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Bi-Weekly Press Briefing 17 January 2023
PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
17 January 2023
Millions of children fighting for survival in Pakistan
Abdullah Fadil, Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, speaking from Islamabad, stressed that the focus of the aid arriving to Pakistan should be on resilience. In Geneva the previous week, international donors had pledged over 9 billion USD to help Pakistan recover from the catastrophe. This was a very generous move, but children had to be at the center of recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction efforts.
UNICEF had been in Pakistan from the beginning of the crisis and had established about 1,000 temporary learning centers across the country, with some 90,000 children. Pakistan had about 23 million children out of school, and an estimated two additional millions had left school after the floods. Humanitarian efforts continued; as of today, still four million children were exposed to elements. The UN system in Pakistan was funded only about 40 percent, informed Mr. Fadil. Despite the ongoing tragedy, despite all the young lives at stake, UNICEF’s current appeal of USD 173 million was less than half funded, he informed.
Responding to questions, Mr. Fadil said that Pakistan was not able to pay its debts now, given the dire situation in the country. Some of the pledged money might be the unused money from previous years, he explained. UNICEF estimated that the children mortality rates were about three times higher than usual. Still, a cholera outbreak had been averted, thanks to an early, preemptive action. Pakistan had one of ten out-of-school children in the world, said Mr. Fadil. Both education and malnutrition continued to be big issues; UNICEF was planning to stay in an emergency, humanitarian mode throughout this year.
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), replying to a question, said that the Pakistan event, held in Geneva the previous week, had not been a humanitarian pledging conference as such; questions on the pledged amounts were to be directed to the United Nations Development Programme the UN body in charge of organizing the conference.
Comprehensive regional response needed to address rise in deadly southeast Asia sea journeys
Shabia Mantoo, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stated that more than 3,500 desperate Rohingya had attempted deadly sea crossings in 39 boats in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2022, according to the latest data from UNHCR. This represented a 360 per cent increase on the year before when some 700 people had made similar journeys. In the absence of a comprehensive regional response to address such perilous maritime movements, UNHCR warned that more people would die on the high seas, under the watch of many coastal States.
The current crisis in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea was a crisis of solidarity, said Ms. Mantoo. The Bali Process, a forum for policy dialogue, information sharing and cooperation to address people smuggling, human trafficking and related transnational crime, would hold its Eighth Ministerial meeting in February. UNHCR repeated its call for prompt search and rescue and timely disembarkation in a place of safety, and for support to countries where Rohingya refugees were disembarked.
Full statement can be found here.
Answering questions from the media, Ms. Mantoo said that some refugees saw their vulnerabilities exploited by traffickers. They were embarking on those perilous journeys because of the dire situation at home. Over 950,000 Rohingya refugees were hosted by Bangladesh, which was very generous but needed additional support from donors. UNHCR was appealing to all countries in the region to extend protection to the Rohingya refugees in need.
Announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the UN Secretary-General was due to arrive to Switzerland today to participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos. He would deliver his “State of the World” address on 18 January at 11:15 a.m., which would be webcast live here. He would also meet bilaterally with a number of world leaders. After Davos, the Secretary-General would take part in the seventeenth seminar of his current Special and Personal Representatives and Envoys in Yverdon-les-Bains.
Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that Dr. Tedros was in Davos already, and would participate in the panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos “Ending Tuberculosis: How Do We Get There?”, today from 4:15 pm. The panel could be followed online. WHO Director-General would not hold his regular press conference this week.
Responding to questions, Mr. Lindmeier said that the WHO had not received any additional information from either Uzbekistan or the maker of the Indian cough syrups, which was alleged to have caused deaths in Uzbekistan. Mr. Lindmeier reminded that the WHO had issued an alert warning against the use of two Indian cough syrups blamed for the deaths of at least 20 children in Uzbekistan.
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),
informed that Rebeca Grynspan, the UNCTAD Secretary-General, was already in Davos; the focus of her bilateral meetings would be on investment in the Sustainable Development Goals.
She also said that on 23 January UNCTAD would welcome the Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Colombia, José Antonio Ocampo, who would give the prestigious Raul Prebisch Lecture, the 18th in the series. Prebisch Lectures had been instituted in 1982 to honour Raul Prebisch UNCTAD’s first Secretary General. The event could be followed in person in room XVII or online.
On 24 January in the afternoon (exact time to be confirmed), UNCTAD and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) would present the 2023 issue of the World Economic and Social Prospects, which was annually produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs with contributions from the UN regional commissions and UNCTAD. Richard Kozul-Wright for UNCTAD and Jose Palacin for UNECE would present the global economic situation as well as a more European perspective. The embargo would be lifted on 25 January.
On 24 January at 12 p.m. noon, Ms. Vellucci informed, there would be a hybrid press briefing to launch the UNRWA Annual Appeal for 2023. The Appeal would be presented by Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief Works Agency.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, which had opened its 92nd session the previous day, would conclude this morning the review of the report of Sweden. It would begin this afternoon the review of the report of Mauritius. Other countries to be reviewed during the current session were Oman, Bolivia, Azerbaijan, Ireland, and New Zealand.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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