Daily Press Briefing by the Spokesperson of the…

The Secretary-General is back in Glasgow for the final days of the UN Climate Change Conference. Afghans in need of health care services can now benefit from a new UN Development Programme (UNDP) initiative that has injected acutely needed funding into the deteriorating healthcare system of the country. The initiative is being implemented in 31 out of 34 provinces across Afghanistan, in cooperation with civil society organizations who are working in the health sector. It aims to reach 26,000 health workers by the time it is fully implemented. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that while violence has reduced in the last quarter across Afghanistan, reports of children killed and injured by unexploded ordnance continue to be reported throughout the country. The Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, is traveling to France to represent the Secretary-General at the Paris Conference on Libya on November 12th. The Conference aims to show the support of the international community to Libyans and the peace process. At a Security Council briefing focusing on UN Police, the head of our Peace Operations department, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said that this annual briefing is an opportunity to reaffirm the vital role that UN Police play across the conflict prevention spectrum, from peacekeeping to peacebuilding. The Secretary-General is following with concern the situation at the Belarus-Poland border, and he reiterates the importance of ensuring that migration and refugee issues are dealt with according to humanitarian principles and international law. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) today corrected an inaccurate claim made by a political party in South Sudan, that the UN Peacekeeping Mission is withdrawing its security presence from the Malakal Protection of Civilians site. Unfortunately, this claim was reported as fact by local media and this could cause unnecessary concern among those displaced. The Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti, Bruno Lemarquis, said that the current blockage of fuel supplies in Port-au-Prince’s seaports is making it very difficult for humanitarians, including the UN, to continue to provide assistance to approximately 700,000 people in the country. He said the situation is deeply alarming, adding that people recovering from the earthquake in the South of Haiti are particularly impacted. In Sierra Leone, the UN team visited the site of the deadly fuel tanker collision that took place on Friday. New findings by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicate that, without additional assistance, the food crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could worsen in the coming months. In Nepal, the Country Team, led by Resident Coordinator Sara Beysolow Nyanti, continues to support the Government’s multifaceted response to the outbreak. In Sri Lanka, the UN is monitoring the impact of rain, floods and landslides that are causing widespread damage and casualties around the country. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today released a report showing that there are nearly 240 million children with disabilities around the world. Today is the World Science Day for Peace and Development. With climate change becoming a serious threat to the lives of billions of people and the planet, this year’s theme is “Building Climate-Ready Communities”. Tomorrow, at 1:00 p.m., there will be panel discussion of the production called “Stories from the Violins of Hope”. The online event is organized by the Holocaust and the UN Outreach Programme to mark the anniversary of November 1938 Pogrom in Europe.