UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OCHA Press briefing

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you very much for joining this press conference that concerns the **** level pledging event for the humanitarian crisis in Central Sahel.

As you know, the conference is still going on, but is Excellency Mr Rasmus Pen, Minister for Development Corporation of Denmark, is Excellency Mr Janish Lenarchic, European Commissioner for Crisis Management and United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Mr Mark Lowcock have just stepped out of the meeting to brief you on its latest developments, and I would like to thank them all very much for being with us today to brief our journalists.

I will now give the floor to Minister Penn, followed by Commissioner Renarchich and then USG low **** for shorting to that early remarks, and then we will take questions from you that our speakers will answer.

So I would like to start by just reminding you of the words of the Secretary General that Ted has participated in the distance with the video message in the conference today and who said that the Central Sahel region is at the breaking point.

Humanitarian needs in the border region between Mali, Burkina Faso, Nisha have reached record levels.

And he has concluded by saying that we must act and act now.

And now I will give the floor to His Excellency plan to tell us exactly what action we will be taking after the conference.

Excellency, Sir, I think you can start.

You are connected.

Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you all for joining us today.

I'm very happy to be Co hosting this conference and I'm encouraged by the pledges made so far.

The humanitarian situation in the Sahel, Central Sahel region, Bukhana Faso, Mali and Nisha is rapidly worsening.

The crisis is complex.

Rising insecurity due to armed conflicts, increased displacement of people and negative effects of climate change and extreme weather and now COVID-19 3030 point 4 million people, that is 1/5 of the population in the region, need lifesaving support and protection.

This year alone.

The future of millions is at stake.

That is why we need to step up our efforts.

We need to secure access to basic social services, justice, economic opportunities and security, and we will ensure that the rights of women and girls are at the centre of our efforts.

This is a time to show solidarity and help the people of Central for Hill.

Denmark is committed to continue our comprehensive approach covering humanitarian, development, peace and stability efforts.

That is why my Government has decided to pledge all together 1 billion.162 billion corner, equivalent to some €150 million in assistance during 2020 and the next two years.

So I'm really looking forward to this press conference and I'm ready to answer questions.

Thank you very much, Sir.

And I would like now to give the floor to His Excellency Janish Elena Archich, European Commissioner for Crisis Management.

Sir, you have the floor.

Could my colleague please unmute Mr Oh, I think it's that's that's not you can go, Sir, please.

Thank you very much, Alessandra, and good day to everybody.

As you know, one of the key purposes of today's meeting was to find a way forward in tackling the alarming humanitarian situation in the Central Circle region.

And yes, for that we also expect a renewed financial pledges, simply because of the fact that this crisis is one of those that remain seriously underfunded.

So I will get right into the into the crux of the matter.

On behalf of the European Union, it was my pleasure to pledge today the additional €43.6 million to meet the urgent needs in the second for 2020, 23.6 million will go for the humanitarian assistance, will cover all range of the humanitarian needs and this will bring our total humanitarian aid to the Central Circle for 2020 to €84.6 million.

In addition, the 20 remaining €1,000,000 will support the nutrition and recovery programmes that are being run in the region by the World Food Programme.

There has been a massive international support and engagement in the Centre Sahel, no doubt about it, but the fact is that much more needs to be done.

Centre Sahel is facing a crisis on multiple fronts and as such, humanitarian aid alone is not going to be enough to stabilise the region, the region and to reverse the worrisome trends that we are seeing.

It is also ****, **** time to start drawing on the lessons identified and start approaching this crisis in a more comprehensive manner.

And it is in this respect that I have been very pleased with the discussion so far at the conference today.

In this context, I would like to make three quick points.

First, my central take away from today's conference was the recognition that we are not dealing predominantly with security crisis.

Security crisis is more of a symptom.

In other words, the situation that we see in the region and it's deterioration is primarily in our view due to the unmet needs of population.

That's why in our joint future efforts, we believe that we have to pay more attention to dealing with the root causes of this crisis.

Secondly, we must insist on better governance from the national and local authorities.

They should focus on the needs of their people first and foremost.

And thirdly, we must also address the role of the respective authorities in the region in enabling the delivery of Unitarian aid.

This has been a constant challenge.

The access is difficult for humanitarian aid and for humanitarian workers.

There has to be improvement because lives stay.

To conclude, I would like to assure everyone that the European Union continues to stand ready to support people in the centres of health in dealing with this issue.

So, so much for the introduction for myself.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, your Your Excellency.

And now it's my pleasure to give the floor to the and the Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Mark Locock.

Sir, you have the floor.

Thank you very much indeed.

And I want to start by thanking Germany, Denmark and the European Union for Co hosting this event with us today.

This crisis is one that has not had nearly the attention in need and only by having a stronger, more consistent focus on it and we make progress in dealing with the problem.

So Rasmus, thank you very much indeed.

Yanish, thank you very much indeed.

What we're trying to do today is essentially 3 things.

Firstly, to raise the profile, secondly, to raise resources.

And thirdly, to build a shared commitment that what needs to happen, as Yanish just alluded to, is a focus on the underlying causes of the problem, not merely addressing the symptoms, symptoms including displacement and some of the violence we're seeing.

And I think it was very encouraging that in the opening statement, as you will all have seen, there was a very strong recognition of that need to address the underlying causes of the problem.

We'll get details of people's policy commitments and pledges, obviously during the course of the day, but I know that many of you will be writing and starting to write already.

So I'm going to give you a heads up on what we think we may be hearing in total from those present here today.

We think that total pledges will amount to something like $1.7 billion for humanitarian needs in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

More than 20 donors we're expecting will announce for for 2020, totalling something like $980 million.

And crucially, I think this is very important and a mark of the success of the event there.

There will, I think, be pledges beyond 2020 into 2021 and 2022, which might total about $700 million.

Now, I think that this represents A substantial success activity, at least given the context where we're working in at the moment.

There's so many crises around the world and the COVID context and so many pressures, particularly on the donor country.

So you know, if if our forecasts on what the donors will say awry, I think it will be right to describe this as a successful meeting.

And again, I want to express my admiration.

Thanks and gratitude to Yanesh and thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr Loco.

Thank you very much to all our speakers.

We have well heard the figures that are expected to come out of this conference and also the point taking to take away.

And I will now like to open the floor to questions.

We have a few journalists connected.

Some other people who are connected have not indicated their affiliation.

So if they want to ask a question, if they're journalists, please let me know when you raise your hand.

And I would like now to open the floor and also would like to remind you that we have sent you the link for the interpretation English and French, in case you will need it.

So if there's any colleague who would like to ask a question, I will start with Lionel Fatou, Kyodo News.

Lionel, Bonjour.

This Alexandra Merci.

You mentioned the pledges from about 20 countries.

If I understood, Could you please give us details about which countries you're talking about?

Thank you.

Who would like to take this, Mr Loco?

So we'll give you a full list at the end of the day.

But we've already heard extremely generous pledge from Denmark.

We've heard the extremely important pledge from the European Commission.

Most of the large donors are pledging today.

So largely European countries, but also pledges from other parts of the world is what we're expecting.

And I don't want to, you know, pre announce any individual countries intentions, but we will give you the full list at the end of the day.

Thank you very much.

Other questions, let me look at my list here.

Lisa Schlein, Voice of America, Lisa, you have the floor.

Thank you, Alessandra, and hello to the panel.

So you you say you are under, you're not reaching your financial goal, but you seem to think that by not very much and that you'll actually be able to do what it is you want to do.

So the needs in the Sahel are absolutely huge.

Among them, what are your priorities?

One of the panellists mentioned women and children.

If you could perhaps talk and expand upon that situation and then it whenever dealing with a humanitarian crisis, I believe almost at on all at all occasions, people talk about the need to get to the root causes.

How do you do that?

I mean, what jihad is solar?

Maybe Mr Lecoq, you want to start and then we will have Commissioner Leonard, which as he mentioned this point in his introductory remark and OK, Mr Lecoq, would you like to start?

Yeah, thank you.

One of the things I, I want to re emphasise about this is that there really has to be a comprehensive response.

It's not going to work if we have just to focus in a few areas.

So it needs to be comprehensive, it needs to be on a sufficient scale and it needs to be long lasting because it's very intractable problems that we're dealing with.

And there's basically 4 areas of activity that I would point to.

The first is there needs to be a military response to deal with the fact that terrorists, extremists are taking control of larger areas of land.

And the key point about that is it has to be done in a way which wins the confidence, support, backing and engagement of local people.

What we've seen is Mr Lock, sorry, sorry, Mr Lock.

Sorry, I have to interrupt because we have a line open.

Can I ask please, the person who was with Mr Plan to close his mic.

Otherwise we cannot hear Mr Loko.

Mr Loko, can you please repeat the last sentences, please?

OK, So I was talking about the four things that need to happen together.

The first being a military response, because that's the really the only alternative, the only option for dealing with the extremists, the insurgents, that the terrorists to provide protection and some support for local populations.

But the military response has to happen in a way which wins the confidence, support and engagement of local people.

Otherwise, you know, what we're going to see is people being stuck between the extremists and other military operations and that we've seen that too much recently.

The second thing is there needs to be sustaining humanitarian assistance.

We have to keep people alive while the, you know, the military situation is brought under control and that that's the focus of a lot of the efforts today.

And then the third thing is there needs to be much bigger investment in human capital, human development.

So education, water, sanitation, health services, reproductive services for women and girls.

And that goes alongside the 4th requirement, which is investing in the economic diversification of the region.

Unfortunately, because of the combination of climate change and rapid population growth, traditional livelihoods such as agriculture and partialism are not going to be able to sustain the huge populations that we're seeing growing across the region.

So what needs to happen in this this part of the world is what happened in those other parts of the world over recent generations going back 200 years, which is the diversification of the economy, improving the efficiency of agriculture, freeing up more people to work in other sectors, especially towns and cities.

And the the economic development of the area to create more opportunities for everybody and to give people hope about the future.

So that it's clear that the nihilistic agenda of the extremists is countered by a better alternative.

This all needs to be LED primarily by the countries of the region and by local people and local organisations.

But the international community does have a big important role to play.

But my core point is unless you do all of those four things together, insufficient scale, you shouldn't, you shouldn't be surprised if the situation doesn't improve.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I see His Excellency Prem has raised his hand.

Mr Prem, would you like to compliment?

Yes, please.

And sorry for interrupting just before.

We were quite new with this new setup and we just wanted to raise the pants and then we suddenly unmute ourselves.

So that was really embarrassing.

Sorry about that.

Thank you for the question.

And I was the one who mentioned the, the the women and the girls.

And it's really in the centre of our development policy from the Danish side.

And what we can see is due to the corona situation, lots of lots of children have been sent home from school.

And it have really negative impact on the situation for especially girls.

And we see a increase in the amount of girl, girl marriage and teenage pregnancies.

And therefore, it's, it's really important for us to sit, focus on schools again and have kids back to the schools.

And it's, you know, to do with the Corona situation, but also unfortunately to do with the terrorists.

So there's many things to do, but we will focus some of our money to, to the schools.

And then there's a question, how can we deal with the root causes?

And I think it's, it's, it really it's, it's about securing that we, when we do the humanitarian initiatives that we insist on where it's possible to think in development from the right beginning.

And for instance, when we have new internal displaced people, we should help them.

Building up their own new communities, building up their new agriculture.

Instead of trucking in water, we should help them drilling for water themselves.

And you know, this whole mindset of doing development differently and to think in development from the right beginning.

That is our aim.

And when it comes to the amount of money that we would be able to raise to, to fund today, I would like to say that the amount mentioned is, you know, the, the, the, the straight analysis of how is the need and we haven't promised to achieve that today.

That would be simply too ambitious.

But what we have said is that we will do as much as we can to to fund as many money as possible, as much money as possible.

And it seems like we are having very good pledging today and we have to understand that the amount mentioned as the realistic need is for the next 1 1/2 year.

So if we can take a substantial step today in the right direction, we would have 1 1/2 year more to continue this work.

And that is the purpose of our work from the Danish side.

And that is one of the reasons that we have organised this conference is to raise awareness and of course, collect money, but also to continue already from tomorrow collecting new money and raising more awareness.

So this is not the end of the funding.

This is a beginning of a, a new commitment to change the situation in the Central Sahel.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Sir, very clear.

And maybe Commissioner Leonard, would you like to add something maybe on what you said about the root causes or something else?

Yes, of course.

But first about the priorities, I can give you the three key priorities for the European Union in the Centre of health.

These are food security and livelihood health, basic health services and 3rd is education in emergencies.

And these three top priorities represent more than half of our humanitarian funding in the Centre of Health region or there are also other areas of our support like nutrition, protection, shelter.

But these are the three priorities that that that represent more than half of our humanitarian funding.

Now on the root causes, you see, humanitarian aid is not a long term solution.

Humanitarian aid will not with with humanitarian aid, we will only, we can only save lives and alleviate suffering in emergency.

But it's not a long term solution.

It cannot go on and on and on for years and years in order to find a durable solution, which humanitarian aid is not.

We have to address the root causes, and in our view, the root causes have to do with the simple fact that basic needs of the people in the central South of the region are not met.

We have to focus on that.

We have to focus on that in the sustainable manner in order to find durable solutions that will allow these people to stand on their feet and not continue to be dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Sir.

And indeed, this is also what the Secretary General said when he said long term solutions will come through sustainable development, good governance and equal opportunities for all, especially young people.

That will not happen overnight, but at least we can prevent the crisis from growing deadlier and costlier in the future.

We have a few minutes left.

I would like to invite our journalists if they would like to ask any further question.

I'm looking at my platform.

I don't see.

Yes.

Leonel, you have a follow up.

Keir, the news.

Yes, thank you.

I follow up on what you say, Alessandra.

And what Lena, Mr Lena just said you, you mentioned about sustainable solutions and Alessandra, you mentioned about governance, good governance.

I mean, there is, there is there is like a puzzle here because I mean, good governance is essential for sustainability and to meet the basic needs of the people.

But we know that these three countries are pretty fragile politically.

So how do you reconcile, I mean, a pledging conference that is here to basically raise fund for these countries and this problem is governance, while I mean, continuing to protecting the the principle of national sovereignty.

I mean reiterate, I was quoting this, the middle message of the Secretary Turner of the United Nations.

Mr Leonard, you had also spoken about better governance.

Maybe you would like to make a comment and then the other speakers.

Of course, yes, correct.

Good governance is key.

It has to be clear that the fundamental purpose of the government is to provide for the needs of the people.

The purpose of the government is not enrichment of its members.

The purpose of every government is to serve the people and that has to be clear and that is that carries responsibility.

When we say that the European Union is committed to the people of centres of help, we mean that no, we will not let them down.

We will continue to help.

We'll continue to provide humanitarian aid, but we also want to do more than that.

We want to reach a stage where humanitarian aid will no longer be needed.

That's where we want to go, that's where we go and we cannot get there without involvement of the national and regional authorities themselves.

That's what we are calling for.

That's what we are.

That's what we have in our mind when we call for the doable sustainable solution.

Correct.

It's correct that there are there is political fragility in the region.

We are aware of that.

It is also correct that the the security situation is very difficult.

But as I said in my in my intervention at the conference also, this security challenges are more the symptom, symptoms of the problem and not the problem itself.

They arise from the fact that a large proportion of people do not have their basic needs satisfied.

They are not provided for the basic.

It has to do with the good government.

It had government and has to do with with the with the fundamental, fundamental purpose of every government, which is to provide for the welfare of the people.

Mr Prentice, you have raised your hand.

Thank you so much.

It's it's really important with good governance.

And as you might know, for instance, Denmark have country programmes with Burkina Faso, Mali and Nisier.

And as part of that, which is something more basic than the now humanitarian activities, we, we, we, we have country programmes and we have had them for for many years.

And we continue to help with good governance and to support civil society, democracy and dialogue with the governments.

And this is like a kind of basic initiative that we try to do our best with.

Now we have a a extraordinary humanitarian situation.

And that's the aim for the conference today is to to collect money for that.

And of course, we have to think about how can we in working with that, also think about good governance.

And we will try to connect our basic country programmes with also our extraordinary humanitarian efforts because it has to go hand in hand.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Mr Low Cook, maybe a final word on this.

Well, I think actually Yanesh and Rasmus have dealt with that very comprehensively.

So I don't have, I don't think I need to add anything to what they say.

OK, thank you very much.

I don't see any other question from our journalist if this is the case.

Let me just check again if this is the case.

I would like to thank very, very much our three speakers, wish them luck for the end of the of the conference and also would like to thank all the journalists which have participated.

And as you know, the conference is being webcast, so you can follow it on webtv.trend.org.

We've sent you the link in the media advisory.

So thank you to you all.

Good luck for the end and for the pledging and thank you very much for being with us this afternoon.

Thank you.

OCHA Press briefing - Central Sahel 20 October 2020