa.
It's a really important one.
Yes, we're very concerned about impacts in children, but not for the reasons that you mentioned.
We're concerned because they're vulnerable and the case fatality, which means the proportion of children who have impacts who die is is it's very ****.
It's above 10% in the youngest children, which means approaching more than one in 10, approaching one in five children who are reported to have impacts through the national surveillance system.
In that case, the immediately to death in **** number of children.
But if we go back a little bit, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the time known as a year, was the country in which mpox was first detected in people.
It was a nine month old boy in 1970.
So the very first human case was already an infant.
It was at the time and still is zoonotic disease in the sense that outbreaks can be seeded by animal to human transmission.
However, since 1970s, so we're, we're looking at close to 5055 years now, the the number of cases in the DRC has been gradually increasing over time.
What we saw in 2023 was more than doubling of the number of cases compared to 2022, that there has been an upward trajectory for several, many years, very, very slowly and now suddenly a big increase.
So there's a clear, clear concern about the continuing spread of the disease, not only by by zoonotic transmission, but through person to person contact.
And what what was different about the global outbreak is that that was a departure from what had previously been described.
What has always been described as an end box transmits from person to person through close physical contact, including skin to skin to contact and contact also perhaps with contaminated bedding, sheets, towels, things like that.
What is what was different about the global outbreak is that sexual transmission was reported for the first, well not the first time because it started in Nigeria, but globally for the first time from 2022 onwards.
What is also new about transmission in the DRC is that the sexual transmission report for CLEED 1 had not been reported prior to 2023.
It was always human to human transmission through close fiscal contact.
Now what we're seeing is that is increasing in addition to newly reported sexual transmission in a different part of the country, which is not endemic for M Box, but where there's a lot of commercial back and forth, including across borders and a vibrant commercial sex trade.
So it's not surprising actually, but it has not been reported before sexual transmission among sex workers, for example.
It's not the same part of the country as where and boxes endemic.
Very quickly for Doctor ***** I'd like to know, maybe you mentioned it and but it went by fast.
If you did, are you currently having vaccination campaigns against measles, some other diseases and what is happening with with cholera, The vaccine is in short supply.
So I'm wondering whether you're getting that and could you provide us with some numbers that is in terms of the numbers of.
Children that may have died from some of these killer diseases and also how many are malnourished and are they severely, acutely malnourished and at risk of dying?
Lisa, before even answering to this, let me also answer to the last part of your your question.
When you ask about access, yes, access has been a challenge when it come to the northeastern part of DRC where we still have the fighting between M23 and government forces, but we have so far managed to get some kind of human tenant corridors.
So, but it has always been a challenge when it comes to vaccination, yes, we have been very able to successfully secure, as I said, cholera vaccine or oral cholera vaccine last year and we have been able to vaccinate a little bit more than 5 million people.
This was actually the largest cholera vaccination campaign ever.
Out of those many have been benefited to children.
We have been guests in in a week we'll be starting actually vaccinating all the 26 provinces of DRC against polio.
This is particular to DRC because we are the only country we have all three types of polio, both type 1, type 2 and the type 2 that has been discovered last year in one of our provinces called Chopo.
In terms of measles, measles has been, we have a worse outbreak since 2017.
As I say, the targets of what we have actually a target that in terms of vaccination and also the creative care is really among children.
So we have been able of, of course, case fatality has been higher in in children due to many other underlying conditions such as malnutrition and odours.
But we have been able to vaccinate many million people against measles last year.
And this is to continue because we have a plan to roll out a vaccination against measles in eight of our provinces also this year.
Anyas Pedro, the French news agency, IFP.
You the you mentioned as well the anthrax, I don't know if it's already epidemic in DRC and I wanted to to let you you know, let us know how much you are worried about it and and what can you tell us about this kind of epidemic, how it develops.
Yes, the anthrax we have actually recorded cases.
We started recorded cases last year.
Last year we from all the what you call from the week 1 to week 52, we had actually 20 suspected cases of anthrax, we've 4 deaths and from week 1 to week 10 of this year alone, we have 16 cases and so far 3 deaths.
So like the first ten weeks of this year, we have the equivalent of every all the cases we have reported in 2023.
And this is worrisome to us.
This is happening also in the northeastern part of the country.
So we have been able to do actually a total epidemiological investigations and try to have this contain in the places where it's it's right now.
Unfortunately it's happening in places where the security is and a challenge and an issue.
But so far we won't say it's under control.
But at least when they come to surveillance issues, we actually have been able to have all the cases and trace all the contacts and how it's actually contained where it started in the north, north eastern part of DRC.
This is mainly in North Kivu and Uturi.
And in which conditions does this anthrax develops itself and and what are the risks for, for the health in terms of mortality?
Yes, when I said in 20/20/2023, we had 20 cases and four deaths.
You know, if you of course the numbers are low, but if you take the case fatality rate, the case fatality rate right there is about 20%.
And this year alone we have 16 cases and three deaths.
The case fatality also is very ****.
So anthrax is very worried from health threats and that's why I said we have immediately dispatched all our investigation team to try to to contain because we know the way anthrax is transmitted.
So we are working on that.
We've not not National Health authorities and Oxford team supporting them and in the condition that we'll be able to contain outbreak before it spreads wider.
John Zarrocostes, The Lancet and France Vancatter yes, good morning.
I was wondering so if you could elaborate a little bit more if I heard correctly or not, you mentioned 20 million people at risk of severe acute malnutrition.
What percentage of that number would be children and what is being done to prevent going to IPC 5 catastrophic situation.
No thank you Actually if you caught me right I said 25 million people continue to face crisis of emergency level under food and security.
But when it come to the assessment that has been done is actually IPC 3 and above, the numbers have not been segregated but out of as I said the 2018 provinces affected by flood in DRC 8 are severely affected.
2 million people are considered to be severely affected by the flooding and that this is actually where the IPC 3 and the above were assessed and we are still and these are projections from January to June 2024.
So we are really waiting to have the more accurate numbers to be able to communicate.
Thank you very much, Doctor.
I don't see other questions for you.
So I'd like to thank you and Doctor Lewis very much and and also Margaret, who has just sent out, I guess, the notes.
So and thank you very much and good luck with your important work.
I'll go now to my left and right.
In fact, I don't know Sarah, if you want to start, we've got Sarah Bell with us for UNDP together with Boaz.
Pardi was the UNDP chief creative officer.
I love this title, frankly.
And you are here to tell us a little bit about the 1st results of the Weather Kids campaign that, as you know, has started very, very recently and you have already some results.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
And maybe just a word of introduction.
So we launched yesterday the Weather Kids campaign.
It's the newest UNDP Climate Action Campaign and the objective is really to create a momentum to keep the goal of the 1.5° alive.
It is extremely important because the next two years are our best chance.
With the revision of a Nationally Determined Contribution, what we call the NDC, the next two years are our best chance to keep on track and to beat the climate crisis.
And the campaign is very much showing that we parents today are accountable for a healthy planet for our children.
And indeed, my colleague who is driving the campaign has created the campaign is here to give you a snapshot of the preliminary result and what's coming next.
So, yes, so as as Sarah said, we launched the campaign yesterday at 00001 New York time and and and we already seeing incredible results around the world.
We have 1.3 billion impressions, media impressions from about almost 600 articles that have been published.
We were in 82 countries activated on television stations and across media platforms, 30 plus of those about 30, two of those were activations that created countries created their own films.
So we created an international version of the film in, in 3 languages in English, Spanish and French.
And then we have the film now in many, many, many more languages.
This morning, I, I, I was going through the list and I, I, I looked at Morocco and, and Albania and Tanzania and, and so, so many more.
So a lot of the countries just created their own version in the languages with kids in that country.
And that that was all played on national TV's, on various other television stations across the world.
We know that at least 142 televisions played it yesterday.
We had a great segments on, on major international outlets like CNN and, and Fox.
So we're, we're very excited.
We think that, you know, it's, it's only going to grow.
This is just just the beginning.
We really just literally launched it yesterday and we, we know that today other countries are launching.
India is launching today, the UK is launching today.
The UK Met Office are a partner of the campaign.
I might mention as well that WMO are our partner in this campaign and UNICEF have been supporting us.
So it's a, so it's a really kind of a joint effort led by UNDP.
But but the UN system is, is very, very much behind us.
We feel that, as Sarah said, this is a, an incredibly important time to be campaigning for climate action.
We think that everyone should be aware of climate action.
And we've seen studies from across the world that show us that the best way for us to get people to take climate action is to remind people of their children and of the next generations.
And that's what we're trying to do with this campaign.
And I think we're, we're on our way to trying to, to achieve that.
We've, we've, we've, as I said, we've, we've had some very, very, very strong primarily results and, and we're moving, moving forward this week.
I think we're going to see much more.
What we believe will happen is a little bit of a snowball effect where a lot of broadcasters have already done it.
More broadcasters are coming on board and then it's going to start bleeding into social and it's going to hopefully, you know, have a big, a big presence on on social in the next in the next few days.
So, yeah, so that's that's where we are very, very excited by by the results and very excited by the campaign.
Please, all of you check it out.
The the Weather the Weather Kids website isweatherkids.org and and it's a it's a beautiful site.
We people who go to the site are asked to take a climate pledge.
So take a climate pledge on behalf of children in your lives and the next generations.
And so that's, that's what we are.
That's what that, that's the action that we're driving people to do.
And after they take the, that action of signing the pledge, we take them to a page where we show them some of the actions that can be taken.
And, and there's a variety of actions that you yourself can take and everyone can take as an individual, as a company, in whatever, in whatever form you, you can take it.
But we believe that really trying to get the, the idea of climate action in everyone's mind is extremely important.
But it's, I would add that it's a hopeful campaign.
We believe that there is solutions that we can solve the climate emergency, that humanity has the abilities, the capabilities and the technology and know how and the willpower to solve this.
And all we need is all to work together towards this goal of, of, of really trying to, to, to, to reach the cops coming up this year and the cops coming up next year with 1.5 in mind.
We still believe that we can get to, to at least to Brazil, if not to Baku with 1.5 on the table.
And if you have liked the Frank the dinosaur, you like this one because it's the same person who's developed it.
Is there any question to your NDP on on this particular thing?
We really wish this campaign to to grow.
And yesterday the news were quite bleak and we were very happy to have the weather kit, I have to say.
So thank you very much for this positive approach.
So let's stay on the issue of climate and environment with Thomas.
So while Thomas is coming to the podium, you know Thomas Crawl Knight is our spokesperson for UNECE and we want to speak now on World Water Day.
As you know what the day is today.
It's a very important day we have.
Sorry, we have just distributed to you this the statement of the Secretary General for this day, where the Secretary general says that action for water is action for peace.
And today it is needed more than ever.
Our world is in turbulent waters.
The say the secretary General and also says that our planet is heating up.
Water for peace is the theme of this year's World War.
Today, achieving it relies on far greater cooperation.
Today, 153 countries share water resources, but only 24 have reported cooperation agreements for all their shared water.
We must accelerate efforts to work together across borders.
As the Secretary General and I urge all countries to join and implement the United Nations Water Convention, which promotes managing share water resources sustainably, cooperating to safeguard water can power and sustain peace.
And the secretary general to conclude, let's commit to work together to make water a force for cooperation, harmony, and stability, and so help to create a world of peace and prosperity for all.
And you have the full statement in your mailbox.
And I'll give the floor to Thomas to tell us more about this matter.
Thank you, Alessandra, for this introduction.
And indeed, the Secretary General has stressed the importance of cooperation to address the water challenges that are increasingly severe around the world.
In particular, he raises the United Nations Water Convention to give its full name, the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Trans Boundary Waters and International Lakes.
Now, this is a unique treaty hosted by UNECE, which helps countries work together to manage shared waters.
As the Secretary General has pointed out, 153 countries share waters, which means that at a very basic level, addressing water challenges means working across borders, working internationally, and the water convention is the UN framework that supports that.
It's a proven instrument with a 30 year track record, more than 30 years now in helping countries manage water in shared basins.
Now to give an idea of magnitude of the challenge, 60% of the freshwater flow worldwide is in shared basins.
A few examples of those would be the Congo, the Danube in Europe, the Amazon, the Mekong, and just here in Geneva, of course, Lake Geneva, which flows into the Rhone now also the Great Lakes in Africa.
There are many examples around the world and even in fact over 450 underwater groundwater reserves, groundwater reserves.
So with 40% of the global population relying on these shared waters, corporation is getting increasing attention politically and increasing support through the UN system and beyond.
Now big drivers for corporation are of course climate change, which is putting massive stress on water resources worldwide, but also pollution and increasing demands on use to population growth, agriculture and and other reasons, energy as well.
So one way is one of the ways that this that these pressures are manifesting is through increasing interest for corporation.
Now pressure on water resources can drive tensions, it can drive conflicts, but it's also pushing countries to cooperate because there is a recognition of the value of that corporation which is stronger and stronger.
Now the political momentum for the water convention as the UN treaty that supports that corporation is growing fast.
Today the convention has 52 parties and that covers almost all of Europe and it's it's membership has been expanding fast since the convention was opened for accession by all UN member states in 2016.
Now especially we see this trend in Africa where 90% of water is in shared basins and the convention is expected to soon welcome it's 10th party in Africa.
In 2018, Chad became the first African nation to join the convention, followed by Senegal.
And then Ghana, Guinea, Bissau, Togo and Cameroon joined last year.
2023 was a record for the convention welcoming 5 states as new members, Nigeria, Iraq, Namibia, Panama and The Gambia with with Iraq and Panama being the 1st in their respective regions to join this treaty.
So opening up New Horizons for for water cooperation.
And there were over 20 countries worldwide that are in the process of joining the convention, including some that are very advanced in that process, including Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and Costa Rica.
Just to note that in a final in a further boost to corporation efforts, there's a draught UN system wide strategy for water and sanitation, which was approved this week by the UN **** Level Committee on Programmes and that calls specifically on the support of the United Nations to assist member states in acceding to the convention, implementing it and complying with it.
Now important to stress that while momentum is strong, there is still a long way to go.
And so this acceleration of corporation is called for by the Secretary General is is certainly needed.
There's new data from the third reporting exercise for one of the SDGS indicators, which measures the level of transboundary corporation and that's coordinated by UNEC and UNESCO.
And only 26 of the 153 countries that are sharing water resources have all of their transboundary basin areas covered by operational arrangements for water corporation.
Now that's compared to 2000, that's compared to, excuse me, 24 in 2020.
So a slight increase, but we see that progress really needs to accelerate there.
And only around 10 new transboundary agreements have been signed since that last reporting exercise.
There are many examples of of how the convention concretely supports countries to cooperate and it's a binding treaty important to stress that which requires parties to prevent, control and reduce negative impacts on water quality and quantity and to and that's of course in a cross-border environment and to use those shared waters in a reasonable and equitable way and then to ensure their sustainable management through corporation.
Parties that share the same waters are obliged to cooperate by concluding specific agreements and establishing joint bodies and there are many examples of those from around the world.
100 / 100 agreements have been have been signed by countries sharing waters since the entry into force of the convention.
This is a powerful tool for peace building in post conflict settings, as demonstrated in the SAVA basin, The SAVA Basin in in the countries of former Yugoslavia.
And that was one of the one of the first agreements, multilateral agreements signed by the basin countries following the end of the war and which really helped to build trust and strengthen cooperation among those states.
We also see in the Lake Chad Basin, for instance, which where there's a long history of cooperation to the Lake Chad Basin Commission, which predates the convention, but those efforts are really being strengthened further by the accession of Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon to the convention.
Now just to flag that that we will update you as more countries join.
So this is World War today.
It's a, it's a call to action to accelerate cooperation, but it's also to remind you of the importance of this instrument and the rising political interest that there is for this treaty.
As more countries join, we will let you know.
We are expecting, as I mentioned earlier, the 10th African Party soon.
So that will be a milestone for this corporation.
The meeting of the parties of the, of the convention will take place in October, in October in Slovenia.
And we'll inform you about that in due course.
And there'll also be A1 water Summit convened by President Macron and President Tokayev of France and Kazakhstan, respectively, on the margins of the General Assembly session in September.
So water corporation is expected to be an important part of those discussions.
So there is a strong momentum building on the on the UN water conference that took place last year, which we really see picking up.
Thank you very much Thomas.
Really an incredibly important issue and I see Peter asking in the notes if you could share your your briefing notes.
Is there any question to Thomas to ECE on this issue?
Very important one really I don't see any hand up.
Keep updating us on on this matter.
We really need to, to have more countries joining this convention.
So I, I have now a few announcements for you.
First of all, remind me, please be reminded that Tuesday, 26th of March, at 4:30 PM, we will have an OHCHR press conference.
This is the presentation of the report on obstacles to the implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia and a very important subject with Antonia Orejola, with the international human rights expert appointed to identify and verify those obstacles.
A couple of committees closing soon.
The Human Rights Committee will have next Wednesday afternoon a public meeting devoted to the follow up of its concluding observation and its views and the day after they will close their 140th session.
Any issue, it's concluding observation.
Also the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will conclude this afternoon its 30th session.
The Human Rights Council, as you know, continues.
Pascal could not come today, but he has sent you the programme of the next of today of the Council and so you have there the information, but of course he is available.
I just wanted to also remind you a couple of things.
First of all, staying in the same vein, same subject.
Tomorrow is another important day.
It's World Meteorological Day, and we've shared with you the statement of the Secretary General, of course, the blue Moore as the lead on this day.
And you've heard about it also from Mrs Salo.
But of course, they are available in case you want to have more on this important day.
I wanted to let you know because there've been a lot of questions and a lot of have been interviewed.
We've had the requests of information.
So today, later on, we will be able to announce the decision about the cost saving measures at the Paladin assume that we have to take as you know, in view of the complex liquidity situation, liquidity crisis that the UN are going through.
So this afternoon you will have all the details about, you know, the concrete measures, the, the, the, the thing that we're going to do.
But what I can tell you already, and I've said it repeatedly, this is not, we've heard a lot about closing this, closing that.
The point is not closing buildings.
The point is simply reducing our footprint and optimising it's in in a way that it allows us to save cost, save expenditures, but at the same time fully implement the mandate that is ours.
So absolutely no changes in terms of conference services in the sense of the essential services will be maintained.
We will continue to operate the full capacity and we will make use of what we have available, including, you know, flexible work arrangements and, and, and other and other measures to just reduce the footprint and optimising the space and, and the resources so that we can save money while continuing to implement our mandate.
And last point, and I give you the floor, Ben, this also means that there won't be changes for the journalist.
I can already announce there won't be changes in your location work and there may be some constraints, but they're not on your work precisely.
And if they after that we've announced these measures, of course, we remain fully available to answer any questions that you will have Ben to divorce in an excellent manner of the communique don't see on education specific on Stone virtual Escala DJ in conference the press who this interview we have.
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