GENEVA / YEMEN PLEDGING CONFERENCE

Secretary-General António Guterres told a pledging conference in Geneva that as the conflict in Yemen enters its fourth year, the country is experiencing “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” with more than 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid and protection. UNTV CH / FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:03
• Production Date: 3 April 2018
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: ANTONIO GUTERRES; MARK LOWCOCK
• Corporate Name: OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS - OCHA
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
• Geographic Subject: YEMEN
• MAMS Id: 2122106
• Parent Id: 2122106
• Alternate Title: unifeed180403j

Description

STORY: GENEVA / YEMEN PLEDGING CONFERENCE
TRT: 03:03
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 03 APRIL 2018, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

Shotlist

RECENT - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Exterior, Palais des Nations

06 MARCH 2018, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, conference room
3. Wide shot, dais
4. Close up, photographer
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As the conflict enters its fourth year, more than 22 million people, three quarters of the population, need humanitarian aid and protection. Some 18 million people are food insecure, one million more than when we convened last year. And a horrifying 8.4 million of this people, do not know where how they will obtain their next meal.”
6. Med shot, Yemen delegation
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Yemen’s situation today is catastrophic, but with international support we can and must prevent this country from becoming a long-term tragedy.”
8. Close up, hand taking notes
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“This war is causing enormous human suffering to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people iin the world. And there are no humanitarian solutions to a humanitarian crisis. A negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue is the only solution. And I urge all parties to engage with my new Special Envoy Martin Griffith without delay. And I reiterate my call for full respect to international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
10. Med shot, UAE delegation
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Firstly, we need all the ports in Yemen to remain open without restriction. Secondly, we need public sector salaries to be paid across Yemen, including to prevent another cholera outbreak, and to keep children in school, and to provide essential public services. Thirdly, we need better access across the country. We want to see Sana’a airport reopen for commercial flights, notably for humanitarian cases. But we want all of the parties to play a stronger role in facilitating access for the humanitarian operation across the whole of Yemen. And fourthly, and most importantly, we want to see progress towards an end to fighting and for the parties to work together in support of the Special Envoy for a sustainable peace.”
12. Wide shot, conference room

FILE - UNICEF - DECEMBER 2017, SANA’A, YEMEN

13. Various shots, malnourished babies in hospital
14. Various shots, children at water point

Storyline

Secretary-General António Guterres told a pledging conference today (03 Apr) in Geneva that as the conflict in Yemen enters its fourth year, the country is experiencing “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” with more than 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid and protection.

The UN chief added that “a horrifying 8.4 million of these do not know how they will obtain their next meal.”
He said, “Yemen’s situation today is catastrophic, but with international support we can and must prevent this country from becoming a long-term tragedy.”

Guterres said, the war “is causing enormous human suffering to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world” stressing that “there are no humanitarian solutions to a humanitarian crisis.”

A negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue, he said, “is the only solution.”

This call was also made by UN aid chief Mark Lowcock, who said during the event: “We need better access across the country. We want to see Sana’a airport reopen to commercial flights, notably for humanitarian cases.”

Most importantly, he said “we want to see progress towards an end to fighting and for the parties to work together in support of the Special Envoy for a sustainable peace.”

The event was co-chaired by the UN and the governments of Sweden and Switzerland. Pledges were made by 40 Member States and organizations, including the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), for humanitarian action in Yemen in 2018.

More than $2 billion had been promised by Member States before the end of the event, which represent almost double the amount raised in 2017 to fund humanitarian aid in the Arabian Peninsula country.

Yemen has been at war for more than three years. Conflict is ongoing between an international coalition forces supporting President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi on the one side, and Houthi militias and allied units of the armed forces on the other, which seized control of the capital, Sana’a.