WFP press conference 16 June 2020

OK.

Good afternoon, everyone, and good morning, Miguel Barreto.

It's very early for you, 6:30 in the morning, and I'm glad to introduce you to the Geneva Press Corps.

Miguel Barreto is the Regional Director.

For.

Latin America and the Caribbeans for WFP and I will immediately give you the floor.

The floor is yours, Miguel.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Good morning everyone.

Yeah, it's 6:30 here in Panama.

I would like to give you a quick overview of the situation in our region and then take your questions.

So let me start by saying that as the Pan American Health Organisation has warned Corona videos, infection rates continue to rise in in in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In our region, the number of cases has doubled and now it's reaching more than 1.6 million people.

So we are really worried about these health trends.

And unfortunately the news is not good either when it comes to food security situations.

So we at the World Food Programme alerted some time ago that the socio economic impact of COVID-19 can put an additional 11 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean into severe food insecurity just in 2020.

Of course, we are reviewing these figures every every every day through our offices in, in, in, in the region.

We have presence in 11 countries in, in Latin America and the Caribbean.

And of course this information is coming just from the places where we have presence, but does not include countries like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, for instance.

Only countries where we have presence were included in our projection, as I said.

So our projections paint stark picture.

Our region had problems related to economic and climate and climate shocks, as well as insecurity and displacement.

So another issue is that between 50 and 70% of workers do so in the informal sector, making them more, more vulnerable now because they cannot access to, to, to work due to the lockdown in most of the countries in the region.

So now we COVID-19, the situation is of course deteriorating further.

What we can done or what can be done?

This is a time for of course, solidarity and, and to come together.

And the time is, is really now.

We need to act quickly to prevent that this Greece, this crisis to become, to become what my heavy director called a hunger pandemic.

We need to join forces in International Financial Institute institutions, governments, UN agencies, NGOs, all we need to work together basically to reach as soon as possible and protect the most vulnerable population in the most vulnerable countries from a potentially devastating fallout of, of, of the pandemic.

So what WSP is, is doing in the region, because it's not easy, as you can understand, working with, with this lockdown.

So what we have what what we're doing basically is we have been assisting governments for many years in the area such as nutrition, social protection, emergency preparedness and response, supply chain and logistics.

And also we reach vulnerable population in different countries with food and catch based transfer.

Last year we reached in Latin America more than 5.1 people mostly in in rural areas, some of there at at at school level.

And with this increased needs due to the COVID-19, we expect that this number to grow in 2020 and 2021 probably.

So we continue to operate during the pandemia.

We have adapted the way we work and we are have also started working in some urban areas we support but we continue supporting governments and reach the people most in need with food rations to take home vouchers or or catch to shop at local stores.

So some examples on what we are doing in in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For instance, in Colombia and Ecuador, some 400,000 migrants a month receive a cash based transfer or food ratios to take home.

We also have headlines dedicated to assisting this population.

Food was distributed to families in Colombia, Honduras and Haiti to take home as an alternative to their children's school meals.

In Nicaragua, where schools are open, WHP deliver food to schools in rural areas.

But in those cases, of course, COVID-19 protocols were followed.

Cash and food distribution take place every day in Haiti.

They are a live a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people.

We are also serve the humanitarian community with an helicopter with humanitarian United Nations Humanitarian Air Service, taking medical personal supplies and hospital equipments to areas that are difficult to reach by Rd in El Salvador, for instance.

And it's always a particular case because as you know, we are facing this perfect storm now that the hurricane season has arrived and we had a strong tropical storm some some some weeks ago, Amanda.

So in Salvador, we are responding to this situation and we are distributing food for more than 5000 people in shelters.

And our goal is to is to reach around 150,000 people affected by this storm.

In Dominican Republic for instance, we're working very closely with the government in distributing super serial plus and micronutrients to 130,000 vulnerable people.

And of course we are supporting also different activities of the government in terms of emergency response as well as social protection programmes.

So social protection, I have to say social protection is, is is is is key for many reasons.

The first reason is that national programmes such as school's meal, catch vouchers, pensions, community kitchen and other have **** coverage and scope in the region.

So we are we are supporting governments so that their programmes are more nutritional sensitive and can adapt and expand in emergencies like COVID-19 and they can be powerful platforms to respond to a crisis.

And we are now advocating to expand this type of programmes to became universal and also reach those that previously were not part of the most poor people, but now is are affected by the pandemia.

Several countries have increased assistance to millions of people already covered by social protections.

But this expansion during the pandemic makes a difference.

So it's allowing people who leave day by day to meet their vice basic needs without having to leave their homes.

And this is the advantage in order to balance, of course, the lockdown with the need for them to have at least basic services at home.

So, as I mentioned before, we recommend governments to expand their programmes to include more vulnerable people and groups like informal workers and and also migrants.

I am and I'm happy to report, for instance, that the government of Colombia and WSB started a pilot in the Department of Arauca to reach 400-440-2000 Venezuelans, migrants and Colombians who are currently excluded from any social protection or emergency support.

So this is what we call shock responsive social protection and is really basic with migrants because most of them are not able to get support from the national social protection system.

So that's why some of them are now on the way back to to Venezuela.

And this around the pilot, which basically means that WSP inject fund into the national protection system is looking to have durable solutions and involve also national protection system in support those migrants that are now not part of the of this of this model of collaboration.

In terms of supply chain, as you know, WSP is the largest humanitarian agency and we also are the the arm of the United Nations in terms of logistics and telecommunications from Panama.

We have our regional hub and we are supporting of course, COVID-19 with our logistic expertise.

So the United Nations, the humanitarian response depot had that WSP administer in the world.

It's part of this global network that is responding to this emergency.

And our hub has dispatched so far more than 68 metric tonnes of supplies to 27 countries in the region.

So in the coming days, cargo flights will start arriving in the region for on our international hub in China.

And this is part of the UN common services WSP is supporting and, and and and working very closely with with WHO in order to provide cargo and passenger services to the UN and, and the humanitarian community worldwide.

So the first of many flights, flights into the region will bring, of course, critical PAHO, WHO, you know, PAHO is the Pan American Health Organisation and, and, and supply, for instance, to Ecuador in the in the, in the in the next days.

And this is the time where we are seeing the virus devastated our region.

This, this type of personal protection equipment, medical equipments is absolutely crucial for people in the front lines on the pandemic.

So we look forward to the arrival of more supplies in the coming days and weeks.

While we are working with governance in open or so, there are airspace to allow these humanitarian flights to come into the region.

These common services are of course needed no more than before because commercial flights are basically stopped since two months ago.

And but one of our main concerns as I mentioned at the beginning is, is the European season.

As you know, the European season starts in June and goes up to November in the region.

So and of course as part of our regular preparation for the Yurikan season, we are trying to preposition it some food stocks in different strategic locations in the region.

The forecast for this Yurikan season is that we will have above normal activity this year.

And of course, the issue is that we are concerned that government may have to respond to several emergencies at the same time, COVID-19 plus a tropical storm or a hurricane.

And of course, this this school became a perfect storm and that could cause great damage to countries affected.

So it is important also to that government prepare to response and WP, we will continue assist them in doing so.

Thank you so much for this opportunity and I would be glad to answer your questions now over.

Yes, the the floor is open for question.

Do I see any ants?

I don't see any I yes.

Ah, Bianca.

OK, go ahead.

Thanks.

I I know Miguel said that Brazil is not included in the projections, but I would like to know if he has an idea about the situation in Brazil.

Actually, actually, of course, we know we don't have an idea on what is the level of food civil insecurity in Brazil because we don't have presence.

So what we do basically is we roll out remote surveys where WFP has presence and this is the information that we count.

But of course, understanding what is the impact of the COVID-19 in Brazil, we can presume that also the levels of food fear insecurity has increased not just in Brazil, but in other countries where WHP don't have presence.

I see a question by Isabel Sacco from FA Agency.

Isabel, you have the floor.

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Elizabeth, do you hear me?

We hear you very well.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I would like like to if Mr Barreto could precise whether the countries that these eleven countries where you the WFP is present just to to, to have that clear.

And also I would like to know if he mentioned that some time ago WFP did an assessment that more than 9 million people would be in a food insecurity situation this year.

I understood.

I would like to know if with the COVID crisis, the WFP has an update on this figure.

And I also would like to know on the several 8 programmes that some Latin American governments have put in place to help most poorest families during the lockdowns, families that in in worked in the formal sector and that could not have any income.

So some countries, for example, like Peru and like Ecuador, I think.

And if you think that this can be replicated by other countries that don't didn't have put in place any, any, any measures like this.

Thank you.

OK, so some questions.

So let me, let me, let me try to go 1 by 1.

So we have the information on the country where we have present that's in Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, in, in the Caribbean is Haiti, Dominican Republic and, and, and, and some islands of the Caribbeans and in South America includes Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and and Ecuador.

So these are the countries where the information is coming from.

I do refer to 9 million people in food security insecurity.

This was an information race last year and the situation now is deteriorating farther.

So because these figures includes in the past not just severe but also moderate food insecure people.

Now we're talking just on on severe food insecure people, which means that they don't have anything to eat day by day.

So they are in the worst situation.

They don't have access to food.

And this number has increased from 3.4 at the beginning of the year to 14,000,000 now.

So it's more than 11,000,000 more people who are in this dramatic situation.

But as we count also those who are moderate food insecure in the region, we can probably scale up up to 40 million people.

And, and, and this is this is the the socio economic impact of the of the pandemia.

What government has put in place.

I think that some of their and in the right track, they are basically releasing funding for social programmes and transfers, monetary transfers like in Peru and Ecuador.

This is the right way forward, but it's not also easy to reach those who are not necessarily in the formal economy.

And, and there, there, there, there there is, there are needs to basically improve the, the own, the, the own forecast through try targeting mechanisms.

And these of course take time.

This is something WSP is also helping to government that have requested how they can reach more people, not just those who were in poverty before, but now are affected by the COVID-19.

You mentioned Peru and Ecuador, yes, they are doing it right.

And we have to understand that the impact in, in, in, in Latin America basically according to the to ECLAC means that next year economy is going to decrease in more than six points.

So this is now when government have to use their own reserve in order to respond to the situation to avoid social devastation in terms of of of impact of, of hunger and, and other and other and other topics.

One more one more issue that I want to raise is that our main focus, our main concern are basically three places in the region.

1 is Haiti.

In Haiti, the number of severe footings secure has increased or have doubled from 0.7, sorry.

So from 7000 people, 700,000 people in in in December up to more than 1.7 million now.

I am talking just on severe food insecure situation.

The other hotspots is Central America, in particular the right corridor of Central America where fuel has increased almost in 100% and now are reaching more than 3 million people, just in the dry corridor of Central America, which which is the most vulnerable geographical area of the countries.

And the problem also in in Haiti and Central America is that they've had a drought at the end of 2019.

So now with the COVID-19, of course they are more impacted and devastating and these people are suffering much.

And the same area of concern are the migrants in South America.

Because now apparently following figure from from the IOM and and and UNHCR, there are more than 5 million people in, in Latin in, in South America.

We have present just in three countries, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador who who are at the same time the most affected in terms of migrants population and they don't have access to national social protection system.

So with the lockdown they cannot go out and work.

Of course they don't have anything to, to, to eat at, AT and, and, and what we're trying to do is to concentrate the support on, on those populations.

So just to give you an example, we are we are basically expecting then 1,000,000 of the 5 million.

Under 5 million migrants are now under also severe food insecurity situation.

So the situation is not easy.

We need more government investments, but we also need more IFIS soft credits to also assist countries in duplicate their social expenditures and reach more people in the region over.

Isabel, do you have a follow up question?

Is that if it's OK with you?

No, no follow up question, Isabel.

OK, so I'll give me.

Yeah.

Excuse me.

No, I was saying that I prefer my colleagues who raise their hands, ask and then I will.

I would be OK.

follow-ups, please.

OK, so I give the floor to Jamil Chade.

Jamil, you have the floor.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

Thank you for organising this.

My question is again on Brazil.

Have you requested some kind of participation in Brazil or some kind of operation in Brazil?

Was this ever discussed and what was the response by the government?

Thank you, Sir.

No, we are not in touch with the Brazilian government.

We have an office in Brazil that is completely separate from my my, my task, which is basically a centre of excellence in Brasilia.

They have contact with them, but as far as I know, Brazil haven't request any type of support to WSP.

We just been working with the Brazilian government in trying to identify what is the food security situation of migrants in the borders.

OK.

But this was part of our not regular work some time ago when we were preparing our operation board also not just Colombia, but also Venezuela over.

Yes.

I will give the floor to Paula Dupras.

Tobias, Paula.

Yes, hi.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm, I'm ready for the new humanitarian.

I have a couple of questions, but I'll start with one.

Also it's with these shipments of aid there, I mean there's a lot of money involved, a lot of equipment involved in a number of countries there have been issues with diversion of some of this, this aid corruption so far.

I mean, how concerned are you about these types of issues and and what type of mechanisms may you have in place to to potentially avoid this from happening?

Are you referring to the air services?

The cargo I'm.

Referring to to deliveries of of aid that you may have and potentially also in the, I don't know, in cash distributions or things like that.

In WSP, we had a red light when the the level of lost reach up to 1% of the distribution.

So far we don't have this situation in the region.

The way how we are working now is mostly through cash based transfer, no food distribution.

So when you distribute food cash transfer, the level also of of of of diversion reduce a lot.

And what we basically do is we have to strengthen our targeting mechanism and in addition to that monitoring how much of the food of the of the money, how, how, how much of the money are you using for food.

And according to our monitoring system, mostly 7070% of that income is going to food.

So this is showing that still being the first priority.

What we are also doing now with the pandemia is we close those places where we have to concentrate people and now we're working through take home rations which also reduce the level of diversion because the food is going directly to home.

And we are using that mechanism mostly in places where we are working with the school feeding programmes like in Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti and and Colombia.

So to be very frank, I don't have any alert of diversion of our programmes in the region so far over.

OK and now I will give the floor to Lisa and then if you have follow up question you can raise your hand again and I will give you the floor.

Lisa, the floor is yours.

Thanks Elizabeth.

I had a major meltdown on my computer so I was forced to leave the the press conference.

So if the question I ask has been answered, I apologise, but I was out of communication for a while.

You said that you were not.

Are you delivering any aid to Venezuela?

I mean, you, you seem to mention that you Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil were some of the countries that you are not providing any aid to.

So is is no food from WFP going into Venezuela and any of the other countries?

I, I heard the answer to Jamil's question, apparently you not don't have any kind of a rapport with Brazil.

Is that right?

Anyway, if you could, if you could answer that?

And also how many, how many countries are at risk and how many do you anticipate will need aid in the future?

Let.

Me answer first a question on Venezuela.

We don't have presence in Venezuela.

We are now negotiating with the government.

There are very goodwill from both sides and we are now sitting together and see what WSP can do in the country.

If negotiations was going well as both parties want want, probably WSP can enter to the country in 2020.

But this is a negotiation process because we left Venezuela 45 years ago.

So we need to negotiate, no just the memorandum of understanding, but also the type of activity we would like to implement there.

And something that is really important for us is that respect to humanitarian principle.

But I have to say that there is good willingness from the government and we are now under an can give us the opportunity to support also Venezuelan people soon.

In terms of of of countries at risk, as I mentioned before, the three hotspots we are looking now with very much concern is Haiti, the Dry Corrier of Central America and also the migrant situation in South America.

I think these are the three hotspots that we have now.

And to address this type of need, WP needs more than 400 million, $1,000,000 just for 2020.

So it's not easy.

I know there is a lot of of of financial requests worldwide.

The difference in Latin America is that we don't have conflicts, so these emergencies are not visible.

But what we are looking now is that the impact of the COVID beyond the health area is now surpassing the capacity of the government to respond to other situations like food security, food insecurities.

We are working with them.

We are promoting the possibility for them to invest more money.

We are trying to bring more, more, more, more money also from our own donors, OK, but we are working on that way and I hope we can also receive more national community over.

OK, I will now give the floor to Robin from AFP.

Robin, you have the floor.

Hello there, good morning.

Just a clarification and then a further point.

The 14,000,000 number in food insecurity, does that that only refers to countries that you operate in, is that correct?

And if so, is that is that severe food insecurity or just food insecurity?

It is right.

Just on the on the 11th countries where we have presence does not include the whole region.

And the reason behind this and, and let me explain you something that probably compliment the previous question is that WSP had presence in the past in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, I'm talking on the 60s and 70s.

So for us, these are graduated countries.

And of course, we are concentrating just on those countries where food security, food insecurity is still being one of the more difficult problems in that's why we don't have presence on those big, big countries.

Of course, nothing prevent WP not to come back, but this is a request that has to come from government.

Sorry, Robin.

Yeah, OK.

And and is that, is that 14 million in food insecurity or severe food insecurity, severe food insecurity is we can't also moderate we can reach even 40 million in the region.

Yeah.

And and so secondly, how confident are you that you can you can meet that need and stay on top of this situation if this situation continues, There's obviously talk of second waves and resurgence etcetera.

So far the forecast in terms of financial support is very low.

I have to say.

Second, we need to continue sitting with the governments to understand how many of them are going to to be reached by them.

We don't have the information on All, in all cases, just in some of them.

And the the trend is that probably they are going to cover just half of it.

So means that we need more than $400 million for 2020.

So far the forecast is very low in terms of what we can receive and there are countries that are that are coming back like for instance Germany, Switzerland.

Of course the US is a main donor and we are we are now trying to work also through the IF is the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank.

And we are finalising some agreement with them in order also to get some resource, some fresh resources from that that side.

And I have to say that in some places like for instance in Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, the governments are also investing with us.

So they are giving us funding to support their own population, which is another way to to support and this type of of of of investment is increasing year by year over.

Thank you.

We have a follow up question, Isabel Sacco, FA Agency.

Isabel Yes, thank you Elizabeth.

Again, I would like to know if even if you, you have your, your figures on 14 million people could be a severe more food insecure and 40 including the moderate food insecure people.

If you you have any information that allows you to have a, a, a regional picture of how many people would be impacted by by this, this current crisis in, in, in in the whole region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Secondly, if you could please repeat the figure for Central America, one of the your three main concerns and the people that would be affected you fear that would be affected with severe food insecurity, please in Central America.

Thank you.

OK.

On your first question, we don't have the figure and I don't want even to raise any number because the fuels that we are raising are in most cases already certified also with government counterparts.

So it's, it's not really fair to raise a figure where we don't have any type of backing information coming from assessments that we do in, in, in these eleven countries where we have presence.

So in terms of Central America, what I have said is that Central America have an area which is a dry corridor, which is the most vulnerable area in, in, in, in, in country.

And the dry corridor as you know is a geographical area that cover from the South of Mexico up to the north of Panama.

And we have presence in four countries, Nicaragua and Duras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

And what we have noted on the assessments at dawn in 2019, end of the year because of the drought, we had around around 2.4 million people in need, severe and moderate.

But now with the surveys that we just finalised, the number of severe only has increased from 1 million up to 3 million people just in the right corridor of Central America.

This is a critical situation having in mind that they don't have access to food, but also their access to basic social services is very low.

This is an emergency area and we're trying now to help governments, to support governments in order to address also that situation because it's, it's becoming a human crisis in, in in Central America.

And my main concern also is that as you know, the the next harvest is in September.

So now we're in the lean season.

It's the worst situation now because the food scars.

And if that next season, the next harvest season is no good, this situation is going to deteriorate further.

For instance, El Salvador has already been devastated by Amanda.

So more than 50,000 for 5050 thousand hectares has been affected in El Salvador.

So you can imagine what this means to basically small farmers who depend entirely of this of this food production.

So, and this is something that we're going to see probably in September when we will determinate how was the harvest, the first harvest of 2020 over.

Yes.

So we have a follow up question from Paula, from the New Humanitarian.

Paula, Paula Dupra.

Yes, thank you.

So actually I had a follow up question regarding Venezuela and I was just wondering, is the, you said that you're negotiating with the government, but I'm just wondering if there was this agreement about a week ago between the the government and the, the opposition to, to try to get humanitarian aid.

Are you engaging actually with the with the opposition as well?

WSP is an organisation who works under humanitarian principles and when we act under humanitarian principles, we have to speak with all parties.

So yes, we have a channel of communication with the opposition also, but while we are negotiating with Maduro's governments because they have the control of the territory and they're recognised by the United Nations.

So we were not part of this agreement.

This was an agreement reached by PAJO, the Pan American Health Organisation and the government and vision.

And of course we see we would eyes this option I think is part of the process and and WP now is concentrated basically in trying to reach an agreement with the government in order to get into the country and support the most vulnerable population, but under respect of humanitarian principles.

And once we're in the country, of course, part of our role is no, is going to be no just to deliver support to the most vulnerable people, but also provide logistic support to the Juan and, and and and and humanitarian community.

OK.

Lisa, you have a follow up question or you?

Yes, yes, follow up, please.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Right.

And it also follows up on on Paula's question regarding the negotiation with Venezuela.

What are the main **** ups?

What are the main obstacles, the problems that you're having in terms of trying to reach an agreement with the Venezuelan government to be allowed to go in and provide aid?

And how many people do you estimate are in need of of food in Venezuela?

You were there.

So what do, what conditions look like?

What is?

You know what's going on there?

Let me start by the second question.

WSP was in in Venezuela in 2019 by invitation of the government and we conduct a food security assessment.

This food security assessment ended in 2019.

We released the figures last February and of those, that figure is that 2.3 million people are in severe food insecurity in the country.

This does not mean that the government recognised the figure, but this is basically was an objective assessment and I have to recognise and thank the government of Venezuela because this assessment was conducted respecting us and, and, and we have access to all parties.

We interview more than 8500 families through through the whole country.

Probably this is the only, the only assessment that AUN organisation is doing in in the country during the last year.

So this is the fields and this these fields has are becoming public and now are under negotiation with a government in terms of to be part of the humanitarian needs overview.

In terms of difficulties, of course, this is a, a very confidential negotiation.

I can not sure what are the difficulties.

What I can say is that both party have a good willingness to continue working and we are doing our best and I have to recognise that the government of Venezuela.

Is very much committed in giving us the information that we need in order to plan an operation.

And of course as we don't have presence in the country for the last 40-5 years, we need to basically set up a new a completely new host government agreement with, with with Venezuela, which implies all topics that are normal like privileges, immunities, access, etcetera.

No.

So this is taking some time, but I think we are in the right directions.

As as mentioned before, we start to a food security assessment invited by them in 2018 and now we are in a negotiation table seeing how we can get into the country.

And what I have to say is that there are good willingness in the government in order to allow us to get in, but of course, we have to finalise this, this exercise.

The only difficult that I think I can share with you is that of course, part of this negotiation implies that we have to send a film mission to do a local assessment.

But we cannot do it because due to the COVID lockdowns, we cannot move stuff from one place to another to do this type of work.

And this is probably going to delay our our our the end of this procession over.

OK.

And I have a follow up question.

Bianca.

OK.

Bianca, you have the floor, please.

Bianca.

OK.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah.

Yeah, Good, good.

Thanks a lot, Elizabeth.

Sorry for that.

Just to.

Be.

100% sure in this figure of 14,000,000, does it include Venezuela or not?

No, does not include Venezuela.

OK.

Thanks a lot.

OK, that OK.

And Isabel, Isabel, you have another question.

Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you.

I would like to know your opinion on the extension of lockdowns in several countries and the impact of this measure in the in food insecurity.

If you consider that this is worsening food, food insecurity and that governments may look for you know, another way is to contain the the virus, you know, but I would like you to have your, your opinion.

OK, So what Wenderson trying to do now basically is to content the pandemia to save lives.

So and they know there is an impact in different in different economic areas and also social areas like food security.

So I cannot say that these are not good measures.

Of course, if you if your target is to save lives, you have to go with lockdowns because of the community disease.

What I have to say is that what is probably missing in some places is the need to invest more in reaching those vulnerable people at home through different social protection mechanisms, as food rations, community vouchers or attached transfers.

And some country has increased, indeed the level of support, countries like Peru, for instance, has almost triplicate the support to population.

And this should be a mechanism also to cover some of the gaps, but it's completely different.

It's not easy really to say, OK, you can go out and then you can have access to work and then the situation in terms of the pandemia deteriorate farther.

So I think should be an A balance in order to see how you can support also people now in lockdown through these different social protection systems.

OK.

Are there any other question for Miguel because I do not see any little ends on my list.

So if anyone wants to ask a last question and then we can close the the press conference, any other question No 123.

OK, so we will give you, we'll close the the press conference.

Miguel, thank you so much for your participation, for being with us in in Geneva virtually and for waking up so early in Panama for us.

So I suppose if there are follow up information they I will get them in in writing.

Many thanks to all the journalists who had participated and I wish you Miguel a good day.

And for the other good afternoon.

I I now I close the the conference.

Bye, thank.

You so much, Elizabeth.

Bye to you, Miguel.

Bye.