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UN / COVID-19 SOCIAL HUMANITARIAN
STORY: UN / COVID-19 SOCIAL HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 03:06
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 09 JUNE 2020, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Close up, UN flag
09 JUNE 2020, NEW YORK CITY
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“This pandemic is unlike anything any of us have dealt with in our lifetime, and urgent measures are needed. Our response must be proportionate to the scale of the problem we face.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, UN flag
09 JUNE 2020, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“UNDP forecasts that the main measures of human development will all go backwards this year for first time since 1990. Combined with score rates going up and plunges in the capital income, that could signify the largest reversal in human development since records begun. The World Bank forecasts the pandemic could push as many as 60 million people into extreme poverty, while the World Food Programme predicts it could push 130 million more people to the brink of starvation, almost doubling last year’s figure. The spectre of mass and multiple famines looms.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, UN flag
09 JUNE 2020, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“We estimate that the cost of protecting the most vulnerable ten percent of people in the world's poorest countries in this period of extreme crisis is about 90 billion dollars. That is a substantial sum, but it's also affordable. It is equivalent, for example, to just one percent of the global stimulus package the world richest countries put in place to save the global economy.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, UN flag
09 JUNE 2020, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“The longer the crisis lasts, the more the humantarian impacts grow on children's health, nutrition, education and protection. In just a few short months, COVID-19 and the efforts to contain its spread have laid bare existing inequities, vulnerabilities and weakness of national systems around the world, the result of decades of under investment in systems that need to support children futures. But while the landscape has changed, children's needs have not.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
9. Close up, UN flag
09 JUNE 2020, NEW YORK CITY
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Qu Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization:
“The COVID-19 pandemic poses a clear and present danger to food security and nutrition, especially in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Our initial ongoing assessment tells us that almost all countries with existing food crises have seen food prices rising and wages dropping. This has reduced people's access to food. We are also seeing the begining of production side issues impact on food availability. We are getting increasing reports that farmers are unable to access land for the harvesting and for the planting season.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
11. Close up, UN flag
Humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock today (9 Jun) said the response to the COVID-19 pandemic “must be proportionate to the scale of the problem we face,” and may require approximately 90 billion US dollars.
Addressing the annual ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS), Lowcock said that according to UN agencies, “the main measures of human development will all go backwards this year for first time since 1990” and “could signify the largest reversal in human development since records began,” and the crisis may push “as many as 60 million people into extreme poverty,” and “130 million more people to the brink of starvation, almost doubling last year’s figure.”
He said, “the spectre of mass and multiple famines looms.”
Lowcock said, “the cost of protecting the most vulnerable ten percent of people in the world's poorest countries in this period of extreme crisis is about 90 billion dollars. That is a substantial sum, but it's also affordable. It is equivalent, for example, to just one percent of the global stimulus package the world richest countries put in place to save the global economy.”
Also addressing the meeting, which was conducted via teleconference, UNICEF Excecutive Director Henrietta Fore said, “the longer the crisis lasts, the more the humantarian impacts grow on children's health, nutrition, education and protection.”
In just a few short months, Fore continued, “COVID-19 and the efforts to contain its spread have laid bare existing inequities, vulnerabilities and weakness of national systems around the world, the result of decades of under investment in systems that need to support children futures.”
She said, “while the landscape has changed, children's needs have not.”
For his part, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Qu Dongyu, said “the COVID-19 pandemic poses a clear and present danger to food security and nutrition, especially in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Our initial ongoing assessment tells us that almost all countries with existing food crises have seen food prices rising and wages dropping. This has reduced people's access to food. We are also seeing the begining of production side issues impact on food availability. We are getting increasing reports that farmers are unable to access land for the harvesting and for the planting season.”
The HAS is a platform for discussing the activities and issues related to strengthening the coordination of the humanitarian assistance of the United Nations. It provides an opportunity for Member States, the United Nations system, development actors, the private sector and other humanitarian partners to discuss emerging and pressing humanitarian issues.
The theme for the HAS this year is “Reinforcing humanitarian assistance in the context of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations: taking action for people-centred solutions, strengthening effectiveness, respecting international humanitarian law and promoting the humanitarian principles.”
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