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OCHA - Press Conference: launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025
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Press Conferences , Edited News | OCHA
OCHA - Press Conference: launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025
Global Humanitarian Overview – Tom Fletcher - OCHA
TRT: 03 min 54s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 04 DECEMBER 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speakers:
- Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA
SHOTLIST
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- Exterior médium-wide: UN Geneva flag alley.
- Medium wide, UN Geneva Press room podium and speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “We are dealing with a polycrisis right now globally and it is the most vulnerable people in the world who are paying the price. We are dealing with the impact of conflicts - multiple conflicts - and crises of longer duration and of more intense ferocity.”
- Medium-wide, speakers at podium, Press room with journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “If you look at the gap between the number who we want to reach this year - I think it's 190 million - and the number we think are in need - 305 million - my maths is shakier than it was, but I think there's 115 million that we won't be able to reach with the support that we would like to.”
- Medium-wide, speakers at podium, Press room with journalists, TV screens showing principal speaker.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “In DRC, as with all these conflicts, we are ready to do more, it's our mission to do more. My people are desperate to get out there and deliver because they really are on the frontline. They can see what is needed but we need these resources. That's our call to action and we also need the world to do more; those with power to do more, to challenge this era of impunity and to challenge this era of indifference.”
- Wide, Press room, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “It's not just the fact of so many conflicts at the same time, it's the duration of those conflicts; the average length is 10 years. So, we're not closing off conflicts before the next ones are starting. And the fact that those conflicts are so ferocious and the impact on civilians is so dramatic. I mentioned Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine as examples of that, with this disregard of international law and in every case, obstruction of our work.”
- Medium-wide, Press room, journalists, one video journalist is filming with mobile phone.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “We can debate conflict versus climate change, but I think the toxicity of this and the dread I have is that those two huge drivers of need are now combining. And that's what makes our job so difficult. And they're often combining in areas that have already suffered huge levels of poverty and inequality.”
- Medium, automatic camera and TV screen showing speaker in frame.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “So we reckon 123 million people have been displaced forcibly by conflict. And among that group, you know, violations against children are also at record levels and I saw this of course in in Sudan; one in every five children is living in a conflict zone right now.”
- Medium-wide, TV journalist with camera, photographer.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “I talked to our teams in the field every day and they are facing multiple obstructions to getting the basics of humanitarian aid through.”
- Medium-wide, journalists, photographer.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “Our job is to get the humanitarian support through, checkpoint by checkpoint, border by border, it's what I was doing in Sudan, meeting by meeting last week. Arguing truck by truck for that humanitarian delivery. That's our mission.”
- Medium-wide, journalists, photographer.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator & Head of OCHA: “It's not just the ferocity of these conflicts - Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria - it's about that willful neglect of international humanitarian law. And about the fact and as a result, we seem to have lost our anchor somehow.”
- Close, speaker’s face in foreground, blurred, laptop screen behind.
- Medium, speaker holding up Global Humanitarian Overview document.
305 million people need lifesaving help next year, says UN’s top aid official
Multiple unending conflicts, climate change and a glaring disregard for long-established international humanitarian law are set to leave a staggering 305 million people in need of lifesaving assistance next year, the UN’s top aid official warned on Wednesday.
“The world is on fire…We are dealing with a polycrisis right now globally and it is the most vulnerable people in the world who are paying the price. We are dealing with the impact of conflicts - multiple conflicts - and crises of longer duration and of more intense ferocity” said Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, in an appeal for $47.4 billion to provide life-saving aid in more than 30 countries and nine refugee-hosting regions.
Impossible choices
Dire as OCHA’s new humanitarian assessment is on behalf of more than 1,500 humanitarian partners, it is expected that of the 305 million in need, only 190 million will be reached.
A lack of funding is just one of the reasons why, in countries where populations have endured decades of violence and instability, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
“In DRC, as with all these conflicts, we are ready to do more, it's our mission to do more,” insisted Mr. Fletcher. “My people are desperate to get out there and deliver because they really are on the frontline. They can see what is needed but we need these resources. That's our call to action and we also need the world to do more; those with power to do more, to challenge this era of impunity and to challenge this era of indifference.”
Doorstepping role
As the UN’s newly appointed top aid official, Mr. Fletcher pledged to visit the capitals of the world “to bash down doors” of government in search of new partnerships and solidarity for the world’s most vulnerable people.
“I've got to find ways to reframe this argument in a way that will resonate with the public at large,” he added.
Citing his past roles as a UK ambassador with experience in conflict and peace building, from Kenya to Lebanon and Northern Ireland, the new OCHA chief stressed the need to ensure that aid continues to flow to where it’s needed most.
“I have a very clear mission around humanitarian delivery,” he said, before paying tribute to the “extraordinary entrepreneurial humanitarian diplomacy” of his predecessor Martin Griffiths, who stepped down in June for health reasons.
Election changes
Asked about the changing geopolitical landscape in a bumper year of hugely significant national and presidential elections, Mr. Fletcher insisted that “it's not just about America…we're facing the election of a number of governments who will be more questioning of what the United Nations does…But I don't believe that we can't make that case to them; I don't believe that that there isn't compassion in these governments which are getting elected.”
In comments to journalists at the unveiling of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025, Mr. Fletcher confirmed that communities continue to be confronted with multiple crises.
“It's not just the fact of so many conflicts at the same time, it's the duration of those conflicts; the average length is 10 years,” he said. “We're not closing off conflicts before the next ones are starting. And the fact that those conflicts are so ferocious and the impact on civilians is so dramatic. I mentioned Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine as examples of that, with this disregard of international law and in every case, obstruction of our work.”
Climate crisis accelerator
While stressing how many lives have been shattered by conflict around the world – not least in Sudan, where the new UN relief chief spent last week visiting and talking to people uprooted by the war – Mr. Fletcher underscored how severe the climate crisis is on already vulnerable people.
“The dread I have is that those two huge drivers of need are now combining,” he said. And that's what makes our job so difficult. And they're often combining in areas that have already suffered huge levels of poverty and inequality.”
Latest estimates indicate that some 123 million people have been displaced forcibly by conflict worldwide, Mr. Fletcher continued. “And among that group, violations against children are also at record levels and I saw this of course in Sudan; one in every five children is living in a conflict zone right now.”
Challenging aid obstacles
Among his priorities, the top UN aid official insisted that guaranteed aid access remains a key issue that he would seek to address. “I talked to our teams in the field every day and they are facing multiple obstructions to getting the basics of humanitarian aid through,” he noted.
“Our job is to get the humanitarian support through, checkpoint by checkpoint, border by border, it's what I was doing in Sudan…Arguing truck by truck for that humanitarian delivery. That's our mission.”
Wednesday’s Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 launch in Geneva, Kuwait and Nairobi will also be an opportunity to push for greater respect and understanding of the laws of war and international humanitarian law by combatants, to protect civilians and aid teams who have died in record numbers this year.
“It's not just the ferocity of these conflicts - Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria - it's about that wilful neglect of international humanitarian law,” Mr. Fletcher said. And about the fact and as a result, we seem to have lost our anchor somehow.”
Teleprompter
Good morning and welcome everyone in the room.
Thank you for showing up and also to everyone online.
We have quite a number of people, actually a lot of people.
So.
So that's fantastic news.
This is a embargoed press conference with our new Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher.
To my left here.
It's under embargo until 6:00 AM Geneva time tomorrow.
So please, as usual, we always respect that.
Let's do the same thing.
This year.
You will have received our press release and the abridged version of the full Global Humanitarian Overview.
If you are interested in having access to the entire report, do send me an e-mail or a message and I can share the link and a password for you so you can have a look.
That will also kind of go online at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning.
So with that, we will run this as a usual press conference.
Mr Fletcher will have some introductory remarks and then we'll take your questions from the room and online 1 by 1.
So over to you, Mr Fletcher.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Yens, and good morning, everyone.
Thank you for for joining us this morning.
So the world is on fire and this is how we put it out.
We'll launch the global humanitarian overview this week.
And it fills me with a mixture of shame, dread, but also hope.
The reality is, as you know well, that we are dealing with a Poly crisis right now globally and it is the most vulnerable people in the world who are paying the price.
We are dealing with the impact of conflicts, multiple conflicts and crises of longer duration and of more intense ferocity.
We are dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis.
And as I flew over Chad last week, I saw for myself the way that people already exposed to poverty and now also exposed to flooding and droughts.
But thirdly, we're also dealing with the impact of growing inequality.
And this combination conflict, climate and inequality creates this perfect storm that we are navigating right now and which I hope that this report will now help us to navigate in the coming year.
3 numbers which I think we need to have imprinted on our minds right now.
The first number is 305,000,000.
That's the number of the people in dire need who we believe that we need to reach in the coming year.
305,000,047 billion is the 2nd #47 billion is the funding we believe we need to raise in order to support those 305 million people.
And then 190 million.
Now we have a choice.
We have a choice right now.
We can respond to these numbers with generosity, with compassion, with genuine solidarity for those in the most dire need on the planet.
Or we can carry on.
We can choose to leave them alone to face these crises.
We can choose to let them down.
I believe that we need to reset our relationship with those in greatest need on the planet.
I believe that we need need a surge in global solidarity.
And that's why I feel shame at these numbers, that as a world community, as an international community, we have let these numbers rise to this level.
It's why I feel dread, frankly, because I fear, and you in this room know this much better than me.
I fear I'll be back next year sat in this seat saying the same thing but with slightly bigger numbers.
And that really does fill me with dread because behind every one of these numbers is an individual is a person.
But there is also hope.
There's hope in this report.
And I also feel hope two weeks into my mandate as USG and ERC.
Hope because we have reached 116 million people with support in the last year, 116 million people.
I feel hope because of the people I met in Sudan over my visit that lasted more than a week, my first visit in the role to the site of the world's biggest humanitarian crisis.
Right now I feel hope because of the people I met who are responding on the front lines.
People like Mama Noor, whose centre I visited, who is rehabilitating women who have suffered the most horrendous sexual violence time and time again, who must think that the world has forgotten them and yet they're not forgotten.
She's reaching out with kindness and practical support.
I feel hope because of the humanitarian workers I've met over the last week, including our UN teams on the ground, and I've seen the passion and commitment and dedication that they bring to their work.
And it is inspirational.
And I feel hope because of the message that I received from people I met in Sudan and Chad.
I spent a lot of time in community meetings asking them what their message was for the world.
And their message is don't give up on us because we still have hope.
They are people who are living in a context that we could not imagine, that we would think is hopeless, and they are still telling us to have hope.
It is them, they, who are encouraging us not to lose hope.
So as long as they have hope, then we have to have hope too.
But it has to be a practical hope.
It has to be based on on numbers and on plans.
It can't be pure idealism and wishful thinking.
So this is our North Star for the coming year.
This will guide our work not just as a humanitarian system, but as a humanitarian movement, a humanitarian community, because this job is far too big for the UN family to deal with alone.
We need that broader coalition to help us respond to those in the direst need.
So I think that covers my intro against, but I am now very happy to take to take your questions.
I'll perform the question Francais Si si, but it's over to you.
Thank you very much, Mr Fletcher.
I have Associated Press, Jamie 1st and then Nina from AFP.
Over to you, Jamie.
Thank you, Mr Fletcher.
Nice to come see us and I appreciate it.
I'm Jamie from Associated Press.
Welcome.
You mentioned we have a choice.
We have a choice right now.
We can respond to these numbers, the three that you laid out with generosity, compassion, genuine solidarity.
Your own country has been criticised for reducing its international aid outlays.
How are you going to convince other countries, countries that have not been giving money for a long time, that have a lot of money in some cases and are not doing so when your own country is reducing its outlays?
Thanks, Jamie.
I think that's a fair question.
And I'm I'm here to represent the UN as of 16 days.
That's my sole designation.
But as you can tell from my accent, I do come from somewhere.
Now, I think this is a broader challenge of of and a concern that we all have of donor fatigue.
This humanitarian system right now is overstretched.
It's underfunded, and it's literally under attack.
And we can maybe come back to the situation in which humanitarian workers find themselves globally.
We've just passed the number that makes this the deadliest year to be a humanitarian worker on record.
It's a shocking thing for me to have to announce in my first week in the job.
And those numbers have gone up again, people who are risking everything to do this work.
But yeah, your question is about that effort to ensure we we find those resources.
I think we've got to make the case afresh for global compassion.
We have to take that message to some of those.
You know, we might call them the traditional donors, the people who are doing the most of the funding for the last couple of decades.
That includes the UK, includes others, Germany, the US, where the funding is, is being reduced.
We've got to show them that responding to these crises in a practical, resourced way is the most effective way to deal with these crises.
We've got to show them what the alternative is.
And sometimes we might, we might have to frame that in different ways because we are facing a very different geopolitical context as the United Nations.
And we, we should front up to that.
We should be honest.
This isn't the world that most of us thought we'd be working in in 2024.
For my generation, you know, I was 14 in 1989 as the Berlin Wall came down.
I didn't think that we'd be in a world where it feels as though the rivets are popping, that the wheels are rattling off on the international system that was designed with such patience by our predecessors and such vision.
But it is the system is really, really stretched.
And those that we might look to traditionally to reinforce that system are not giving the support that we might wish.
So we've got to, I've got to get out there, it's my job.
I've got to get into capitals.
I've got to make that argument.
I've got to bash down doors.
I've got to find ways to reframe this argument in a way that will resonate with the public at large.
And you've got to cut through the noise, all this distraction that's out there, this sense I keep hearing that we're all too busy to care.
We've got to find ways to make people care again.
Can I, can I just thank you a quick follow up and very.
Quickly, just you, you mentioned the, the a long time donors, what about countries that do have a lot of money that which countries in particular are you hoping that might be encouraged to give more?
Do you have any countries in mind that you think?
I have a long list and it has a lot of countries on it.
We've got to diversify the donor base.
We can't just rely on the same club of donors, wonderful as they are and appreciative as we are of them.
You know, I was in, I was in Chad last week and Chad, despite being the 4th poorest country in the world, is a donor to the UN Surf.
That's pretty extraordinary.
We've got to take this message out.
I'll be going.
I'm not sure we've announced my programme yet for the first quarter of next year, but you'll see many of those sorts of countries on that list.
I had a chance to thank our colleague from South Korea here yesterday for the fact that South Korea is one of our largest growing donors.
So we are, we're ambitious and and we're confident that we have a message that will resonate with new allies as well as with old allies.
Thank you, Nina.
Thank you.
Nina Larsen, the FP.
So along those same lines, I just wanted to ask just to follow up on that, you mentioned the, the shifting geopolitical context.
I was wondering if you could how much more difficult things have become since November 5th in that, in that, in that sense.
And then also when it comes to the funding, it used to be until last year at least that every year we came here and the, and the appeals were bigger.
It was always a record appeal and and a record number that the UN was planning on helping.
And that's no longer the case.
I understand that might be down to realisms given that this year's appeal is only funded at less than 50%.
So if you could talk to that and the biggest concerns around the impacts on funding gaps.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Nina.
So, yeah, so question 1 is about is, is it clearly about Trump?
And I think what we're facing, as I said to Jamie, is, is, is that much tougher global context.
It's not just about America, although America is very much on our minds at the moment.
We're facing the election of a number of governments who will be more questioning of what the United Nations does and less ideologically supportive of this humanitarian effort that we've laid out in this report.
But I don't believe that we can't make that case to them.
I don't believe that that there isn't compassion in these governments which are getting elected.
And I think these numbers, which are staggering, will cut through.
But it's our job to to frame the arguments in the right way to land and not to give up.
And so I'll, I'll head to Washington.
I'll spend a lot of time in Washington, I imagine over the next few months engaging with the new administration, making the case to them, just as I'll spend a lot of time in in other capitals where people might be sceptical about the work that we are doing.
So I think we lean into this.
We're honest about, we should be honest about the challenges and realistic.
We shouldn't pretend that everything will carry on as it is, but we've got to engage.
And I'll be doing that on, on, on your second point, you're right.
And I've got the list in front of me of the previous years, you know better than I do.
And the numbers, the numbers do go up and down each year.
I think that's actually quite a positive.
It, it would be very easy based on the data that I've seen and that the team's collected for us to keep coming to you with a bigger number and for for us to say, like the headline here is this is the biggest year ever.
It's an easy thing for us to say.
It's an easy thing for you to write, but the reality is we've got to prioritise because of those funding gaps.
We've got to be absolutely focused on reaching those in the most dire need and and really ruthless.
And I choose that word carefully because it's a judgement call, that ruthlessness about prioritising where the funding goes and where we can have the the greatest impact.
So it's a recognition that we've struggled in previous years to raise the money we need.
We're not saying that the these crises are getting better, we're not saying that we don't need to reach a higher number with more money than we're asking for.
But this is about prioritisation and we want to demonstrate that that we will focus and target the resources that we have.
Thank you so much.
We'll take two more from the room and then we'll go online.
Nick ******* Bruce from New York Times.
Yeah.
Good morning.
Thank you for for the briefing.
I wonder if you could just you've talked about the the need to combat impunity.
This seems to be a little bit outside of Ocha's traditional role.
So I'm kind of wondering after a year, which of you have said is the the most deadly for humanitarian workers, how you intend to kind of promote the security of humanitarian delivery.
And you talked about the ruthlessness of of prioritising that's needed.
What has been some of the humanitarian costs of of the priorities that you're imposing and some of the cuts that you've had to impose on humanitarian assistance in the current year?
Thank you.
Thank you, Nick.
Yeah, I, I think when I've, when I've talked about we have to end the era of impunity, I'm thinking about the international community.
I'm thinking about the world at large.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that from where I sit, that something I can deliver solo somehow, or that it's within my OCHA role.
It's actually for the broader collective to deliver.
So it's a big we rather than small we.
But it is part of my recognition that this is a different context.
And it's not just the ferocity of these conflicts, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syrian.
It's about that wilful neglect of international humanitarian law and about the fact.
And as a result, we seem to have lost our anchor somehow.
We've lost our bearing.
Somehow that scaffolding that we felt was there.
International humanitarian law that I was hoping that we'd be taking for granted at this point is shaking.
That scaffolding is shaky at the moment.
And, and that's the, the argument I think we need to take on.
It's a broader argument than just about OCHA, because our job is to get the humanitarian support through checkpoint by checkpoint, border by border.
It's what I was doing in Sudan meeting by meeting last week, arguing truck by truck for that humanitarian delivery.
That's our, our mission.
And as part of that, you know, you mentioned humanitarian workers and we, we passed that 281 number in my first week in the job of humanitarian workers killed this year, the deadliest year for humanitarian workers in history.
And as I landed in Sudan, we lost another Rocher colleague and we've, we've lost more colleagues from the humanitarian movement in the in the week since.
And the reality is the only way to, for me to stop that happening is to somehow try to stop humanitarians heading out towards the crises in order to try to deal with the victims of them.
And that's not something that we can do or will do.
So I really need the international system and, and those with a voice and power to do much, much more to protect humanitarians in these, in these conflicts.
And thirdly, on the costs.
And I don't have a, a list in front of me of, of the projects that we won't be able to fund as a result of not asking for more money.
But if you look at the gap between the number who we want to reach this year, I think it's 190 million and the number we think are in need, 305,000,000, my maths is, is shakier than it was.
But I think there's 115,000,000 that we won't be able to reach with the support that we would like to because we are making these priorities.
And that every one of those is a is an individual who needs shelter, health, education.
Who are people who are looking for what we're looking for Security, justice, opportunity and dignity.
Thank you.
Yes, my question.
Yeah, My name is Paola Dupaibiasam with Geneva Solutions.
My question was regarding the climate crisis that you mentioned.
And just just a week ago the the COP 29 wrapped up in Baku and it was agreed that they would be two, sorry, $300 billion in climate aid that would be provided, which is much lower than the 1.3 that had been estimated to to cover needs.
Would like to know from you what's that signal?
What if that's?
What's our signal that may?
Give to the to.
Donors as well as the impact of that on the ground in the the impact on the ground.
I think we can we can all see.
And as I say, it was really driven home to me in Chad, you know, flying over those floodplains to talk about, to talk to the government about the fact that they're hosting so many Sudanese refugees at the time when they have multiple layers of displaced people in the country and they're responding to the flooding and the droughts as the country most vulnerable to climate change.
So I've really, it's been seared on my mind really the real impact of that on a government responding to that, that crisis.
You know, I wasn't at the I wasn't at the COP.
But I think there we face the same challenge that we can set out the reality of a failure to act.
And the SG does this very eloquently in describing what happens if we fail to act.
We can set out how we must respond, what we need to respond, why we need to respond, but then we need people to respond.
We need the resources.
And I think here alongside the humanitarian crisis, because it's all intertwined it We've got to get that message out to new audiences.
We've got to find a way to connect with new generations because ultimately we need them to make the case to their governments for why these challenges require a global response and not a national with a withdrawal, a national introspection.
We need to move on from this time of national distancing and get back to a system of global cooperation again.
Thank you, Tom.
We will get to the online questions in a minute.
I just want to give to Jeremy, Radio France International.
Thank you.
Yes, two quick ones for you, Mr Fletcher.
Just what's the most money consuming crisis right now?
Is it Sudan?
Is it DOP T?
Simple question.
And then let me try to ask this question again in another way.
But would you have come up with a bigger number for the appeal had the outcome of the US election been different?
Thank you.
So I've got the list of of all the response plans above a billion.
I don't have the list.
I'm sure Yen's can give it to you from the last year of which which crises consume most money looking backwards, looking forwards, Syria is right at the top of the list at over 4 1/2 billion, followed by Sudan.
As I say, I saw for myself 25,000,000 in need last week.
This is at the top of this is the Syria regional plan, but there are 14 crises on that list at over a billion.
So that also includes occupied power and territory.
Of course, I'll go to the region in the next two weeks to see for myself how we can deliver more effectively there, Ukraine, DRC, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Somalia, Venezuela and Myanmar.
The second question, that's a really interesting question.
No, I think this will be exactly the same number.
Yens will tell you later if that's the wrong answer, but I believe that we would be asking, we would.
This has got to be based on data it for it to have, for it to have real credibility.
Our teams, you know, I'm amazed and encouraged the the rigour that goes into this work to get this level of clarity.
If it didn't exist, we'd have to invent it.
You know, it's the sort of thing that someone comes into the job and says that this is all too complicated.
We've got to have a really clear road map.
Where is the need and what do we need to respond?
These teams spend huge amounts of time on this and I don't think that one election here or there changes the data or changes the need.
Thank you, Tom.
Indeed, evidence.
My first name on the online list was Emma from Reuters, who has now arrived.
So I will give Emma the floor.
Good morning and welcome, Mr Fletcher.
Hi, Emma from Reuters.
One of the reasons the needs are so big because the conflicts are not getting resolved.
You have an experience, a lot of experience as a diplomat and I understand this role comes with some potential for back channelling, for maybe even brokering conflicts behind the scenes.
Is that something that you intend to do and where do you think you can make a difference?
If so, thank you.
Thank you, Emma.
And yes, indeed, I mean, many of the most formative experiences in my diplomatic life have been working on conflict and, and, and peacemaking from from Kenya through to, through to Lebanon, but also for four years as the Prime Minister's Northern Ireland advisor.
So working very closely on that, that negotiation.
Now I have a very clear mission around humanitarian delivery.
That's, that's the job description.
You know, there's a, a big C in the word ocha, standing for coordination.
And ultimately that's what I'll be judged against is can I coordinate the humanitarian system to, to stand up and deal with these, with these challenges.
Now, of course, to do that, there will be times when I need to be a diplomat.
I'd noticed that in Sudan, you know, I had 7 or 8 meetings just on getting the extra humanitarian flights, the extra humanitarian hubs and so on.
That, that was diplomacy in its classic form, but it was for that humanitarian mission.
You know, I pay great tribute to my predecessor Martin, who, who did some really extraordinary entrepreneurial humanitarian diplomacy.
And I hope to build on that, learn from it and, and be active and use the skills, experience that I hope I, I can bring.
But also we have some extraordinary people doing the actual political work, the actual negotiation, the SG, his team of special representatives, the political team, peacekeeping teams and so on.
And so I would want to support them because there's a link between peace making and humanitarian work.
But also I'm conscious of where my lane is.
Thank you very much.
Let's go online to Laurence here from the Swiss News Agency.
Over to you.
Can you hear us?
Can we get Laurent?
Through.
Otherwise, we can come back to Laurent.
So let's go to Yan Dierkelbermann.
German and Austrian press over to you, Yan.
Yes.
Good morning.
Can you hear me?
We can go ahead.
OK, great.
Yeah, Good morning, Mr Fletcher.
Many thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk to you.
I was wondering in in the press release and you repeated it earlier, you said that 305 million people around the world require humanitarian assistance next year.
And at the same time you're saying that with the $47 billion you hope to receive, you are giving humanitarian assistance to 190 million people around the world.
So I was wondering what will happen to the 2 upper 115 if I'm correct, 150 million people who are not covered.
Well, I think my understanding is that we we won't be able to reach them in the same way.
And, you know, if it would be very easy to sit here and say we need to reach all those 305 because we do, we want to, we wish we could.
And if this message cuts through and we have a bumper year of funding, then we'll do as much as we can and, and we'll go beyond the 190.
But, you know, I have to be cynical and realistic about, about the prospects of doing that.
And it, it is ruthless.
I use the word ruthless, and it's a tough word for us to hear as humanitarians because it does mean tough choices about not reaching everyone.
But I have to work with what I have to work with.
And that means really, really tough, tough choices.
But they're based on evidence and they're based on this assessment of where we can have most impact on those who most need it.
And so it's guided by the data and the evidence.
Thank you very much.
Let's try try Laurent again.
He had his hand up first.
OK, Laurent, maybe you can send the question in the teams chat and we will try to to get to it.
We don't have much time left.
I I must warn everyone, but let's go to Musa from Almaydin TV.
On ET, OH, like as you say, Congress evid the, the, I know Lebanon very well.
I seem to be doing this in French and English combined, very Lebanese, in fact, combining the two in a sentence.
So I know I know Lebanon very well and it's a country that I love and it's going through the most significant humanitarian crisis in a generation.
This is after multiple crises.
I left Lebanon in 2015 and said at the time that every time you think you couldn't hit rock bottom, you hear a sound, a tapping sound below.
And they've heard that tapping sound again and again.
The financial crisis, the port explosion, and now this conflict, all of that on top of waves of, of refugees fleeing the, the Syria crisis.
And we'll see more of that in the coming weeks.
I, I fear.
So it's a, it's a, it's a brutal situation that the Lebanese people are suffering.
And you know, the ceasefire does, I hope, bring us some respite and an opportunity to get support to, to those who need it because, you know, the human toll has been, has been devastating.
The crisis is, of course, far from over.
It doesn't end with the with the ceasefire.
So we need to get more access.
We need more funding to deliver aid to those who to the civilians who so badly who badly need it.
And again, we call on the countries with influence in the region to stand up for international humanitarian law.
We've got to avoid further bloodshed.
We've got to avoid got to avoid further suffering.
We've got to protect civilians.
We've got to protect humanitarian workers and get back to the implementation of UNSCR 1701 on the precise numbers for the Lebanon appeal.
Lebanon is not in that list of a billion plus plans.
So I'll ask IANS to get back to you on the exact number in the in the document that we are seeking for Lebanon.
I'm also aware that for Lebanon and Syria, these needs are fluctuating at the moment and likely to increase given the state of the conflict right now.
Thank you very much, Tom.
We'll take two more questions and then we'll wrap it up.
Japanese press first in the room and then final to Catherine of Fianca Online.
Over to you.
Thank you young.
My name is Satoko Adachi, I work for your musician Buna Japanese newspaper.
According to the overview, there are two main drivers of the needs, conflict and climate emergencies.
Could you give us a sense of which one is bigger driver of the global humanitarian needs in 2025?
And secondly, you talk about multiple conflict and crisis of the longer duration and more intense ferocity.
So how are you going to deal with these emerging, the emerging trends?
Thank you.
Thank you.
I mean, it's a really interesting question.
I think, I think the reality is, it's, it's the combination of the two which is, is the most dangerous right now because so many of the crises we're dealing with, you know, so many of the crises on that list I read out to you of the 14 country plans, these are these are suffering from the combination.
And so on the conflict side, it's not just the the fact of so many conflicts at the same time as the duration of those conflicts.
The average length is 10 years.
So we're not closing off conflicts before the next ones are starting.
And the fact that those conflicts are so ferocious and the impact on civilians is so dramatic.
I mentioned Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine as examples of that.
With this disregard of of international law and in in every case obstruction of our work.
You know, I talk to our teams in the field every day and they are facing multiple obstructions to getting the basics of humanitarian aid through.
So we reckon 123 million people have been displaced forcibly by conflict.
And among that group, you know, violations against children are also at record levels.
And I saw this, of course, in in Sudan, one in every five children is living in a conflict zone right now.
So I don't know where that ranks in the list of crises, but that feels pretty severe and unacceptable to me.
On the climate side, you'll know the stats and they'll be in the report.
2024 will be the hottest year on record.
Presumably 2025 will then be the hottest year on record.
Floods, droughts, heat waves, wildfires affecting millions.
We're on the brink of surpassing the 1.5° in warming.
And that will hit hardest the countries that have actually contributed least to climate change itself.
That hits food systems.
It wipes out livelihoods.
It forces communities to move from their homes and land.
Drought has caused 65% of agricultural economic damage over the last 15 years, worsening food insecurity.
So we can debate conflict versus climate change, but I think the, the toxicity of this and the, the, the dread I have is that those two huge drivers of need are now combining.
And that's what makes our job so difficult.
And they're often combining in areas that have already suffered huge levels of poverty and and inequality.
OK, short last question from you Catherine online Franz Wankapf.
Yes.
Do you hear me?
Hello.
Yes, you do.
Good morning and thank you for the briefing.
I'd like to come back to Africa and to the forgotten crisis and particularly the Our Congo.
I'd like to know if you have innovative solutions to reach requirements because you spoke about the duration of the conflict and the crisis.
The Our Congo has a price that lasts for the last three decades.
Do you plan to go to the region?
Could you give us a bit and more information about the region, please?
Thank you.
Yeah, I, I can.
And, and thank you for thank you for ensuring, Catherine, that we don't neglect some of these conflicts that can slip down the list that should normally would normally consume so much more of our attention.
I wanted to make a point of visiting Sudan first because it's the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.
I wanted then to get to the Middle East, as I will do the week after next, because it's the most intense crisis in the world.
Gaza is a terrible place to be a civilian right now, as you all know better than I do, and it but in the new year I will I will be visiting Ukraine early on.
It's very **** on the list and I plan to get to the DRC very early on.
To try to shine more of a light on on that conflict, as you say, a long, long running conflict.
The country with the largest number of people in need of humanitarian assistance, one in four people requiring aid, the second highest number of uprooted people, more than 6.4 million in the world after Sudan.
Scale of suffering is enormous, far beyond what the humanitarian movement can can address.
Among that, and I want to really underline this point more generally because it was something I heard and was very moved by during my visit to Sudan, are the levels of gender based violence, this epidemic of sexual violence against women and girls, the weaponization of women's bodies in conflict, which is it just horrific levels.
And I had conversations in Sudan that I will never forget.
But this is also a huge feature of the conflict in the in the DRC.
But then also, of course, I haven't touched on it yet, but in these overlapping crises, we also have of course, the health crisis in the DRC as well.
And as the document will show, the levels that we've got to reach are just not matched by the funding that we've been able to raise.
So in DRC, as with all these conflicts, we are ready to do more.
It's our mission to do more.
My people are desperate to get out there and deliver because they really are on the front line.
They can see what is needed.
But we need these resources.
That's our call to action, and we also need the world to do more, those with power to do more, to challenge this era of impunity and to challenge this era of indifference.
Thank you so much, Tom.
Thank you all for coming today and showing up online.
Thank you very much, Mr Fletcher, for this very long briefing.
We hope to see you back often here in Geneva.
Thank you so much.