Thank you for being with us on this Tuesday's briefing.
I will immediately start with a couple of announcements.
We'll start with Rosen in the order.
On behalf of ILO, she has a brief announcement to make.
Rosen, you have the floor.
Yes, good morning, everyone.
Just to remind you that at 1400 this afternoon, there'll be an embargoed virtual press briefing on the results of a survey on the impacts of COVID-19 on youth, focusing on the impacts on young people's education and training during lockdown and beyond.
The study analysis how learning has been affected by the transition from classroom to online and distance learning and how this may affect their future careers and job prospects.
The analysis The analysis includes breakdowns by region and this study is a follow up to the findings highlighted in the fourth ILO Monitor report, which showed that one in six young people were out of work due to COVID-19.
You should have already received the embargoed press release, Executive Summit summary and report in English, French and Spanish and please let me know if you have not.
And the press conference will be led by the head of the Ilo's Employment Policy Department, Xiang Yong Li, and other experts who will be able to take your questions will cover Asia, Africa, Europe and Central Asia and Latin America.
And our experts will also be available for interview after the press conference.
Video and audio of the briefing will be available after the briefing on request.
Rosaline, any question for Aylo here in the room?
Let me look at my list on the computer.
So thank you very much, Rosanne.
Good luck with the press conference and the launch of the report.
And before we go to the bulk of this briefing, which as you have seen is dedicated to the emergency in Lebanon, I would like to turn to my right to ask Jenslerke for Ocha to give us a brief announcement together with Missus Jasmine Sharif, who is the Director of Education.
Thank you, Alessandra and good morning, everyone.
Just a very brief introduction to to Yasmin Sharif.
We're very happy to have with us today to give out to give you a brief overview of their most recent annual report for 2019.
So Yasmin, she is the director of the fund emergency fund for for for children.
Actually that's called education cannot wait.
It's in a very important fund was established around the world Humanitarian summit some years ago and it really is to to highlight and to focus on on the fact that education exactly cannot wait.
So even when we do humanitarian emergency response, we cannot forget the next generation by letting the children drop out of school.
So with that brief interruption, Yasmin, the floor is yours.
I'm very happy to be back and launch our report for 2019 in Geneva.
We launched our 2018 report here as well.
So it's becoming tradition.
First of all, let me say a few words about Lebanon, the tragedy that I think has broken all of our hearts.
Education Cannot wait only has made an investment of $15 million for education allocated to Syrian refugees, Lebanese children who are especially marginalised, and Palestine refugees in unrest schools.
Now with the explosion and the and the tragedy that took place last week, we are currently undertaking assessments, working with the Ministry of Education in Lebanon, UNESCO society organisations to assess the damage which is at the current standing at 120 destroyed schools, risking to lose 50,000 children and youth from returning to school anytime soon.
And on the basis of this assessment, we will do an emergency release of funding, additional funding now for the annual results report, Stronger Together in Crisis.
It's an important report.
Also from AUN perspective, Stronger Together in Crisis means that we have also moved on the new way of working and bringing UN agencies, host governments and civil society organisations and private, private sector together to actually deliver through joint programming.
And this is what the report shows, that we are stronger together and we can reach much further and much deeper when we work in joint programming through the new way of working that is advocated for by the Secretary General in his reform today.
Education Cannot Wait, which is a very new fund.
As a result and as comes out in the report, we have reached a total of 3.5 million children and youth in conflicts, a crisis affected countries including refugee hosting countries and have made investments in over 30 humanitarian crisis contexts.
Of those, close to 50% are girls.
Our target are 60% girls, but we are climbing closer with almost 50 percent.
30% of the beneficiaries that are benefiting from our investments and joint programmes are refugees, 30% are refugees.
The total number of forced displacement populations, children and youth are 5045 percent, 15% internal displaced so far and shilling with disabilities are close to 25,000.
And that's also in the area where we are making a headway to move fast as one of our top priority areas.
Now, what the report shows is, as I said, if we work together and also make sure that education is inclusive, that no one is left behind and that it actually delivers quality education, meaning school feeding, which we do very closely with World Food Programme, psychosocial services and mental health teacher training and infrastructure and ensuring that that there is a continuity in the education.
We have also seen, which is also verified in the report, a growing investment in education in conflict and crisis.
As some of you will know, a few years ago, in 2015, two .6% of all humanitarian funding went into education.
And that was one of the very reasons that Education Cannot Wait was created as Jensen at the Word Humanitarian Summit by Development Ministers and the United Nations and civil society under the leadership of Gordon Brown, who is also the UN Special Envoy for Global Education and the chair of the Education Cannot Wait **** Level Steering Group.
2.6% in in 2015 and today.
Today, thanks to the collective effort in the broader Education Cannot Wait community, we hit prior to COVID-19 5.1% of humanitarian funding going to education in conflict, crisis and force displacement.
So that is it's a 5 fold increase from 2015.
Education Cannot Wait has mobilised $662,000,000 that we are dispersing among UN agencies and civil society.
Still a lot needs to be done.
Humanitarian appeals are only funded by 43%.
When it comes to education, there is a there, so there is a is a is a lack of funding at 57%.
The US Secretary General has recently made a strong plea for strengthening education as response to COVID-19 in crisis and forced displacement and issued and launched his policy brief last week.
The Secretary General in his brief estimates that the funding gap for education globally is $1.5 trillion a year.
So we are speaking very big money here and we are speaking about an enormous gap.
To give us some very key concrete examples before I wrap up in of the work that we have done together with UN agencies and NGOs and governments and private sector, we have increased the primary enrolment ratio for refugee children in Uganda, which is the biggest refugee hosting country in Africa from 53% to 75%.
In Afghanistan where our investments start with the as low as 2% reaching girls, we are today reaching 60% of our been beneficiaries being girls.
In Afghanistan, we adopt A whole of education approach.
I've given you examples of that taking a very holistic approach.
Finally, what what have we done in terms of COVID-19 response?
And when the WH showed the cleared COVID-19 as a pandemic, Education cannot wait.
The Global Fund acted with an unprecedented speed and in early April and up today have delivered $60 million across 33 countries affected by crisis to ensure remote learning, psychosocial services, continued school feeding and also to pay the salaries of teachers who are not able to physically be present at work.
I will conclude by saying this that education cannot wait appeals to all its dollars as immediate need on the amount of three, $310 million for us to be able to continue to deliver education during and in the mediate aftermath of COVID-19 and to do through through the UN system.
With strong government leadership and a strong support and engagement by civil society and private sector, we want the UN reform to succeed in the in the midst of COVID-19 is the 75 years commemoration of the United Nations today.
Invest in education cannot wait because we are delivering on the reform proposal as we are speaking on the ground and results and learning outcomes are showing.
And I want to thank you all for your patience, for your excitement in the work that we are doing and for putting education at the forefront of building and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
For those who are left for this behind in in refuge, in crisis and natural disaster and now who are doubly affected because of COVID-19.
We are here for them and we will not give up until we reached every single one of the 75,000,000 children and youth with your help and your support.
Thank you very much, Miss Sharif.
And I will now open the floor to question.
Is there any from the room?
Don't see any online, please.
I'll give a few moments to the journalists to raise their hands, if any.
I don't see any requests for the floor.
So I thank you very, very much.
Congratulations on this report and on your great work.
And good luck with the follow up.
And now let's go to Lebanon.
I've got three of the speakers in the room, so I will ask Jens to stay on the podium.
Mariksi and Babar to come Riches here and online.
Today we have Elizabeth beers for WFP.
Tariq, you should be there for WHO?
And we also have the pleasure to have with us.
Tamara sorry, I'll refi via Zoom from Amman.
Let me see if everybody's connected.
I see Elizabeth and sorry.
Let me see if Tamar is online too.
So let's start with the we need a fourth chair and we also need to keep distancing and maybe the bar.
And maybe, yes, you can comment on that on that mic here.
Let's try to keep social distancing also for the speakers of the briefing.
OK, so I'll start with the with Jens who has an overview on the situation in Lebanon.
Jens, yes, thank you very much.
I, I just want to, just to, to wrap up the, the previous briefing that we did share with you, the press release that has, has also been been issued in relation to the, to the issuance of the Education Cannot wait annual report Lebanon.
So one week into the response to the blast in Beirut port in Lebanon, we are getting a clearer picture of the damage and destruction that occurred a week ago.
At least 160 people were killed according to the Lebanese authorities, and more than 5000 people were injured.
Over 60 remain missing some 14 urban search and rescue teams from 11 countries was sent was deployed from various parts of the world under the auspices of what's called the Interact, which is coordinated by Orcha, to look for survivors.
The latest update I have of this morning is that so far there's no confirmed survivors out from their activities there.
We have also done a rapid assessment of some 55 Primary Health care centres in the blast area.
That assessment found that 37% sustained moderate to serious serious damage and less than half of them can still provide full routine health services.
Thousands of affected people now many of them are homeless, require food assistance after the explosions, and there is concern that the damage to the Beirut port will exacerbate food insecurity, which was already growing due to the socio economic crisis in Lebanon and compounded by COVID-19.
Many families also require sanitation and hygiene supplies until basic services can be restored in in the affected neighbourhoods.
As you know, the United Nations is there in force.
I would say we were there already when it happened.
the United Nations has quite a big presence there.
The humanitarian coordinator who had actually just arrived in the country a few days before the blast, a very experienced human chain coordinator, Najaad Roshti, whom you know from in various, from various positions she had had in the UN.
And she's working literally round the clock to coordinate between the UN agencies, the NGOs, local communities, and of course the authorities there.
I, I shared with you a bit earlier the situation report with a lot more detail, but I will leave it to my other UN colleagues to, to give you more from their respective perspectives.
Thank you very much, Jensen.
I'll indeed go to one of your colleagues on my left, Medici, for UNICEF to hear about the situation.
We are a long way from having comprehensive figures on deaths and injuries among children.
For now, we know of at least three children killed and 31 who required hospitalisation.
Partners report approximately 1000 children among the injured.
Some of the injured children were initially separated from their families and have since been reunited.
2 remain separated from their parents and are now with extended family.
They are part of case management services for alternative care.
Preliminary findings from assessments conducted with the Beirut and Mount Lebanon water establishment teams indicate no major damage so far to the water network, but many households don't have access to clean water supply because of damages to the connections between water sources and buildings and within buildings.
The WASH Cluster, which is coordinated by UNICEF, has surveyed 558 buildings out of an estimated 3000 affected and out of the 558 buildings, 337 are accessible and of them, 135 do not have access to water.
Further assessments on education indicate that 20 public, technical and vocational education and training schools that cater to around 8000 adolescents and young persons have also been damaged.
This is in addition to the 120 public and private schools we reported on on Friday.
Some of the immediate response activities underway now include providing precautionary tetanus vaccination shots for the injured vaccines.
These vaccines arrived in the country on Friday.
PPE supplies, this is personal protective equipment.
Supplies on route include 3.5 million surgical masks, 17,370 M, 95 masks, 2.6 million pairs of gloves, 124,810 gowns, along with thousands of face Shields, coveralls, boot covers, head covers and goggles.
A first flight is expected in the country tomorrow, Wednesday.
UNICEF is delivering water to port workers and 1st responders and trucking water to the three Lebanese Red Cross kiosks that are providing assistance to victims.
Our partners have distributed water hygiene supplies, including sanitary pads, infection protection materials and baby kits to families in temporary shelters.
UNICEF is procuring additional chlorine for the Beirut and Mount Lebanon water establishment that will be delivered in about two weeks.
A UNICEF tent has been set up in downtown Beirut that is being used by partners to provide psychological first aid to children and caregivers and to refer those who need other services, including shelter, water, food or hygiene items.
At least 675 children and caregivers have been reached so far and three additional tents are going to be set up this week.
UNICEF has mobilised more than 300 young volunteers helping to clean, cook, distribute food and water and do minor repairs in homes and shops.
They have reached about 14,000 households.
Damaged healthcare facilities, schools and water collections.
Connections will all need to be rehabilitated and emergency cash assistance for the most vulnerable families, including health and logistics workers, will be needed.
Thank you very much Tears Unit CR The UN Refugee Agency is saddened to report that the list of more than 200 fatalities and missing in the deadly and destructive explosion which rocked Beirut on 4th of August also includes at least 34 reported refugee victims so far.
Our teams on the ground are still verifying the reports and we fear that the death toll among some 200,000 refugee population in Beirut and the Mount Lebanon could rise further.
7 refugees are still missing.
Another 124 have been hurt in the blast, 20 of them suffering serious injuries.
We continue to work with the rescue teams and other humanitarian partners to identify the victims and are extending support to the families who have lost their loved ones.
This includes counselling, emergency cash and help with burial arrangements.
This explosion affected everyone, regardless of nationality or their status.
Our immediate humanitarian response to the tragic blast covers the entire community, including Lebanese refugees and migrant workers.
It focuses on the most vulnerable in the community and on two major areas, shelter and protection.
As part of the Interagency Humanitarian Appeal Unit, CR is mobilising 12 million U.S.
dollars for its emergency response to the hardest hit and most vulnerable households in Beirut.
Together with our humanitarian partners, we are working closely with the people of Beirut and the relevant departments to assess the damages and identify best and most meaningful ways to help.
UNICR aid stockpile in the country has not been affected and it includes shelter kits, blankets, plastic sheetings, mattresses, rub holes and several other critical items that have been made available to the Lebanese Red Cross and other partners on the ground.
An initial door to door assessment is under way in the most heavily impacted neighbourhoods and individual distributions of aid to identified people begin already on Sunday 9th of August.
The first estimates indicate that up to 10,000 vulnerable households are likely to have been severely affected by the blast and are in need of urgent support.
Our priority is to identify and get aid to those in need of emergency weatherproofing.
This will help to secure entrances and windows and provide some level of protection from the elements safety and security and restore people's privacy and dignity.
Affecting people displaced outside the Beirut area will also be targeted with assistance.
Multipurpose cash remains the most effective option to provide immediate relief and to support rapid repair and reconstruction needs.
It will also help with getting food and covering basic needs and health costs.
Minor repair, rehabilitation, and common area improvements will follow.
There are some other details in the note as well.
Thank you very much, Babar.
And now let me go, Ben, I've seen your hand.
We have a few more speakers and then I'll go to the question.
So now I turn to the speakers online and I have the pleasure to introduce to you Tamara Al Rifai, who's the spokesperson for UNRWA.
I see Tamara is connected.
Can she be unmuted please?
We are waiting for Tamara to be unmuted.
If my colleague can let Tamara here now.
Welcome to the Geneva press briefing.
Thank you so much, Alessandra.
Good morning to everyone.
Thanks for including UNRWA.
Condolences to colleagues in Beirut and to the families of those who have fallen, and all our empathy and sympathy for everyone else and wishes for SPD recovery to the wounded and SPD recovery to Lebanon.
Lebanon is not new to crises and Palestine refugees, the community that my agency represents and works for, are not new to tragedies.
In fact, they're the oldest refugee community in Lebanon.
And in a way anything that happens to Lebanon also happens to Palestine refugees who live there, but who live there generally in much more vulnerable and poor social economic conditions.
And their hardship or increased hardship is primarily due to their very restricted access to the labour market and also their the fragility of their status as refugees.
So nearly 200,000 Palestine refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon.
And it's no secret that these camps are often a source of worry within the larger stability of Lebanon.
So our Commissioner General had already raised concerns even prior to this explosion to the distress of the Palestine refugee community and camps and how the presence and services, a funeral, health, education to children and social services are a primary lifeline and a source of stability for Palestine refugees.
With this explosion, we fear that the hardship that Lebanon is further sinking into will hit the hardest at the most vulnerable, including refugees in general, like my colleague from UNHCR just said, but also including Palestine refugees.
Thankfully, UNRWA and the Palestine refugee community did not have a major did, did not.
I mean, the explosion didn't have a major impact on us, but sadly, 2 Palestine refugees lost their lives and we fear that this entire community will slip even further in hardship.
And This is why, like some of my other colleagues, including UNICEF just said, it is very important to provide immediate support and in our case, it's cash assistance to Palestine refugees who have almost lost all their means of of livelihood.
But it's more important to look at the medium term and ensure that all services continue.
In our case, it's going to be health, education and social services to a population of nearly 200,000 in 12 refugee camps in Lebanon, hoping that the country will be able to redress very, very quick and to overcome this latest wave of uncertainty.
Stay with us in case there are questions from the journalist, please.
The Director of WFP, David Besley, is actually in in Beirut assessing the situation and we will have more detailed news release later today on the findings and outcome of his visit.
WFP is on the ground responding to the food needs of the most vulnerable people and providing immediate relief following last week's blast.
As an immediate response, WFP allocated food parcel for 5000 highly vulnerable household and is preparing to scale up as needed.
WFP has also provided food parcels to two local communal kitchen run by the NGO Caritas.
The Caritas is providing meals to victims of the blast as well as volunteers working to clean up the debris.
Each food package is enough to feed a family of five for one month with basic food items.
WFP plans to expand also it's existing cash assistance programme in Lebanon.
This includes Beirut residents who have been directly affected by the blast.
WFP is also planning to provide 5000 people, 550 thousand people across Lebanon with monthly food ration for six months.
This emergency food assistance WFP is launching in Lebanon requires a total of $235,000,000 to provide food support and also logistic and supply chain support to the country.
WFP is bringing into the country a three month supplies of wheat flour and grains for bakery.
The first wheat shipment is due to arrive within the coming 10 days.
Current wheat flour reserves in the country are estimated to cover market needs for six weeks whereas a three month supplies is standard to ensure food security in the country.
WFP will deliver wheat flour to Beirut port.
The first batch will be a one month supply of flour to provide immediate support to bakeries regarding logistics and supply chain expectees.
WFP started airlifting mobile storage units as temporary storage solution to replace the destroyed silos of grain.
First plane carrying equipment arrived into Beirut in airport on 8th of August and two additional planes are on their way.
Given the extent of the damage to Beirut Port, WFP has the capacity to launch a shipping operation that does not require port infrastructure.
WFP will deliver and unload with flour directly into Beirut.
Beirut Port Container Terminal is only partially affected and is operational as of 8th of August and working on offloading ships.
I will not give all the details about the other current WFP operation.
You will have this in the notes.
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Last but definitely not least speaker Tariq for WHO if we can unmute Tariq, please.
Hello, Alessandra, Can you hear me very well?
Thank you, Alexandra, and hi to everyone.
I think my colleagues already said a lot, so I'll just add few, few words.
Close to 6000 injured have obviously overwhelmed the health system that was already reeling from social economic crisis and ongoing COVID pandemic.
We said on Friday that a recently delivered shipment of personal protective equipment that was stored at the buried port warehouse pending it's transferred to Ministry of Public Health warehouse was completely destroyed.
That was leaving really the the the Lebanon in urgent need of trauma and PPE supplies.
Now today we have 18 tonnes shipment of personal protective equipment lending today in Beirut to to fill this gap.
Janss already talked about about damaged hospitals.
We are now looking to really get a precise figures on that.
But early reports indicated many health centres and primary care facilities are also damaged or out of action.
In addition to hospitals that we have been already reporting on, three that are not functioning and two that are only partially functioning.
We obviously concerned about hospital and health workforce capacity, supplies of medicine and potential communication contamination, and we are supporting MOH in a detailed assessment of the damage of and functioning of health facilities.
Currently, there are 8 international emergency medical teams that are on the ground and supporting the government response.
WHO is coordinating the work of emergency medical teams.
Our priorities include immediate emergency care for injured patients, ongoing assessment of health impact and humanitarian health needs, coordination of the international response, including emergency medical teams, continuity of of COVID care, procurement of PP ES for health workers, provision of essential medical supplies to fill urgent gaps and also rapid restoration of functioning of damaged health facilities.
As always, the immediate response is addressing trauma and emergency medical needs, but it's also clear that major humanitarian crisis also evolving with hundreds of people, 100 thousands of people who are displaced from their homes and urgent support for shelter and food.
The the displacement of so many people also risk accelerating the spread of COVID-19 and the outbreak of other diseases, including other respiratory and water borne diseases.
This is why WHO is working with MRH to strengthen disease surveillance and ensure Disease Control measures are in place, especially among the displaced communities.
And we'll also work with other sectors to ensure that humanitarian needs are addressed.
WHO issued an appeal for 76 million of U.S.
dollars for medical supplies and to rapidly restore hospital capacity.
I would just like to remind you we have sent yesterday the the media advisory.
There will be a press conference from Beirut tomorrow at 3:00 PM Beirut time with, with number of WHO speakers, including our representative in Lebanon as well as our regional emergency director from, from our regional office in Cairo and others.
So you are welcome to, to dial in tomorrow and and to, to, to listen first hand from our colleagues who are travelling to, to Beirut to, to support the response.
Thank you very much, Tarek.
So, as you can see, and as the Secretary General said yesterday in his briefing to the Security Council, the United Nations are very much standing with Lebanon to help alleviate the suffering and support the recovery.
We have sent you the various speeches yesterday to the Security Council, to the conference on Sunday.
And I would like to remind you that the presser that Mrs Rushdie gave yesterday in New York is available on web TV, and I'll open the floor to questions now that we've got quite a few.
Can can you unmute dinner?
Yes, Alessandra, Thank you.
Actually, I have two questions.
The first question is for Yens.
I hear that from the WFFP that the required total needed now is 235,000,000 and the two days ago 300,000,000 were gathered from the International Solidarity Conference in in between France and the UN.
So my question is how much is the total needed nowadays for Lebanon and how will you get this?
How will you get this money?
The collaboration usually is done with the governments, according to the UN.
But we heard Mr Macron, for example, for example, he said that countries do not trust the government of Lebanon because of corruption, with whom you are collaborating now with the NGOs, for example, or how are you dealing with this matter?
The Human Turn coordinator actually mentioned yesterday that we should expect a flash appeal in the coming days for the humanitarian response in in Beirut.
And that of course will will come with a price tag.
So we'll have to wait until that process is finished before I can tell you exactly how much the agency is already working there on the ground estimate it will cost to to respond to the immediate humanitarian needs, which of course is what ultra coordinates.
It will be a lot of money and it will be even more in the medium and longer term.
I think everybody is saying that and everybody's aware of that.
Where will the money come from, from the donors?
Obviously we saw on on Sunday with the with the conference as, as you, as you mentioned, which was coordinated with France and the United Nations that a number of countries came up.
I believe they raised at least more than €250 million combined.
I think it was actually more than that.
I saw some very good indications of money coming from from the Gulf countries.
So of course regional donors will be will be very important in this, but also this is a question of global solidarity.
So humanitarian donors all over the world of course invited to to step forward Now on the more political sides.
We also heard from Humanitarian coordinator Najad Rushdie yesterday that her work is really focused on the immediate emergency response with the authorities and the organisations, be it UN or local and international jewels already on the ground doing their jobs.
It is a life saving operation still.
And of course that is where she focuses her, her her efforts.
We will also, we will all have seen what is happening on the political front in in Lebanon.
My understanding is that there indeed is a caretaker government that will continue until a new one has has been established.
Now we continue to work with the with with the authorities as I mentioned and focusing on the immediate humanitarian response.
Yes, you wanted to add something.
Just had on the funding question, the very preliminary appeal that we issued on Friday, the 7th of August was for $8.25 million.
We are working, we are revising that appeal and we do expect it to be significantly higher.
Before I go again online, is there any question from the room?
We don't hear you AOD German television.
Hello, just again, how difficult is it to work on the ground without an government working and a government that step back in Lebanon to meet concerns?
Well, a a a disaster this magnitude creates difficulty.
It that's almost the definition of, of this kind of a disaster that creates chaos.
So a lot of the, the structures that that are there and we hear that from Lebanese authorities themselves have been, have been impacted.
That does not take away from the fact that the emergency responders who are there from our side, we send out UN disaster assessment coordination mission immediately.
We coordinated the search and rescue teams going in.
We have a lot of or channel and, and UN staff working there.
They're very experienced emergency responders and they will get on with the job.
They also have of course arrangements with a number of organisations prior to this because as I mentioned in the beginning there, there is a quite a big UN presence there.
So they are established structures that immediately turned into emergency response.
So those are being put, put to to full use.
We will see in, in the coming days how much money they will need to, to continue this.
I think we have seen a, an initial generosity from the international community to help the people, the people of Lebanon get through this.
So we are, we are continuing our work.
The political track will continue.
That is that is a matter of course for the, for the, for, for the Lebanese people and, and the officials in charge in Lebanon and not for the UN per SE.
Can we unmute Jan Eberman, please?
A question for Elizabeth and WFP.
Yesterday, the head of your agency, Mr Beasley, said he's, quote, very, very concerned Lebanon could run out of red in about 2 1/2 weeks because 85% of the country's grain comes through Beirut's devastated port.
Now, listening to you this morning, it seems WFP is capable of delivering and providing A substantial amount of flour, food and other items to the people in need in Lebanon.
Can you please comment on this?
Yes, Dirk, the, the, the, the executive director was very, very concerned and because of the extent of the damage.
But we are WS WFP, we have an expertise in logistic and supply chain and we are now conducting assessment in on on the ground and we hope that we will be able to in fact do our best to provide and deliver even if the condition are very, very difficult.
And as I said, some part is still usable.
It doesn't mean that the port has not suffered A dramatic extent of damage, but with what we have, we will do our best.
And I told you we are transporting food through our network and it is include cargo flights as well and we can deliver directly inside Beirut.
It doesn't mean that is an easy task.
It's a huge logistical challenge.
We have to be fast in order to assist the most, most vulnerable families.
But as I said and as the executive director said, we are concerned and it's not something which can be done in a in a few days.
I hope I answered your question.
You know, there are two we, I, I gave you the positive information, but it's a huge task.
Thank you for giving me the floor.
First, when you speak about the the food elements, I don't know who could answer this question, but in one of the documents you sent this morning, it says that there was a spike in prices of food.
Which items and what was the percentage of this spike?
Secondly, again on the government, I think it's very clear, as the Prime Minister himself said yesterday, corruption overtook the state in Lebanon, corruption overtook the state.
What are the the assurances or what are the measures you are implementing to make sure that this is not well, that there is some kind of accountability regarding where the money and the funds and and the items go to?
And your first question maybe Elizabeth as a as an input that I'll turn to Jens and whoever else.
Just just for the other speaker online, if you wish to add something to what we are saying, just raise your hand, electronic hand, Elizabeth.
Yes, I watched, I was checking my figure because I've read so that there was an increase between April 2019 and 9 June 2020 of 109% in the food prices.
You know, you have the economic, the financial crisis, economic crisis, another layer with COVID and now with the distriction of some grain silos, we fear that the, the prices are, will, will go up even more.
That's why we, we are quite concerned with the, with the situation.
It's, and when I mean food, it's the, you know, food, all, all the basic items that Lebanese people need to, to, to do their meals.
It's a collective figure for all the various items, basic items.
I think I will come back to you on this to have more details on which are the items are more impacted.
But this is a, a, a general figure of 109% between April 2019 and and now.
Elizabeth, if you could send this to the journalist.
I will double check and send it to you.
I think my, my reply would would be this like like in other emergencies, we are raising money and channelling funds to international humanitarian organisations, not for the government or authorities.
So we will see when, when a more comprehensive appeal comes out exactly how the architecture is going to look.
But as I say, the the rule is that we, we are supporting as as Orchard, the, the fundraising for humanitarian organisations and there is a direct channel between the donor and that particular organisation.
Yeah, I have a question for Elizabeth.
Just some clarification on the numbers.
According to UN statistics, Lebanon imports something like 60,000 tonnes of wheat a month.
What proportion of Lebanon's imports are you proposing to do, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth, sorry, we didn't hear the beginning.
I will come back to you with more information.
I do not have the answer to your question.
I know that we will have more details through a press release later today coming related to the EDS visit in Beirut.
But I will come back to you on on a detail on this specific amount.
Katrina, Yes, good morning.
I'd like to have some information about the Palestinians.
Did the blast affect the Shatila camp?
And also we know that a lot of Palestinians are usually working on an undeclared way in the in the ports.
So do you have figures about the number of Palestinians that have disappeared in that blast?
There's the spokesperson of Anurag this morning with us.
I will turn to Tamara if she's still online with us, if she can be muted.
Tamara, thank you so much for the question.
Yes, as you raised, many Palestinians work, especially in the informal sector and on daily basis in the port.
Sadly, 2 of them lost their lives.
One of them is a very well known figure in the cultural and artistic scene because he works, he, he, he's a curator in one of the art galleries.
So this is also a loss to the cultural scene.
But as you rightly pointed out, the large majority of Palestinians, those who work in the port but also work in the informal sector in Lebanon, rely on daily payments and rely on whether they're able to access any daily job or not.
And all of those are now affected by what happened in Lebanon, and all of their means of livelihood are cut.
And This is why UNRWA is strongly appealing to the donor community and to the larger UN family to always factor in Palestine refugees in Lebanon and whatever immediate aid package is going now to Lebanon.
And we at UNRWA are working on ensuring there's immediate cash assistance to the Palestinian refugees now and in the and in the short term, medium term period.
There are two others who are reportedly seriously injured, two other Palestine refugees.
And we're still looking to see whether someone is missing.
One person was missing on the 1st 2 days, but then we found him thankfully in one of the hospitals in Lebanon.
I think Catherine has a follow up for you.
I'd like to know if you have an idea about how many Palestinians are usually working on the port on an as you said, it's the informal sector, so they're not declared.
So I don't know if you have figures about that.
And if you would be kind enough maybe to or give me or send us the name of that important figure that that died in the blast.
I do not have the figure now, but I will try to get it from our office in Lebanon, knowing again that these figures are always changing because of the informality of it.
As for the the, the young man who died, I will pull it out right now because it's on.
I mean, we're, we're Facebook friends and it's someone that everybody knows.
So I'll get it right now and I can put it in the little chat box of this meeting as you continue.
Thank you very much, Tamara, just just to remind you that if you want to share something with the journalist in Geneva, please send it to us.
Next question is from Nick.
UNICEF last week on Friday said that the number of COVID cases in Lebanon had hit a a new ****.
I think the number was 255.
And Tarek has alluded today to concerns about the possibilities of transmission with the enhanced surveillance that you say is in place, are we in fact seeing indeed a spike in cases?
Is this enhanced transmission already taking place?
OK, let's start with my exceed then I go to.
So if you go to the Lebanon Ministry of Public Health site, Nick, you will see that in fact, the numbers have continued to go up.
And as we said on Friday, what we are, I mean, like people, there is a desperate need for masks.
But like the, a, the, the, the prevention measures have been relaxed because of the emergency.
And to be honest, COVID-19 is not exactly top of mind right now among the people who are just trying to survive.
But the ministry, I believe, let me just I can look it up here maybe why you're sure?
I asked Tarek if he has any figure out of his head.
Yes, I have a figures here from our Citra from from yesterday.
So the total number of cases for Lebanon is 6517 with 294 new cases and total of 76 deaths.
I think what is really important, Can you repeat those numbers, please?
Yeah, it's, it's it's it's now a daily Ctrip.
It's, it's what what we sent every night.
So it has been sent this morning to Global Media East, but it's 6570 with 76 deaths.
So these are the, these are the, these are the, the Lebanon numbers.
So as Mariksi said that the issue is, is obviously that that people have other priorities that that people are looking for.
People are they lost their household, they lost their homes.
People may have more difficulties to do all the prevention measures that that we are advising, physical distancing, making sure that there is a hand hygiene that that people try really to, to, to avoid gathering.
So all this becomes much more difficult in the context of hundreds of 1000 people being being left without, without their homes and in search for, for, for, for basic needs.
We will obviously we are sending as I said today, the personal protective equipment we are trying to get in also other supplies and, and, and, and, and you know as we have been saying, virus will explore any possibility virus doesn't know if there was a, if there was a blast or not and will just try to spread from one person to to another.
So it is important to include disease surveillance, to include all these things in the response.
Because it's it's a part of of of the health response is also disease surveillance, including for COVID-19 and try to do as much as possible preventive measures medicine.
Maybe you want to complete they just to agree that it's super important that prevention of COVID be fully integrated into the response to the the Beirut explosions.
And Nick on the Ministry of Health publics on the Ministry of Health site.
I think the like the basically, I think the update Tarek that comes right after is is 295 cases and that size of 713 last 7:13 PM last night.
So total of 6812 total of 80 deaths.
I go to the next question just to remind you that Paul Dillon for IOM is also online if you have to ask questions on issues related to migrants.
I see F is asking for the floor, but I don't know who's there.
It's Antonio, Antonio, Ola Ola.
So my question is for Babar.
I would like to know if he has more information on the refugee victims that he said.
I think he said 30 something.
So what are the origins of these refugees?
Are they from Syria, from Palestine?
Are there women and children among them?
Indeed, as we mentioned earlier, some 34 refugees have lost their lives and also in the tally of injured, we have 124 refugees that have been hurt and 20 of them suffering serious injuries.
So these are just initial reports.
We're trying to get further details on this and and the the fears are that this tally could rise in, in, in terms of the origin of of refugees.
I mean, as, as, as you know that we have Syrian refugees, Iraqis and Palestinians were just mentioned or over there by our colleague as well.
But we're trying to still get further details which could be available in in the coming days.
And Peter was in the room and raising his victory hands.
You're both, yes, my question is actually a non Lebanese question and it's for Tariq.
Let me see if there's any other question for the speakers from Lebanon, which I don't see anybody online would like to still ask a question on Lebanon.
So Peter, go ahead and Tariq, that's for you.
Yes, Tariq, President Putin has just announced.
President Putin in Russia has just announced that Russia is going to make a vaccine available and start distributing it.
Would you like to comment on this and say what it does for the vaccine fight against COVID-19?
I can just make a, you know, general comment that that pandemic is threatening lives and economies.
It's vital that we apply all public health measures that we know are working and we need to continue to invest in, accelerate development of safe and effective treatments and vaccines that will help us reduce transmission disease.
And that's in the future.
But accelerating progress cannot and does not mean compromising on safety.
Accelerating development and vaccine development embraces the processes to ensure testing, manufacturing, realtory and logistic frameworks are in place.
For example, as soon as the absolutely essential clinical trial data is available, national regulatory bodies are ready to review the safety and efficacy data before before the use.
We are following the progress in development of COVID-19 vaccines and we maintain the draught landscape of candidate vaccines, which is updated every week and it's on our website.
Jamil, is that for Tarek?
OK, I see a number of hands up.
Tarek, I think you are on the spot here.
Jamil, is that for Tarek?
Hi, Tarek, 2 questions again.
On Russia, just to make it clear, are you, when you say that it cannot represent, let's say putting aside security and efficiency, are you talking specifically about this one, this vaccine?
If not, can you comment on it, whether WHO will revise the data coming from Russia, will request Russia to present these data?
What are the next steps regarding WHO, Why I asked this because yesterday Mike Ryan said that not yesterday, yeah, yes, yesterday said that something related to the Chinese vaccine saying that every vaccine will be will go through the same criteria, same process within WHO.
So my question again on Russia, will this also go through this evaluation at WHO?
And secondly on, on, sorry for this second question regarding the, I don't know how to call it, but the evalu the evaluation process led by Helen Clark and Sirleaf.
I understand that the number of candidates that have been put out by governments regarding the the Commission that will be created.
My question, when will these names be announced?
For the sake of transparency, could you publish a list of of these people that have been proposed by governments?
I mean, if this if this is a Commission to bring more transparency into double HO, we need to know how it works.
On your second question, Jamil, I, I cannot tell you the, the date when, when the members will be announced, but obviously once we have the names, it will be made public.
So, but I cannot tell you when, when exactly that will that will happen.
Can you speak closer to your mic?
We can't really hear you very well.
I was saying, Jamil, I don't I cannot give you the exact date when the members of the of the review panel will be announced.
But I don't see any reason why these names would not be made public once they are confirmed On the on the on the, I think I already answered the question.
The vaccine pre qualification of any vaccine by WHO includes the review and assessment of all required safety and efficacy data gathered through clinical trials.
And you have exact details on how WHO pro qualification works on our website.
You also know that we have put in place COVAX the the the vaccine pillar of the ACT accelerator and that's convened by SEPI, Garvey and WHO.
And this is basically trying to speed up the research for an effective vaccine for all countries.
At the same time, we are supporting the building of manufacturing capabilities and buying supplies ahead of a time.
So we could have doses that could be that could be equitably distributed in 2021 Tamil.
I'm happy to give you the follow up but I would like to remind everybody of the time.
And we still have 1 briefing point from HCR.
Tarek I didn't ask for the names of people selected but the people proposed.
There is a huge number of people being proposed by different governments around the world to form the Commission into for, for for the sake of transparency, could you send us the names of people who have been proposed by governments to form the Commission?
Thank you very much, Patty Jamil.
First, I haven't seen any names myself, but I'm not sure you know that we would we would like announce names that are not being selected.
But let me let me come back to you on that.
So it wouldn't make really go ahead, Go ahead.
So just a little bit of housekeeping.
I have Elizaveta, Bianca, Gabriela again, Antonio, I close the questions that Tarek and then we will go to the bar for his last briefing item Elizaveta.
Hi Tarek, I have two questions.
First, could you please clarify about the registration process with The Who this one because Russia is announced that the vaccination campaign with the new vaccine could starts as early as September.
So do you think that is safe enough to start vaccination campaign in in the country while the vaccine has not yet received any approval from The Who?
And the second question is regarding actually the effectiveness of this vaccine.
Russian authorities announced that the immunity against the COVID because of this vaccine will last for two years.
Is it really possible to have this, this long immunity for, for this for the current virus, since we know that immunity lasts so far for three months?
Thank you, Tariq, please again, I, I think it's, it's clear that like every country has the national regulatory agencies that approves the use of vaccines or medicines on, on its territory.
WTO has in place the process of pre qualification for vaccines, but also for the, for the, for the medicines countries often manufacturers ask to have a doublet of pre qualification because it is a sort of a, it is a sort of a stamp of, of, of equality.
And then to get to get this, as I said, there is a, there is a review and assessment of all required safety and efficacy data that are gathered through the clinical trials.
So this WTO would do for any, any kind of data vaccine.
Hi, Tarek, thanks a lot for taking my question.
This is still about Russia.
The WTO has a list with the vaccines and the phases with all the details.
So is this list, is this list updated?
Why is Russia is still in phase one in this list?
Russia is not providing data.
The informations in our right.
Derek, I would like just to confirm again like thank you.
Our our what we call draught landscape of candidate vaccines is updated every week.
So I don't know what day was updated the last time, but we try really to there, there are more than 160 candidate vaccines and more than 20 in clinical trials.
And we try to get this information as much as we can and try and really to accelerating the research and development.
We have developed the guidance that includes product profiles for COVID-19 vaccine.
We developed with the consultation with global experts.
And we are also having a criteria for prioritisation of vaccines for clinical trials.
So all these, all these documents are, are being, are being developed.
And we try really to track the, the vaccines and to see where they are.
We, as I said, the, the, the, the, the, from the beginning, there was a, there was a push to accelerate the research and development for therapeutics and for the vaccine as as, as, as, as we see how big toll the, the, the pandemic is taking on everyone.
And we are encouraged by the, by the, by the, by the speed by which several candidate vaccines have been, have been developing.
And, and as we have been always saying, we hope that some of these vaccines will prove to be safe and efficient.
And that through the through the this mechanism that I just talked about, we will be able to, to get to get doses that will be done distributed in a, in a equal way.
And maybe to look in so like what, how this distribution would go, what would be some prioritisation and, and, and, and, and similar, similar things.
Thank you, Gabriela and then Antonio.
Hi, Alexandra and thank you for giving me the question.
So on the vaccine, since Russia does not meet the requirements of WHO till now, are you going to to issue a warning for the people or something?
Because I mean, there's millions of people that could be, you know, facing the consequences.
And then secondly, on the Commission of inquiry, I don't have any details of contact detail.
Could you send us those details please about the Commission of inquiry of Mrs Helen Clark?
Because I really don't have those details.
On the second question, well, it's an independent review panel.
So we are not, we are not providing any, any media facilitation.
So, so I, I, I may ask around that to see if Co chairs have a media person, but I have I have not, not, not, not not heard on the other vaccine.
Obviously we are in contact with the with with all the all the governments we are in contact in in and I work with the Russian health authorities and discussing, you know how this pre qualification process will go.
Well, I would like to know some general information on how is the cooperation between WHO on Russia and, and Russia in, in investigating vaccines and treatments is Russia in ACT accelerator and all, all these, all these tools that WHO is is creating for, for increase international cooperation in, in fight against COVID-19.
And I also would like to confirm if in the eyes of WHO is the Russian vaccine in phase one, phase two, phase three, which phase it is?
Because I remember that last week we asked, we asked Doctor Tedros which were the six vaccines more advanced and Russia was not among them.
Antonia, really I can just say that we are in a close contact with the Russian health authorities and discussions are ongoing with respect to possible WTO pre qualification of the vaccine.
But again, pre qualification of any vaccine includes the rigorous review and assessment of all required safety and efficacy data.
Regarding the Phase, I really don't know.
I'm going to as promised to Babar.
Now, if afterwards you really want to ask a question to Tariq, I give you the floor.
But I go to Babar now for his last briefing item.
Some troubling news from Sudan's West Darfur.
Recent violence in western Darfur has forced Sudanese refugees to seek safety in neighbouring Chad.
Since the end of July 2020, at least 2500 people have crossed the international border, while ethnic related unrest has affected an estimated 20,000 people within the western Darfur in Sudan.
The majority of these people are women and children.
Attacks blamed on armed nomads in West Darfur's Mastiri town killed 61 people from Masalid community and injured at least 88 on 25th of July.
Houses were also reported to have been burned to the ground in the town and the surrounding villages.
Many of the newly arriving refugees in Chad had returned home to Darfur recently from child itself earlier this year.
More than 80% of the those arriving in the child in border town of Ali are women and children and elderly people who ran for their lives as clashes erupted.
Many have witnessed extreme violence.
A 25 year old woman told UNICIA staff that her husband was stabbed to death in front of her eyes and she had to run for her life with her three children, making the journey to chart riding a donkey for one whole day.
UNICIA, the UN refugee agency, in collaboration with the government of Chad and its international partners, is relocating the refugees from the border into one of the refugee camps further inland.
The camp was already hosting more than 6000 Sudanese who had arrived in February 2020 while inside Sudan's Westar 4.
Reports suggest the situation has stabilised since the attacks but remains unpredictable.
The internally displaced, many of whom are staying in Algernina, are still hesitant to return home and are demanding better security.
Federal authorities in Khartoum have reportedly deployed additional forces to control and calm the situation, while a delegation from Masalid and Arab tribal leaders arrived in Algernina from Khartoum on August 4th and is concluding conducting peace talks between both sides.
Which are currently host nearly half a million refugees, out of whom more than 365,000 refugees are from Sudan.
Thank you very much, Barbara.
Let me see if there's any question for you.
Let me give one second to the journalist.
I don't think there is any.
And I'm supposing that Janka's hand is for Tariq.
So since there are no other questions, Bianca ask you a follow up and then we will conclude.
Yeah, it's in fact only to know if WHO will release something official today about this Russia vaccine, if we can expect something from the WHOI statement.
Sorry, Bianca, I, I, I don't know really.
I'll, I can't say that we will have something we may have.
And if it happens, obviously, you know, we will, we will send it out immediately.
Thank you very much, Tariq.
Before I we we we close the briefing, I just wanted to tell you that Tamara Al Rifai for Unrah has sent us the name of the person who unfortunately lost his life in the blast in in Beirut.
His name was Firas Dawish, a well known figure in the arts and culture scene because of how hard he worked at the Ideal Gallery in Beirut.
The name was Firas da Wish as you had asked.
If you have more information from UNRWA, we will share them with you.
Two small announcements on my side.
The Conference on Disarmament, which third and last part of this year's session, runs from the 3rd of August to the 18th of September, as scheduled to have two public plenaries morning and afternoon next Thursday, 13th of August, under the Presidency of Bangladesh.
And I also would like to remind you that tomorrow the international community will commemorate International Youth Day.
The theme of this year's International Youth Day is Youth Engagement for Global Action, and we will send you the message of the Secretary General.
So if there are no other questions, I'm looking online.
Thank you very much and have a nice day.
