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UN / AFGHANISTAN GRIFFITHS
STORY: UN / AFGHANISTAN GRIFFITHS
TRT: 2:29
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 7 SEPTEMBER 2021, NEW YORK CITY
1.Exterior shot, UN Headquarters
7 SEPTEMBER 2021, NEW YORK CITY
2.Wide shot, press room, Griffiths on screen
3.SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“They need independence of assessment, delivery, and monitoring of assistance. We need security and safety of national and international humanitarian workers, both male and female, and of their families. They need the freedom to hire whoever is needed without interference – men or women - goes without saying. Guarantees that humanitarian facility will not be occupied or used for military purposes, and that our staff will have access to reach the people in need, wherever they are.”
4.Wide shot, press room, Griffiths on screen
5.SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“I also discussed with him and his advisors, our values and principles. And the fundamental requirement for the freedom for women and girls for movement, for work, for education and for their rights in general to be a full part of the society.”
6.Wide shot, press room, Griffiths on screen
7.SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“The movement we face here today as many, many other people have told me, is not the movement that we saw [in the past]. It certainly has links to an ideology, but it's different to the one then. It suddenly gained power and it is in the very early stage. And one senior leader of the movement said to us: we need guidance, we need guidance, and certainly we will provide guidance.”
8.Wide shot, press room, Griffiths on screen
9.SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Nearly half of the population are in need of humanitarian assistance, at 18 million people, generally speaking, is in need of some kind of humanitarian protection or assistance. 14 million need food, 9 million need access to water, 600,000 have been internally displaced this year alone, and 5 million people who have been displaced from previous years.”
10.Wide shot, press room, Griffiths on screen
11.SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“The humanitarian side of UNAMA isn't going anywhere, it's going to stay there and do its job and the job is going to expand. So, for us, what's needed is to get the airlift in from Pakistan or wherever, so that we can rotate the humanitarian staff in and out, and extend them back into the provinces, the hubs where they were before this most recent crisis so that they can stay and deliver.”
12.Zoom in, press room
The humanitarian side of the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan “isn't going anywhere, it's going to stay there and do its job and the job is going to expand,” the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths told reporters on Tuesday.
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths was briefing reporters in New York via videolink from Doha, after visiting Afghanistan's capital Kabul over the weekend, where he met with Mullah Baradar and the leadership of the Taliban to discuss humanitarian issues.
In this meeting, Griffiths reiterated the humanitarian community’s commitment to deliver impartial and independent humanitarian assistance and protection to millions of people in need and laid out the conditions for humanitarians to operate in Afghanistan.
“They need independence of assessment, delivery, and monitoring of assistance. We need security and safety of national and international humanitarian workers, both male and female, and of their families. They need the freedom to hire whoever is needed without interference – men or women - goes without saying. Guarantees that humanitarian facility will not be occupied or used for military purposes, and that our staff will have access to reach the people in need, wherever they are,” Griffiths said.
“I also discussed with him and his advisors, our values and principles. And the fundamental requirement for the freedom for women and girls for movement, for work, for education and for their rights in general to be a full part of the society,” he added.
The Taliban authorities reportedly pledged that the safety and security of humanitarian staff, and humanitarian access to people in need, will be guaranteed and that humanitarian workers – both men and women – will be guaranteed freedom of movement.
The authorities committed to cooperate with the humanitarian community to ensure assistance is delivered to the people of Afghanistan.
Making comparison with his previous experience when dealing with Taliban in 1998, Griffiths said “the movement we face here today as many, many other people have told me, is not the movement that we saw [in the past]. It certainly has links to an ideology, but it's different to the one then. It suddenly gained power and it is in the very early stage. And one senior leader of the movement said to us: we need guidance, we need guidance, and certainly we will provide guidance.”
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is dire, with nearly half of the population in need of humanitarian assistance.
“Eighteen million people, generally speaking, is in need of some kind of humanitarian protection or assistance. Fourteen million need food, nine million need access to water, 600,000 have been internally displaced this year alone, and five million people who have been displaced from previous years.”
OCHA is seeking USD 606 million to assist nearly 11 million people during the four remaining months this year, which includes two million people not previously covered in the overall humanitarian response plan.
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