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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 14 July 2020
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Press Conferences | OHCHR , WHO , UNOG , WFP , FAO , IOM
UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 14 July 2020
Human Rights Council
Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Council, informed that this morning the Council was holding a panel discussion on COVID-19 and women’s rights. At noon, there would be an oral briefing by the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, followed by an interactive discussion, to be followed by the continuation of discussion on Myanmar and the presentation of the report by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria and a discussion.
More information on the forty-fourth session of the Council can be found here.
State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report
Maximo Torero, Chief Economist and Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the world was off track to achieve SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and, at this pace, in 2030 more than 800 million were expected to be undernourished. In addition, between 80 and 120 million more people could this year go chronically undernourished because of COVID-19. If all forms of malnutrition were counted, as many as two billion people in the world did not have access to all the food they needed. If the world wanted to achieve zero hunger and combat malnutrition, the key was to address the quality of diets; currently, 57 per cent of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia could not afford such diets. Hidden costs behind the production of foods ought also to be considered; if the pattern of nutrition was changed towards healthier options, those hidden costs could be significantly reduced.
The current situation was not on track, and COVID-19 was making things worse, stressed Mr. Torero. The report urged a transformation of food systems to reduce the cost of nutritious foods and increase the affordability of healthy diets. While the specific solutions would differ from country to country, and even within them, the overall answers lay with interventions along the entire food supply chain, in the food environment, and in the political economy that shaped trade, public expenditure and investment policies.
Full FAO press release can be read here.
Elisabeth Byrs, for the World Food Programme (WFP), referring to the report, reiterated that
the world was not on track to achieve zero hunger by 2030. For WFP, FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the three Rome-based UN agencies engaged in the fight against hunger, that was extremely worrying. WFP worked on the frontlines of hunger around the world and was focused on responding to “acute” hunger needs. WFP estimated that the number of acutely food insecure people in the world could increase by 80 per cent - from 149 million in 2019 to 270 million before the end of 2020 – largely due to the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The shifting battlefront of the pandemic was currently being felt most keenly in Latin America, where there has been a 269 per cent rise in people facing severe food insecurity. Spikes in food insecurity were already evident in West and Central Africa (135 per cent increase) and Southern Africa (90 per cent increase), estimated the WFP.
The virus was changing the face of hunger by dragging urban populations into destitution, and compounding the effects of climate change, conflict and socioeconomic shocks in regions of the world that had previously escaped severe levels of food insecurity. Ms. Byrs informed that the WFP was mobilising to meet the food needs of up to 138 million people in 2020 – the biggest humanitarian response in its history. This unprecedented crisis required an unprecedented response, and the WFP was appealing for USD 4.9 billion over the next six months to carry out this life-saving work in 83 countries.
Responding to a question, Ms. Byrs said that in 2020, the WFP aimed to assist 138 million acutely malnourished people. Other humanitarian agencies, NGOs and governments were naturally also involved in this monumental task. Mr. Torero explained that it was important to understand the difference between acute and chronical malnutrition; in the global north, thanks to social and unemployment insurance, people who lost jobs usually still had the capacity to feed themselves. Mr. Torero, in response to another question, said if the process of economic recovery did not accelerate in the north, we could also witness a broader problem of access to food. FAO expected that even in developed countries there would be spots of food insecurity.
Stranded migrants in Yemen
Paul Dillon, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that COVID19-related restrictions that had reduced the number of migrant arrivals in Yemen by 90 per cent in recent months had also left tens of thousands of Ethiopians stranded there, subject to forcible relocation, arbitrary detention and abuse, and exposed to the spread of coronavirus with little access to support services. Transportation through the country had been blocked and at least 14,500 migrants had been forcibly transferred between governorates, left stranded in Aden (4,000), Marib (2,500), Lahj (1,000) and Sa’ada (7,000) governorates. In 2019, over 138,000 migrants – an average of 11,500 per month – had arrived in Yemen from the Horn of Africa according to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, bound for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in search of work. In May 2019, 18,904 people had made the crossing, whereas this year only 1,725 arrivals had been recorded.
Agencies like IOM were continuing to assist stranded migrants, but major funding shortages jeopardized the response, putting lives at risk. IOM’s appeal for USD 155 million to support over 5.3 million people by the end of the year was just half-funded, endangering displaced Yemenis and migrants who would be left alone to face the devastating fallout of nearly six years of conflict and the worsening COVID-19 outbreak. Mr. Dillon also informed that soon the IOM would be releasing some new B-roll and photo materials from Yemen.
Full IOM press release can be read here.
It was very difficult to estimate how many migrants there were in Yemen in total, and how many of them were in detention, said Mr. Dillon in response to a question. COVID-19 did make access more challenging, he explained.
Geneva announcements
Fadéla Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that Dr. Tedros was in Paris today to attend the Bastille Day celebrations, at the invitation of the French President. This year, the ceremony was primarily dedicated to health professionals fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. On 16 July, at the invitation of the King of Spain, Dr. Tedros would be in Madrid to participate in events honoring health workers and those who had lost their lives to COVID-19. It was not planned for Dr. Tedros to visit health facilities in Madrid, nor would he be delivering formal remarks in either Paris or Madrid.
Ms. Chaib also announced that a PAHO press conference would take place at 11 a.m. Washington time today. Ms. Chaib said the next WHO press briefing with Dr. Tedros would take place on Friday, 17 July, at 5 p.m, but from next week the plan was to have those briefings on Monday and Thursday afternoons.
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the UN Information Service (UNIS), reminded journalists about the “Women Rise for All” online event starting today at 8 a.m. NYC time, which would be hosted by Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General.
The Human Rights Committee, which was pursuing its 129th session online, would hold during this session several public meetings (the next ones today from 4 to 6 p.m), all devoted to the review (second reading) of its General Comment 37 on Article 21 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Right to peaceful assembly).
The Committee Against Torture had held a brief 69th session the previous day – the first online session so far – during which it had decided it would postpone its November-December session to next year, unless it could be carried out in-situ.
Teleprompter
OK, let's, let's begin this press briefing of Tuesday, the 14th of July.
To begin with, Orlando could not be here with us this morning.
So he's asked me to just remind you of what's happening at the Human Rights Council today.
You will have all received, I believe last night, the programme for the day, which includes this morning a panel discussion on COVID-19 and women's rights, with opening remarks by Peggy Hicks and Arancha Gonzalez Layer, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the for Spain.
Then at 12, there will be an oral briefing by the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, followed by concerned country statement and interactive discussion.
The interactive discussion with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, will continue at 3:00.
And then at four, there will be the presentation of the report by the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, followed by the concerned country statement and interactive discussion.
And as usual, the Council plans on finishing around 6:00 PM this evening.
I have Fadella is with us who has a quick announcement to make.
So I think I'm going to go to her before I continue on my side.
Fadella, can you can we unmute Fadella, please?
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Hello, Fidel.
Hi.
Actually for both of you, we had yesterday two press conferences at the same time, David Kaye and Dr Tedros.
I know it's very difficult, but you know for us not working with agencies and we are just one, it is very, very difficult.
And if you could coordinate amongst yourselves to avoid this clash, because, for example, today there's nothing, tomorrow there's nothing, Thursday there's nothing.
So we could, you know, just coordinate.
So we, we we all win from this.
Thank you.
Can I Yeah.
Fadela Jamil, can I just make a a small announcement?
Also, I am sure you you are all aware there is a PAHO press conference today at 11 AM Washington Post.
You received from us the invitation from our colleagues in PAHO to talk about COVID-19 in the Americas.
Thank you.
You want to go?
Yeah, I understand for that and that's very helpful.
But you know, we're based in Geneva and I know you invited us and that's very kind, but that's for my colleagues in in the Americas basically to cover.
But in Geneva, we had two press conferences at the same time yesterday of two very relevant stories.
I just request really it's just a request if we could try to avoid the clashes of press conferences at this time.
Thank you.
No, no, thank you very much.
I mean, I mean we do try to avoid these conflicts.
I don't know how how it happened yesterday, but the David Kay's press conference was scheduled some last week I think.
I don't know when.
I think there was maybe it was dependent on the availability of the Director General of WHO as well to when he could hold his press conference.
So, but generally we do try to avoid such conflicts and we'll try to avoid that in in future.
Is there anything else for Fadela?
Yeah, I see a couple of hands up.
Antonio Brotto from FA.
Could we unmute Antonio, please?
Antonio, go ahead.
Yes.
Good morning and good morning, Fadela.
So as you announced the visit to to Spain by Mr Tedros, I wonder if you could give us any more details on the, on the visit.
He is he going to meet the, the King of Spain, the Prime Minister?
Is he going to visit some hospitals, some medical facilities?
So any, any announcement on this, on this regard would be helpful.
And also I would like to ask when is the next WHO briefing this week is on Thursday or on Friday?
I still don't have it very clear.
Thank you.
Thank you, Antonio.
So the, the, the, the idea is to, is to hold twice a week the press conferences on COVID-19.
So the plan is Monday and Thursdays.
But this week because of the DG travels, we will hold it Friday.
So this week it was Monday and it will be Friday, but as of next week we will try to hold them on Mondays and Thursdays.
But bear with us, we may have to change plans if this is necessary.
But for this week I confirm it's Friday 5:00 PM.
If there is any change, we will let you know as soon as we can.
For the DG visit to Spain, the this event, there is an event in Madrid organised by the King of Spain to pay tribute to victims of the pandemic, COVID-19.
And also the invitation to the Director General is to is important because it shows also the action that Bluto is taking to help countries, Spain and other countries fight against COVID-19.
There is no visits planned for DG to health facilities.
He will meet the the king, of course, because he was invited by him.
I guess he will also meet other officials.
But there is no field visit planned for Doctor Tedros.
This is important for W2 and for Doctor Tetras to demonstrate respect for the many, many people affected by COVID-19 who lost their lives in in Spain and around the world.
As I told you, this is the second visit.
W2 Director General is today in Paris for the Basti Day event at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron.
The the edition this year for the Bastie Day is really to pay tribute to the frontline workers above them, the health workers who have been really on the front line trying to save lives, putting their own life at risk.
So these are the two visits that the DG is is doing.
This is his first visit outside the country here since the lockdown and the beginning of the pandemic.
Thank you, Fadela.
Stephanie Nabe from Reuters has a question.
Stephanie, if we can unmute her, can we unmute Stephanie, please?
Can we unmute Stephanie, please?
OK, let's.
Well, I have Peter Kenny, you have your hand up, but you're in the room.
So why don't we just take your your question while we wait for Stephanie to be unmuted?
Sorry, Stephanie.
We'll be right back to you.
Sorry, I am here.
Oh, OK, now Stephanie is on.
Sorry, Peter.
We'll, we'll take Stephanie.
Stephanie, go ahead.
Sorry, just a quick question for Fadela.
Any updates, anything more to say on the advanced mission that we heard about of course yesterday and Friday being in being in Beijing in quarantine, any update on on that mission?
And then also in response to the question I sent to last week about the case reported in Northwest Syria, whether who is doing anything about that or in touch with authorities there because I've I've not had an answer.
Thank you.
Thank you, Stephanie.
I think I have no thing to add beyond what was said yesterday for the mission to China for NE Syria.
Let me check once again with my colleagues here and in the country office and will try to give you an answer today.
Peter, go ahead.
Peter Kenny.
Morning, Fidela, you mentioned that these are going to be press conferences because in the past they've been webinars.
So are we going back to press conference format at The Who?
Thank you.
We call them press conferences, Peter.
So we are holding this press conference since January and I know that you've talked to me about your how you call them.
This is a discussion we can have offline.
Sorry, OK.
We have Gabriella Sotomayor from Processor magazine.
Gabriella, go ahead.
Yes, thank you.
Hi Fidela.
Hi Real.
Fidela, are we having more details or are we is going to be a ceremony there in Paris today?
Are we going to have DJ's speech?
Because, you know, today is a very important day for Liberte Cali de fraternity.
So what is the Doctor Tedros going to say on that?
And that's it.
Thanks.
Thank you, Gabriela.
No, Doctor Tedros is not expected to deliver a speech.
He's one.
He's a guest of owner of President Emmanuel Macron, like many other guests.
It's a French event and we are very honoured to be part of it.
Uh, what I would advise you is to follow the social media and Twitter of Doctor Tedros.
Uh, we will be, uh, tweeting, umm, all day long.
Uh, what, uh, what, what he's doing there.
So there is no speech to be sent to you.
It's a, it's a national very important moment for France and we are very happy to be part of it because France also showed since the beginning of this pandemic, a lot of solidarity, a lot of unity and a lot of support to WHO.
And this is the key international solidarity to fight all together.
This is key.
No speech, no media interaction for Doctor Tedros.
But I would advise you to follow his Twitter account for information about the visit.
Thank you.
OK Fadela, we have two last questions for you before we have to move them to our guests from FAO, who is waiting patiently.
Robin Millard from AFP, if we can unmute him and then we'll take the question from Edna Farage.
Can you hear me, Robin?
It's exactly the same question but but for Spain.
Will Doctor Ted Ross be making any speeches and and if so, will we get copies of that?
This is the same answer than in France.
He is invited by the King of Spain.
He has no speaking role during this visit.
He's attending this important ceremony to show the support of WHO to Spain and other countries.
We are all together to combat this pandemic.
I would encourage you to follow his Twitter account for the visit of Spain.
A media officer would be with him.
For those who are interested, I can give them the the details.
In fact, it's our colleague Paul Garwood, who will be accompanying the DG to the Madrid visit.
Thank you.
OK.
And Emma, Emma Farge from Reuters, last question for you.
And then we'll move to FAO.
Good morning.
Thank you, Fidella, for being here to brief us today.
I was just curious, since it's Doctor Tedros's first trip after lockdown, what sort of precautions he was taking for flying.
Will he be flying commercial?
And since the new guidelines on air travel aren't out yet, you know, what practises will he be doing?
If you could give us some details of how he's protecting himself and others during the trip.
Thank you.
Yeah, good question.
I think these are the these are the precautions that we are all requested to take.
But let me check with his office.
He is travelling by flight to Paris and to Madrid.
But let me check if, if I, I, I, I'd be more precise.
But there is no special precaution that he's taking.
I mean physical distancing, respiratory etiquettes, hand hygiene and also very important to keep a physical distance with his, with other travellers and with the people he will be meeting both in Paris and in Spain.
Good.
Thank you very much, Fadela for being with us this morning.
We're going to move now to the FAO.
Adriano.
Timothy is with us if you want to come up, Adriano, to introduce your guests.
But come on as the the spokesperson for the organisation, come on up to the podium with me.
We also have Maximo Torero online, so if we could unmute Maximo Torreiro.
Mr Torreiro, do you hear us?
Yes, I hear you.
Perfect.
Good morning.
Lovely, Lovely.
Adriano, you want to say something?
No.
OK, so we have Mr Adriano.
Sorry.
Maximo Torreiro, the Chief Economist and Assistant Director General for the Economic and Social Development Department at the Food and Agriculture Organisation, to share with you key findings of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report, which has just come out.
So, Mr Torrero, please go ahead.
Thank you very much.
Let me share the key facts that come out on the Sophie report of 2020.
The first fact is that we are out of track to be able to achieve SDD 2 only in undernourishment.
Our new numbers show an increase with respect to previous year of 10 million people moving into undernourishment and with respect to the last five years, 60 million people more moving into undernourishment.
That will put us in 2013 around 814 million people in undernourishment in the world.
And where are these people located?
381,000,000 are in Asia, 250 million are in Africa and in Latin America 48 million.
What is important also to note that the velocity that Africa is growing in terms of undernourishment will make Africa undertake Asia by 20-30 and will account, if things continue as they are today, by 51.5% of the total undernourishment in the world.
In addition, when we simulate the potential additional number of undernourishment because of COVID-19, we found that the number can increase in 2020 between 83 to 132 million people in undernourishment.
And please, it's important to know that this is chronicle undernourishment.
It's a long term issue.
It's different to acute food insecurity, which normally is measured in emergencies in the food crisis report.
Those are temporal, Those are because of chucks.
People can move into a situation, but we don't take care of those emergencies.
Then they can become chronic undernourishment.
So the increase in up to 132 million of new and undernourished people, chronicle and undernourished people in 2020 will be because of COVID-19, given the current situations that we are facing now.
We also know that when we include all forms of malnutrition, we are referring to 2 billion people, which doesn't have access to the food that they need to eat and the quality of the food they need to eat.
And when we look at other indicators of nutrition standing, for example.
Standing for children under 5 is 21.3%, this means 144 million.
Wasting is 6.9%, this means 47 million and overweight keeps growing across all regions is 5.6% and is 38.3 million.
All of these indicators of nutrition are not going to achieve neither the 2025 intermediate target of WHA, neither the 2030 target of the SDGS.
The only one that could achieve the 2025 target is exclusive breastfeeding, which has been evolving and increasing and improving, but it will not achieve the 2030 target of the disease.
Now one of the major topics that we bring in this in this Sophie also is if we want to achieve 0 hunger and and elimination of all forms of malnutrition.
One of the core elements is how we can improve the quality of the diets we eat.
And when we look at the access to diets and the costing of the healthy diets, we identify that healthy diets are five times more expensive than diets that meet only the dietary energy needs, which is normally what we observe today.
Not only that, 57% of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia cannot afford these healthy diets and mostly in in countries with productive crises, which today they are 5586% of the people in those countries cannot afford those diets.
Also, it's important to identify what are the hidden costs behind production of food and what we find out that the hidden costs of emissions when we produce food are around 1.7 trillion per year by 20-30.
And if we move and switch the pattern of consumption to healthy diets, those could be reduced between 41 to 74%.
The hidden health costs because of not eating healthy diets which are the NCDS, the non communicable diseases like diabetes and her diseases and so on are 1.3 trillion per year by 20-30 and those could be reduced by 97% if we move towards healthy diets.
So what Our point is that the current situation is not on target, is not on track.
The COVID-19 is exacerbating even more the situation, which is not going in the correct way and is far from achieving SDE 2.
But we can make a difference.
And one option is to find ways in which we can change the consumption patterns and try to accelerate the process through the transformation of the food system to allow consumers to eat healthy diets because they are more accessible, but at the same time keeping the balance between the producer and the consumer.
So the amount of supply, this is not an issue of lower prices only.
It's an issue of improving efficiencies on the producer side, like reducing losses, for example, like reducing the, the, the, the length of the value chain, improving access to traditional to traditional diets, also improving access to regional trade and intra regional trade.
But on the demand side also we need to increase incomes.
And COVID-19 is putting this even in a worse situation because of the huge recession we are facing.
So we need to find innovative solutions to be able to transform the system so that we can be on track in the next years.
We have 10 years and the acceleration of this need is huge.
With that, I stopped there.
Thank you very much.
Very good.
Mr Torreiro, thank you very much for these explanations of the key findings of your report.
I will just look in the room to see whether there are any questions.
Yes, Jamil Shad, Brazilian journalist, if you would like to introduce yourself.
And sure, thank you for being with us.
My name is Jamil Shad and join us from Brazil.
My question is about Latin America.
It is the epicentre of COVID.
What, what are the projections for the region out of this 130 or 120 million new cases of, of hunger?
And also, if you could tell a little bit on the, the access to this healthy diet that you mentioned, why does it cost so much more?
And where, where's the problem in this chain?
Export countries are not exporting enough or basically exports coming from abroad are not the solution or why at the end of the day, it costs so much more to eat healthy?
Thank you.
Thank you very much for for your questions.
Regarding the projections, we don't disaggregate projections by region because it's too complex at this point.
We are using the latest estimations of the IMF, the World Bank and OECD.
But just to put in context, the region today has 49 in 2019, it has 4948 million more people in under nourishment.
With the level of of recession that we are facing in the region, like Peru is -12.5%, Brazil is also going to have significant decrease in GDP growth close to 8 to 9.
Argentina and Chile even is going to decrease in -7%.
The projections of the share will be significant regarding the 132,000,000 in the region.
And also in addition to that, the region is moving to the winter season, which means that the cases of COVID-19 will continue to increase because there will be this mixture between the flu and the COVID-19.
So our expectation is that the possibility that the numbers of undernourishment could close to double in the next year is something which is not out of the reality.
And that's where we need to, to focus carefully.
Regarding your, your second, your second question of access to, to healthy diets and what is the problem behind?
There are several problems.
Of course, trait is a solution because trait will allow you to have availability of diets.
But the problem is when you look for example, at vegetables, which is one option, one of the elements, remember that healthy diet, a vegetarian and a vegan diet is not a healthy diet, OK, Because they don't have all the micronutrients, they don't have B12, for example.
A diet that combines different elements of food is a healthy diet.
And, and, and in that case we need diversity of foods.
But if we just look at vegetables, vegetables travel short distances and the intra regional trade that will allow that that flow of food into the different countries that are needed is very restricted.
In Africa, for example, inter regional trade is very low despite of the African trade agreement, which only touches Paris.
But the non the the non tariff virus are extremely important and that is a food safety issue.
The same in the Caribbean for example is more expensive to bring a vegetable from any Caribbean country than to bring it from South America or from Chile or from Peru.
So one thing that I we believe within the trade war is the in the importance of interregional trade that will facilitate the flow and therefore will reduce access prices to consumers without affecting at all the producers.
The second element is there is a lot of inefficiencies in the way we produce diversities of commodities, especially **** value commodities.
Why?
Because significant losses, bad technologies are being used and most of them are produced by very atomized production units that have not been able to have the standards and the quality in place.
And that also has exacerbate the lack of supply that is needed.
There is of course an element of demand and there is an element of consumer behaviour.
And especially when we are in crisises like the one of COVID-19, people tend to go to cheaper diets and those normales will be what we call ultra process or those could be diets more based on starchy foods.
And that's what we need to avoid.
So behavioural change is needed not only through more information on labelling like the Chile Experience, but also through sharing more information to consumers so they know what they are eating and they know the consequences of what they are eating.
And one major problem is incentives and these are policy incentives.
Most of the subsidies in agriculture go to staple commodities and they don't go to commodities that are going to provide discalced diets.
So if the world is distorted because of of support to to commodities, it's on the staples despite we are saying that we need to move to and that needs to start to change.
And that doesn't require any more funding.
It just requires switching resources from 1 sector to the other to support farmers that are doing and producing **** value commodities.
Thank you.
Any follow up question, Jamil?
No, there are no other questions at the moment.
But if you will stay with us, Mr Torreiro, our colleague from the World Food Programme, Elizabeth Beas also has would also like to comment on the report.
And so maybe we can bring her in and see if there are additional questions after that.
Elizabeth we bonjour.
Bonjour was he Bonjour.
Just to add to what our FAO colleagues said, the world is not on track to achieve the zero and girl by 20-30.
And this is extremely worrying the figure of this report.
So clearly that the world is not on track.
Yes, by 20-30.
And for WFPFAO IFAD, the three Rome based UN agencies engage in the fight against anger.
This is something quite worrying.
WFP works on the front line of hunger around the world and is focused sharply on responding to acute anger needs.
And our FAO colleague has explained the difference because needs food insecurity and acute food insecurity.
So WFP estimate that the number of acutely food insecure people in the world could increase by 80% from 149 million in 2019 to 270 million before the end of 2020, largely due to the social economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The shifting battlefront of the pandemic is currently being felt most keenly in Latin America, where there has been a 269% rise in people facing severe food insecurity.
Spikes in food security are already evident in West and Central Africa 135% increase and Southern Africa 90% increase, according to WFP estimates.
The virus is changing the face of hunger by dragging urban population into destitution and compounding the effects of climate change, conflict and socioeconomic shocks in region of the world that had previously escaped several levels of food insecurity.
WFP is mobilising to meet the food needs of up to 138 million people in 2020, the biggest humanitarian response in its history.
This unprecedented crisis requires an unprecedented response.
WFP is appealing for $4.9 billion over the next six months to carry out its life saving work in 83 countries.
Of course, the new face of anger requires specialised response.
With a big increase in the use of cash based transfer globally, the burden of child malnutrition also remains a challenge.
One in five children under 5 of age is stunted.
Their growth has been held back by lack of nutritious food.
At least 340 million children in the world suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, which with often irreversible effect on their health and growth over.
That's all for me and you have more details in the note.
Thank you.
Elizabeth, are there any questions in the room for Elizabeth or Mr Joffeo?
Yes.
Peter Kenny.
Morning, Elizabeth.
It's Peter Kenny here.
You spoke about southern Africa.
Last year we had the typhoon difficulties and this year we have the COVID-19 to add to it.
So has the COVID-19 substantially added to the problems of feeding Southern Africa?
And can you name the areas that are of concern to you?
Thank you.
Of course, we have seen this increase in all part of the world.
And as I said, 90% increase in Southern Africa.
Unfortunately, I do not have the details with me because I'm supposed to get more information on Southern Africa in the coming days.
But from the meeting we had with colleagues in Southern Africa, the situation is quite worrying and it's developing.
The situation is evolving very fast.
That's why WFP is concerned and worried by the situation in Southern Africa.
But I will come back to you with more details on the region and of course, new figures.
OK, I see.
We also have a question from Paula Dopras.
Dobias.
So if we can unmute Paula.
Yes, hi, good morning.
It's a question, Ashley, for the New Humanitarian.
My question is actually if Mr Torrero can elaborate a little bit further on the production processes for satisfying the these needs for healthy diets, you know, and taking into account environmental concerns and deforestation, this first, this certification and whether these needs could be satisfied in other manners than in through industrial agriculture.
I'm, I'm actually thinking with a focus on Latin America, you know, these, these issues of deforestation for cattle production, you know, other forms, soya and so forth, as well as desertification on in coastal areas where the water is brought from, from the Andes and to produce well, mostly the vegetables and and so forth, the fruits for, for exports.
So is there if he could elaborate on, on, you know, how he sees these needs for healthy diets being satisfied?
OK, thank you.
Thank you, Mr Thank you very much.
So the question you're asking is a very important question and is related to what are the hidden costs behind everything we produce.
So as you said, it's not only a biodiversity issue, a deforestation issue, which is a potential risk, but also is the issue of water, soil.
So whatever we produce has a trade off.
If we export fruits, we are also exporting water.
And normally we don't cost that hidden cost in the price of the commodity we move across borders.
So one way to do this is to start to fully measure the full cost of production of those commodities, which includes the externalities, what we call the hidden cost.
Now that does not mean that the consumer will have to cover the whole cost because in some of these cases, these are more related to public goods, not like the case of environment with emissions.
But it means that at least we understand the level of extremities that they will imply and then we can optimise where we can minimise those those rates.
Now just to give you an example, in what we do in this report, we look at 2 hidden costs, greenhouse gas emissions and health hidden costs.
The greenhouse gas emission costs right now with the current consumption patterns are around $1.7 trillion per year by 2030.
Now if we are able to switch the consumers towards healthy diets, which are more diverse and unnecessarily based on one type of commodity, this could reduce between 41 to 74% depending of course on the scenario.
But the reduced reduction could be extremely important.
And this is very important because there are regions of the world and there are countries of the world which today are under consuming products that generate emissions.
And there are other regions of the world that are over consuming products that generate emissions.
For example, in the case of the US, they're over consuming products that generate emissions more than what they need.
What they need today is 2300 calories per capita per day and a minimum of 69 grammes of of per capita per day proteins.
So if they are over, they can produce.
And that's the change that we're looking for.
If they are under it could be that they still need to produce types of foods that could create emissions but that will compensate and create the the access to healthy diets that we need.
In the case of the hidden cause of health, which are more linked to the the non communicable diseases that overweight and obesity generates because of the current patterns of consumption, the costs are around 1.3 trillion per year by 20-30 and we can reduce those to around 97% by switching to healthy diets.
So the point I'm trying to make is that as part of the food system approach we need to understand those hidden costs.
These are two of the many, but we need to understand hidden causing water.
We need to understand hidden causing soils, in energy, in biodiversity and even look also a distributional effect.
And that's what we're trying to do for the food system salmon.
But those are the two that we can report at this point.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr Torero.
We have a question from Gabriella Sotomayor, a journalist from Mexico.
Gabriella, yes, thank you.
Actually, I don't know how to ask this question to Elizabeth, but who is going to feed all these people?
I mean not in 20-30, but in 2021.
The question is for me, Gabriela, who is going to feed?
This is a big question.
As I said, this is the biggest humanitarian operation for WFP in its history.
And for 2020 we aim to feed and to assist with food assistance 138 million people, those who are acutely food insecure.
But there is not only the WFP, there are NGOs, there are other organisation and we work closely with government.
We will also help with technical assistance, government to build up social protection programmes and also nutrition programmes, school feeding programmes in order to build up the resilience of the most fragile communities.
We are doing our best.
It's a fight against against hunger and that's why with those with this new report and this new data, when you see an increase.
Of the figures in in, of people in food insecure in the world, this is particularly worrying and everyone has to come on board to to fight this and that's all I can, I can tell you.
But as far as WFP is concerned, this is the biggest operation and we need funding to reach those 138 million people.
Can I add something to that?
Yes, please go ahead, Mr Yeah.
So it's very important to, to understand the difference between what we called acute food insecurity, which is what WFP is referring, which is basically the shock that you face temporarily because of the situation we're facing.
And you move a lot of people into, into severe situations, which could be critical if we don't control them.
But that doesn't mean that they are permanent.
What we want to avoid is it to be permanent, exactly what she was saying.
So yes, in the short term, there is a huge effort needed to be able to, to resolve that problem so that we avoid them to go into chronic undernourishment, which is what the the Sofia report tries to to, to measure.
But that does not mean at all that we have to feed them for years.
That's what we want to avoid.
Exactly.
No, when you want to resolve the problem in the short term problem that they so that we can find that why this is not happening in the North because you have unemployment insurance, you have Social Security.
So people that are losing their jobs have six or eight months of unemployment insurance.
If not they will also be facing with problems of food, food insecurity In the South we don't have that.
We don't have unemployment insurance, we don't have Social Security, a lot of activities informal.
So I'll go with UFP was saying this acute food insecurity is raising because people are informal, they don't have jobs, they are losing their jobs and therefore they lose immediately.
The capacity to procure their savings are very small and that's what we need to avoid and that's what we need to put programmes in place and find a solution so that we don't need to feed them over time.
But that's what we want to avoid and that's why the importance of accelerating the problem.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I see.
We have a final question from Catherine Fiancon.
Catherine, yes.
Can we unmute?
Good morning, good morning.
Go ahead.
And this is a question addressed to Mr Torrero.
Mr Torrero, could you please elaborate a little bit about the food problems in the North?
You just say that, yes, we have Social Security, we have mechanism to help people, but we've seen that with that COVID-19 crisis in certain countries like the South of Italy, people have problems to feed the family.
So could you please elaborate a little bit more about that phenomenon in the northern part of Europe and the Western countries?
Thank you.
Sure, No, no problem.
So I, I live in Italy, in Rome, so not in the north, not in the, in the South, but in near the north.
But so the situation is is a little bit complicated.
Initially it was at the time of the lockdown because of the logistical problems which created some constraints of the mobility of food, but which was very quickly resolved.
To be honest, across Italy there was no scarcity of food and today there is no scarcity of food.
But the problem will become binding.
There are two, two sectors which are affected.
1 is the informal part of the economy, which is not so big in the case of of northern countries, but those are people that send remittances, for example, which cannot send any more than remittances.
So that is also affecting the South indirect.
But the second issue is what is going to happen and, and where, where and why these countries are putting such an enormous amount of, of, of support through the recovery plans, not the monetary policies they're putting in place.
Why a government like Italy alone, a government like the UK or even the US are putting trillions of dollars to, to, to recover the economies as fast as possible is because unemployment insurance have a period of time.
So it's three to six months depending on the country.
And once that is over, then you go to Social Security.
So your income, which during the unemployment was close to your full, to your full, to your full salary.
When you move to Social Security, it's a very small fraction of your full salary.
And that's when the real pressure will come.
So we are in this process which if we don't accelerate the process of recovery, we could empty in a situation where really it will happen.
What you're saying that there will be also a problem of, of access to food, not a food, availability of access to food, so having the income to procure the food.
Now in the South, the story is very different.
No, first, we don't have the trillions to activate the economy.
With very few exceptions, they can do it.
But in most of Africa, it's completely indebted in most of South Asia and in many countries in Latin America today.
So they don't have that capacity to move fast.
And also 60 to 70% of their economies are informal, so they don't have those tools and they have to cope with what they have through international assistance through the support of their FIS to be able to compensate the lack of those instruments.
So very different situation, which again shows us the differences in the quality that we have in the world.
Great, thank you very much, Mr Torreiro.
Catherine, you have a follow up question.
Can we unmute Catherine, please?
Yes.
Excuse me, do you hear me?
Yes, please.
Yes.
Do you have a follow up?
Yes, please.
Mr Toil, could you please elaborate a little bit more about the, the Western countries?
Because we've seen in many countries, like you said, people queuing in Switzerland, in in United States, in France, in Belgium, queuing to have access to food.
So what is going to happen with these people?
Because we know that Social Security, unemployment offices are only helping these people for a certain amount of of time.
So what's going to happen to these people that most of the time are are young and have debts?
Is there any system, international system in place to help them, to support them?
Yes.
Look, essentially in these countries, the countries have the financial capacity to create the mechanisms to support these people.
Once they go out of unemployment insurance, if they have of course access to unemployment insurance, they will go to Social Security as I referred before, and that will lower their income to about 1/4 or 1/5 of what they had Now.
In the US, for example, food banks has been extremely active to distribute food and the US government has done a mechanism of support of farmers with the condition that they will regret the support if they chip the food to the food bank so that they can be distributed.
So these countries have the resources and the capacity to do the issues how they can expand the current social programmes and safety Nets so that they can cover the number of people that will happen.
But the major, the major effort that they are putting in place is to reactivate the economy so that these people that has accelerated lose their job, will absorb their job.
Now the situation is very different between the US and Europe.
In the US, companies can immediately fire a person or train the company if there is lower activity and and these people lose their jobs immediately and they have some unemployment insurance support for a shorter period of time.
In the case of Europe, the period is is is larger, it's around six months, which give them more, more what we call resilience to this type of chokes.
So every continent in the developed world has, every country has a different strategy to cope.
But at the end of the line, every human being is the same.
So we need to support every human being in the world.
But clearly northern countries and Western countries have more capacities to do that.
The important thing is how they can increase efficiency and how they can improve the targeting.
One of the things that we are working in FAO is trying to develop a food insecurity scale across 100 countries of the world, including development and also a poor countries.
Why?
Because we believe even in developed countries, there will be significant new hots spots of food insecurity as you are referring, which normally will be Uber more than rural.
And we need to identify them so that these countries can also improve the efficiency of the target mechanism of the safety net tools to minimise those potential risks.
Thank you.
Thank you very much Mr Ferrero and Elizabeth Bias from both FAO and WFP for being with us this morning.
We're going to close the discussion here.
Thank you very much and all the best to you for the the the future.
We're going to continue.
Thank you very much, Odefiano for being with us this morning.
We're going to continue with the International Organisation for Migration.
We have Paul Dillon are ready to join us.
Paul, I see that you are unmuted, so please go ahead to tell us more about these stranded migrants in Yemen.
Yeah, good morning and thanks.
COVID-19 related restrictions have reduced migrant arrivals in Yemen by 90% in recent months, have also left 10s of thousands of Ethiopians stranded there, subject to forcible relocation, arbitrary detention and *****, and exposed to the spread of coronavirus with little access to support services.
Transportation throughout the country has been blocked and at least one 14,500 migrants have been forcibly transferred between governance left stranded in Aden 4000, MADIB 2500 Lodge 1000 and SADA 7000 governance.
This figure is a baseline estimate here is likely to be much higher.
In 2019, 138,000 migrants, an average of about 11,500 every month, arrived in Yemen from the Horn of Africa, according to IO M's displacement tracking matrix bound for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in search of work.
In May 2019, 18,904 people made the crossing.
This year, only 1725 arrivals were recorded.
For nearly six years, Yemen has been an extremely unsafe place to be a migrant.
COVID-19 has made the situation worse.
Migrants are scapegoated as carriers of the virus and as a result, suffer exclusion and violence.
In addition to the forced removals, fears about COVID-19 have led to migrants in Yemen experience verbal and physical harassment, increased detention and movement restrictions, most sleeping out in the open, or an unsafe abandoned buildings, which puts them at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.
They have little access to basic services like food, clean water or healthcare, a worrying situation given how pervasive the virus is believed to be in Yemen.
Over 1460 cases of the virus and 418 deaths have been reported.
However, IOM and the broader humanitarian community in Yemen are working under the assumption that the virus is widespread and reports of illnesses and deaths in local communities are confirming.
Last year, IOM reached nearly 60,000 migrants in Yemen with shelter support, health care, voluntary return assistance and psychosocial support.
Agencies like IOM are continuing to assist stranded migrants, but major funding shortages jeopardise the response, putting lives at risk.
For 155,000,000 U.S.
dollars to support over 5.3 million people by the end of the year is just half funded, endangering displaced humanities and migrants who will be left alone to face a devastating fallout of nearly six years of conflict and the worsening COVID-19 outbreak.
I'll just add that in a couple of hours we'll be releasing some B roll and photographs to the media.
I was hoping to provide them to you this morning, but we ran some technical difficulties in in Yemen.
So we'll get those out to you just as soon as we can.
Thanks.
Thank you very much.
Paul.
I see we have a question from Lisa Schlein.
Could we unmute Lisa, please?
Good morning, Rael.
Nice.
Yes, good morning, Lisa.
You too, Paul, first of all, do you have a, you're, you're banding about a lot of figures.
I was wondering whether you have a, a total number of migrants, Ethiopian migrants that are stranded in Yemen.
And then I, I get the impression that IOM and other agencies have limited access to the migrants.
Is that correct?
And if so, how do they manage to survive?
Sorry about hitting you with so many questions at once, but virtual yesterday and just.
But then to add to that, are are these migrants more at risk from COVID-19 and the somehow stigmatisation involved with that than they are with all the other problems that are occurring in terms of getting food and shelter and so forth?
And lastly, are you keeping up with me?
So sorry, my notes down here, Lisa.
Great.
Thank you.
The last thing is, is there any possibility of returning any of these migrants home or is that essentially stopped because of the pandemic?
Thank you.
OK, let me look at these from top to bottom, Lisa.
The simple answer to the question how many stranded migrants are there in Yemen is unanswerable at this time.
You know the but it's very nature.
Of course, migration can often be a clandestine type of activity in these contexts.
We don't know how many there are in the country.
We don't know, for example, how many are in detention.
So this makes quantifying the issue extremely difficult.
But as noted at the top, we know 14,500 and the feeling is that this is this is an underestimate of the extent to which Ethiopians and other nationalities are stranded in Yemen at this time.
Access can be an issue.
Clearly, you know, we've had staff who have who have come down with, with COVID-19.
There are, there have always been access issues in Yemen over the last six years.
We're constrained by, by conflict, we're constrained by transportation, we're strained, constrained by the same kind of issues that all, you know, in terms of surviving on the street.
I mean, you know, what we do see in many cases is a, is a, you know, our, our, our ordinary Yemenis reaching out and assisting people as best they can.
Because of course, I mean, a major part of what the work that we do in Yemen is not purely focused on, on migrants, focused on the broader community, on, on the millions of displaced amenities.
And so we do see assistance being rendered by local communities and local charities and that type of thing.
But it's a very dire situation when you combine access and the circumstances in which they live, a mobile population in urban environments, it can be very difficult to centralise the response.
And I think this is something that that many of the agencies are facing at the time.
Look, there's in terms of risk, I mean, I'm not sure there's, I don't know where COVID-19 fits on the sliding scale of risk when you're living in these kinds of circumstances.
Clearly within we have some serious concerns, some grave concerns about conditions within the detention, for example, prior to the emergence of COVID-19 in Yemen and elsewhere.
We know that many of these, many of these detention centres are not particularly sanitary.
There's no access to some of the basics that one would need to to to address the public health concerns of COVID-19 and not knowing the numbers of people that are in these detention centres, there's a lot of unknowables.
Clearly, as we've seen in many other countries, post confinement in detention centres, itinerant or government LED, is a perfect breeding ground for the transmission of COVID-19.
And finally, the issue returning migrants in this is a facility that IOM provides in many countries.
Voluntary return is something that we feel is a is a facility that should be offered in the same way that we advocate regularly for the release of migrants in detention at this time during the COVID-19.
And we appeal for the opportunity to be able to assist people who've made a voluntary application for return to their home countries to be allowed to do so.
I guess I hope that covers off your questions, Lisa seem to be quite comprehensive.
Thank you, Paul.
Let's go to Emma, Emma Farge from Reuters, if we could unmute her.
Good morning.
Thank you for that.
Paul.
I was just wondering if you knew which authorities were actually blocking them in Yemen.
We're impeding their movements.
Are there any, is there any particular group or which side of the conflict?
And is there any risk of these stranded migrants getting sort of caught up in the broader conflict in in Yemen?
Thank you.
Yeah.
I mean, we can't confirm which specific authorities are, are moving people, putting them on buses or trucks and, and, and moving them out of the, the different governance at this time.
I think if you look at this, the geographic spread North and South, you know, we can draw some conclusions about, about who those, who those, who those authorities may be.
I'm sorry, your second question was I, I thought slipped through the cracks there.
Sorry.
Can we bring back Emma?
Apologies, Emma.
I, I didn't catch your second part of your question any.
I was just wondering if there was any risk of them getting caught up in the, in the broader conflict in any way in Yemen.
Look, I think we see this kind of dynamic in so many countries where the dispossessed, the underprivileged, the people who have nothing find themselves caught up in, in, in conflicts.
I can't speak to specific instances of this.
Obviously it's a concern, but we don't, I don't have any specific information or data to support that MFA.
OK.
And I think Lisa has a follow up question.
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
First of all, thank you.
You were quite comprehensive.
Paul, thank you for that.
The answer to my question regarding access, you were talking about staff coming down with COVID and being constrained by conflict.
I lost, I lost you sort of midway there because you're.
What you had to say became really very wobbly.
If you could repeat the answer to that.
And then one other addition, when in regard to migrants who are in detention, you don't have access to them.
Does the Red Cross have any access to them or are they completely on their own?
I nobody has any access to these people and you don't know whether they're in the hundreds or the thousands who might be detained.
Sure.
Well, let me cover off the 2nd 1st, and I can't speak to the Red Cross's access to detention.
But I mean, as I said, this is, this is in all these kinds of contexts, it's important that humanitarians be able to, to get into these circumstances to in some cases, work with local authorities to improve conditions within detention and to address in a wide variety of emerging health needs.
I mean, in, in detention and crowd and confined spaces, COVID-19 is not the only risk.
So clearly this is something we've been advocating for a better understanding, but the numbers of people in detention and where they're being held and the circumstances under which they're being held With regards to access, as I said earlier, I mean, the access issues that we face now are not that different than the access issues we faced in many other cases.
COVID-19 is a is a new variable in the sense that, you know, our staff need to be protected against it.
We need to ensure that our protocols and our responses to people in need follow strict safety guidelines in order to protect our staff, some of whom have become I'll with COVID-19.
I mean, transport is an issue of mobile populations in urban areas.
Many of the people are in are in urban areas seeking out new places to sleep every night, moving from place to place.
And that can be that can really challenge the ability to deliver support services to migrants.
Not specifically in Yemen.
I mean, in many countries.
This applies in many circumstances around the world and particularly in Yemen at this time.
Thank you, Paul.
Let's take one last question from Gabriela Sotomayor.
Yes, thank you very much.
My question is not on Yemen, but it's on USA and and migrants over there.
My question is especially Mexican, if you have an update on the situation of Mexican and Latin American migrants in USA, their access to health and I would like to know if if there is any improvement in their situation at all.
Yeah, Thanks, Gabriel.
Interesting question.
I'm afraid I don't have anything for you on that.
I mean, I'm happy to get back to you with some with some comment on it a little later.
I mean, obviously we're looking at issues in Central America.
We have large numbers of stranded migrants, for example, in Panama that we've been working to assist.
I believe as recently as two weeks ago we were talking about 2500 people strap stranded in, in Panama.
We continue to work with authorities in multiple Central American states, but I can't speak specifically to the issues within the United States.
All right, thank you very much, Paul, for that briefing.
I don't see any other questions online or in the room.
So thank you very much for being with us this morning.
Thank you.
Just a few last announcements.
The, I think I, we, we sent out a press release last evening which you should have all received about this event happening today, which you can, you can view virtually.
It's called Rise for All and it's going to be starting at 8:00 AM New York time.
Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed will be convening a special event that is called Rise for All that brings together women from across different sectors in recognition of frontline leadership to build back better.
The special event will be looking at how women leaders globally and locally are winning against COVID-19 on the health and socio economic fronts and why intergenerational leadership is needed now with a focus on inspiring action to advance sustainability and inclusion.
Some of the participants are quite **** level.
We have the President of Switzerland, Simonetta Somaruga, who will be taking part, the Prime Minister of Barbados and also Africa's first female elected president, the former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
And there will be a keynote delivered by the Sustainable Development Goals advocate, Ghasa Michel.
And we sent out last night a full press release as well as the participants guide that gives you, I believe, pictures and BIOS of all the speakers today.
And there is quite a long list.
So if you can, this will be obviously you can follow it on on webtv.un.org.
I've told you about the Human Rights Council.
The Human Rights Committee is pursuing it's 129th session.
It's an online session they had planned, has planned to hold during this session several public meetings, all devoted to the review of the general comment on Article 21 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and yesterday the Committee against Torture held yesterday a brief 69 session.
It was the first online session it had ever held during which it decided that it would postpone its November, December session to next year unless it could be carried out in C2.
In terms of press conferences, well, just a reminder of The Who press conference plan for 5:00 PM this coming Friday.
That's organised by WHO Esfagella announced.
And that's all I have for you today.
If there are no other questions, I wish you a good afternoon and we'll see you on Friday.
Again, thank you very much.