I would like now to start this press briefing of the UN Geneva.
We will start with an announcement from ILO.
Rosalind, you have an announcement for us.
This is a reminder that the ILO will be launching its fourth update on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global employment and labour markets.
And this will be tomorrow, Wednesday the 27th, at 11:30 AM.
You should have received the media advisory yesterday, so please let me know if you haven't.
Now this new report focuses on the devastating effect the crisis is having on youth employment and also on young people's education and training.
It also analysis the impact of testing and tracing on labour markets and updates data on the employment impact of the pandemic.
There'll be an embargoed virtual press conference with ILO Director General Guy Ryder at 11:30 Geneva time tomorrow morning.
And also the Director of the Employment Policy Department Sang on Li will also be speaking and the embargo will lift at 1400 Geneva time tomorrow afternoon.
So we'll be sending you the press release and report under embargo later this afternoon.
And audio of the briefing will be available straight after the press conference.
So please contact me if you have any interview requests or you need any further information on my usual addresses.
Yard at ilo.orgornewsroom@ilo.org.
Thank you very much, Rosalind.
Anybody wants to ask a question to Rosalind?
So thank you very much Rosalind.
I have a nice press conference, and I'm also asked to remind you that Waipu will also launch a new online business service to help creators and innovators safeguard their valuable intellectual assets.
This will happen at the press conference today at 3:00 PM and the speaker will be Francis Gurid, Waipa, Director General.
Samar could not be with us today, but she asked me to remind you about the event and she said she's going to be available if you need any, to ask her any question.
She hopes to see you there.
So these are the two announcements we had for this morning.
And let's go now into our press conference our our press briefing subjects.
We'll start with COVID-19 and we will start with CC Yaxley for the **** Commissioner for Refugees, who has an item on COVID-19 in Africa.
Refugees in urban areas across the East Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa are struggling to meet their most basic needs as the economic impact of COVID-19 begins to take hold.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working closely with governments and partners to find solutions for urban refugees in these challenging times.
However, we fear that without further support, many urban refugees will become extremely vulnerable to exploitation, risk falling into significant levels of debt and may be forced into desperate situations to survive, such as transactional sex or child labour.
Urban refugees are facing job losses as businesses are forced to downsize or close due to COVID-19 restrictions, and many were daily wage workers or worked in the informal economy and were already living hand to mouth before the pandemic struck.
Many urban refugees are also living in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions and are particularly vulnerable to the spread of the virus, as in Kenya where thousands of refugees live in impoverished neighbourhoods in Nairobi with little access to clean water, making it nearly impossible to practise regular hand washing.
In both Rwanda and Kenya, UNHCR has been providing emergency cash assistance to the most vulnerable.
In Uganda, UNHCR and WFP are introducing one off cash assistance for some 80,000 urban refugees using mobile money to help cover rent, food and other key items.
However, these are only temporary measures and socio economic conditions are expected to deteriorate further in the coming weeks and months.
UNHCR calls on States to ensure that urban refugees have access to social safety Nets that provide health insurance, food and cash assistance, and the international community should further support these efforts.
Many refugees are calling UNHCR, informing us that they are desperate for help with rent and are facing eviction by their landlords.
And considering the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, we urge governments and landlords across the region to develop solutions that would put in place a moratorium on evictions at least until the crisis subsides.
Refugee children have been particularly impacted by COVID-19, with schools across the region having closed.
And while most governments have attempted to plug this gap by offering classes through the Internet, TV or radio stations, many families lack the required equipment or unable to afford Internet data bundles for their children to participate.
UNHCR and education partners are pursuing a range of solutions, including printing home study kits and uploading learning content onto phones.
The UNHCR calls on the private sector to help ensure refugee kids receive the education they deserve by donating radios, smartphones, tablets, laptops and other connectivity options.
Lastly, UNHCR urges the international community to support our emergency response with further funding so that we can meet the rapidly rising needs before the situation reaches breaking point.
Thank you very much, Charlie.
Let me see if we have any question for you.
I'll invite the journalist to raise their hands.
Lisa, you have the floor.
I got in in the nick of time.
I I have a few short questions for you.
First of all, how many refugees are you talking about?
I mean, there's a wide swathe of the urban communities that you're dealing with.
So I'm trying to figure out how big the problem is and what actually are the governments doing?
Do they have any social welfare systems in place for the refugees or are they largely being ignored?
And then one more question related to that is, do these governments understand that if COVID-19 spreads among the refugees, that the disease is likely to spread among the wider population?
I'm not sure how sensitive they are to this situation, whether you are in conversation with them about it in terms of trying to find solutions.
Charlie, you want to go start to answering them?
We're talking about hundreds of thousands of refugees across the region and perhaps even higher.
We do see different circumstances in in different areas and in some places refugees are are strongly affected by some of the measures that have been put in place as well as their host communities because lockdowns and curfews have been implemented and this is severely restricting refugees abilities to sustain their sources of income.
In other places restrictions are looser, but across the board businesses and economies have been badly affected by this and and this is something that's likely to go on for some time.
So we do anticipate that the situation will deteriorate even further.
We continue to engage in dialogue with all governments in the region about ensuring refugees are included in government response plans.
So far, most governments have generously included refugees in those response plans, but by and large they're focused on the health needs and and testing and treatments.
So our call today is for governments to also ensure that refugees are included in social safety Nets so that they are able to access welfare support payments, so that they are able to get assistance with meeting their basic needs, so that they're able to pay rent for their shelters, so that they're able to afford food.
And bearing in mind that food prices are rising in the region, not only because of challenges with importing food, but also because of the recent locust swarms that have severely Hanford crop growth as well.
In terms of the testing, I think the governments are well aware of the need to include refugees in COVID prevention and treatment measures, but many countries in the region are vulnerable.
Should the virus rapidly spread, their health facilities may be challenged to to meet the needs should we see a rapid increase in the number of cases.
So we call on the international community therefore to to bring forward support for those governments to ensure that we do whatever we can to prevent that transmission in the first place.
I see Lisa has still the hands on.
I get the sense that governments generally are not including the refugee population into their testing and other, you know, situations issues that they're they're doing things that they're doing for their population.
And then what is actually happening with the locust situation across the area is the help that is needed, money and so forth that is needed to take care of this coming or not, sadly.
Well, on the food situation, we are concerned about the likelihood of increased food insecurity in a number of different countries.
Ration cuts have had to be implemented in order to sustain levels of food assistance.
Too many refugees considering the impact that the the the local swarm is likely to have on on the food supply chain, we expect the needs to to rise substantially in that regard for the time being.
In relation to the to the first part of your your follow up questions, both our governments have included refugees in COVID response plans.
So refugees are having the same access as host communities to testing and treatment, but the capacities there are limited and need further support to governments across the region.
I'll see if there are any other questions.
Charlie, thank you very much for this briefing.
I'll go now to Claire, who is going to talk about heat waves in the area of COVID.
Claire, you have the floor.
We can't hear you, but you are unmuted.
And and it's strange because you are unmuted.
Maybe my colleagues can tell me what's happening.
No, I think there is a problem.
I'm told your side is your, the mic on your side is not working.
Claire, while we try to solve this, could I ask Elizabeth to start her briefing on Yemen and then we will go back to Claire.
Elizabeth, hopefully you, yes, we can hear you.
To follow up with what my colleague or Chuck colleague said at the last briefing about Yemen, I would like to give you a WFP update on the situation.
The humanitarian situation in Yemen could spin out of control as COVID-19 threatens a population already weakened by years of conflict.
Millions of Yemenis are hanging by a thread and are acutely vulnerable to shocks.
Over 20 million Yemenis are food insecure, of which nearly 10,000,000 are acutely food insecure.
WFP expects coronavirus to push many more children in Yemen into acute malnutrition.
Over 2 million children in Yemen are already acutely malnourished and it's a figure that WFP fears will increase.
It is also a huge logistical operation to get assistance to nearly half the population of war-torn Yemen.
WFP is doing this in face of a significant challenges, ongoing conflict, shifting front lines, access challenging and also we have to balance available resources with the unprecedented level of need now a global pandemic that threatened the global supply chain that underpins the humanitarian response in Yemen.
WFP needs $870 million to continue to deliver life saving assistance to millions in Yemen in need of humanitarian assistance to survive.
This is from June to December.
Over 5 years of conflict has destroyed livelihoods, brought the health system to its knees, and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
Now the coronavirus poses a new ****** to these vulnerable families.
I will finish with this and you'll find more other details on on my in my notes.
What I would like to to stress is that WFP best response to COVID-19 is to continue current operation which currently support over 1/3 of the population with emergency food assistance.
Gervais d'amour Francais poorly collect the the UN radio and New York Kimon Demonde Donke la situacio Yemen pure on FS agravi edener Asia credit to control Arizona delamine menas dukovic business during population deja affably Parson condo country newsom particular monkey poorly vanillion the Yemeni sufra the dance security element there.
It don't million don't the seven million so the dance security element there sever Ilia eagle molezo funky and pose problem Ilia the dominion down for Yemen key sufredo malnutrition regu no from malorose Marva continue dog Monte for absolute more Ajir opprovite ligament enormous operation logistic poor assistance vital population.
To to lead problem that's a difficult new pose the problem, a new situation or some precedent avec the distribution positive problem.
Elizabeth is the most minor journalist, Charlie Llama.
Charlie, is that something you want to add on Yemen?
Just a short further update from our side.
Yemen remains the world's worst humanitarian crisis with unparalleled protection concerns.
Conflict continues to be the main driver of rising humanitarian needs and and we estimate that more than 80% of the population in Yemen requires humanitarian assistance.
We're seeing a growing number of families resorting to harmful coping mechanisms such as begging child labour and marrying of children to to survive.
And we're reaching a potential breaking point in our programmes where if we don't receive further funding soon, many of our programmes and and particularly our cash assistance programmes to internally displaced Yemen, Yemenis may have to to stop.
And that could have a severe impact on on on some 1,000,000 people, many of whom rely on these programmes to meet their most basic needs, including shelter and to afford food and medicine.
So we urge the humanitarian international community to urgently come forward with further funding as soon as possible in order that we can maintain those life saving programmes.
I have a request for the floor from Gorgi.
She was in Vito sia regarde declaration the Martin Griffith.
I see I hope that that's yeah, it was just a technically can go ahead.
Yeah okay, the joys of teleworking.
Widespread parts of India at the moment are experiencing a heat wave with many temperatures above 45°C.
On Monday, the top temperature recorded was a place called Churu in Rajasthan, which recorded 47.5°C.
The Indian Meteorological Department is saying these **** temperatures will continue until Thursday the 28th of May and then fall as a result of rain and storms.
The heat wave in India, which we see every time, every every year, comes ahead of what is expected to be another record-breaking heat season in the Northern hemisphere.
We're currently experiencing one of the hottest years on record.
A network of climate and health experts supported by the World Meteorological Organisation are therefore today calling for stronger preparations to keep people safe in hot weather without increasing the risk of the spread of COVID-19.
COVID-19 amplifies the health risks of hot weather for many people and it complicates the task of, of, of manage of managing it.
So just to give you an example, common actions to reduce heat related illness and death, such as leaving, you know, your home, which might your own home, which might be dangerously hot for cooler air conditioned public spaces or home visits to check on vulnerable people receiving urgent medical attention for signs of heat stroke.
In these are in some places these are impossible, other places they're in contradiction to public health advice because of COVID.
And so it's you know, it's really not straightforward.
So in light of this WMO, we have a, we support a joint climate and health office with the World Health Organisation and this is part of the Global Heat Health Information Network which comprises the International Committee of the, the, the, the Red Cross, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Sorry, not the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Natural Resources Defence Council, the C40 Call Cities Network and then a whole range of academic and public health agencies as well as neutrological services.
So today this network is issuing quite a big information series just to alert decision makers and to try to help them manage, you know, this the dual challenge of of heat and COVID.
It addresses the following topics of vulnerable populations, personal protective equipment, heat stress, fever versus heat stress stress, air conditioning and ventilation.
And so the list, the list goes on.
We sent out a news release on this yesterday.
If you haven't got it, please let me know and we'll we'll send it again.
But again, just to give you a little bit more context, the climate climatological context on this.
As we know, heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense because of climate change.
And this is putting an increasing stress on human health and on human health, on on health systems in 2018.
And this is according to the WM OS state of the statement on the state of the global climate, vulnerable people over the age of 65 experienced a record 220 million more heat wave exposures than the average of the baseline of 1986 to 205.
You all recall the heat wave last year in Europe there were two heat waves, one in June when we saw France with a new record of 46°C on the 28th of June and then another more widespread one in late July in the Netherlands.
The this heat wave event was associated with nearly 3000 deaths, which is nearly 400 more deaths.
And during an average summer week in metropolitan France between the beginning of June and mid-september, there were more than 20,000 emergency room visits and 5700 home visits by doctors as a result of heat related illnesses.
So our message is, you know, very much, you know, we have to be prepared.
COVID-19 is, is complicating this.
But hopefully this, you know, pretty extensive information package which is being issued today will will help.
Thank you very much, Claire.
So thank you very much for this briefing.
I've got a question now from Christian.
I don't know if it's for Claire.
Christian, you have the floor.
Can you give us two or three examples?
Have been suggested or can you tell us where we find examples of these measures that have been suggested?
Yeah, the information package which we've sent out it, it contains a lot of different, different technical briefs, a lot of questions and answers.
There is no, I mean there's no simple one-size-fits-all answer because it does depend on the on the individual, on the individual circumstances.
As I said, India at the moment is experiencing a heat wave and this is at the same time as India is, you know, relaxing the, that the lockdown, the lockdown measures.
So I, this morning I was looking at the National disaster Management agency Twitter account and they're giving advice both on how to handle heat wave, you know, staying home and trying to stay, stay, stay safe at the same time as trying to give advice to, you know, to people who are now, you know, going back to airports and flying again.
So it's, it's a complicated, it is, it is complicated.
You know, in typically in heat waves, public health authorities, they will keep or sorry.
Well, local city authorities councils will keep public swimming pools open for longer.
They will open or extend Public Library hours.
You know, if these have got air conditioning, they will take additional measures in in care homes and hospitals will set aside, you know, a number of beds for, you know, emergencies due to due to due to heat waves.
This is all complicated now because of COVID.
But as I said, there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
It does, you know, does depend on, you know, on the the individual local circumstances, but the technical briefs that have been prepared, you know, hopefully they will, you know, give some some practical advice and information on on what to do.
Claire Gorky, you have a question for Claire?
Physique the preparation concern of for example, the number of the person ensemble la misa and never the measure, the protection de la de la prez, the lack of iteria then do through Leo public that is a fiction la preparation stuff.
O tremon is said that Mountaineer la presence physique de la capacity dupa de nacion the conference le reunion is even more Oh community usually parlour Littlewood avec set purpose of our CEO for the venue the the the the the the union the person AC celica.
Necessarily plan the the the the physics.
Bonjour Alessandra, one the functioners de Placi, one the per diem entity attribute ES Cove de Vida.
If anybody has such an estimation of what the organisations, each organisation could have saved in terms of because of the teleworking, if anybody wants to take the floor on this, I of course will let colleagues say, but I don't see anybody unless Claire has something to say because your mic is enough.
It's much too early to, you know, to have figures on, on, on, on this.
And, you know, just along with the to underline what, what Alessandra said, you know, we have all carried on, carried on working throughout this.
It has in many cases been a little bit more complicated.
But it's not just the impact of, you know, the work at the headquarters here.
I mean WMO like all the other agencies, you know, we have a lot of conferences bringing in, you know, a lot of people.
We have a lot of training sessions which now have all gone online and we're discovering, you know that there are advantages.
So for instance, we had a capacity building session ahead of the Caribbean of the the hurricane season aimed at meteorological services in the Caribbean.
And because it was virtual, it meant that more people were able to take part in it than would have done if it had been a physical meeting.
But the downside is that, you know, a lot of the training sessions in particular and meetings, a lot of the benefit is from is from networking and, you know, all the extra information advice that you get from networking with colleagues.
And that is obviously, you know, missing miss miss well reduced at at at this at this time.
So as I said, it's not just the impact on, you know, the work in Geneva, it's, you know, it's the impact on, you know, how we work with with our members and our networks world worldwide, worldwide.
But there's no figure at the moment on on cost to cost benefits of this.
And Catherine you, you have a follow up.
I mean, I know it's a little bit early in fact to to have figures, but maybe on two months.
I mean, the two past months and also did, did some agencies decided to have decided, for instance, to suppress certain meetings because they can be accomplished through Zoom.
We, we, we know that human relations are very important for others.
And also about pay cuts, we know that this is more for you also Alessandra, but also for the other agency.
We know that UN and UN system have liquidity problems.
So that are they pay cuts that are how do you say or organised and will there be a lot of contracts of short term contracts not renewed not only at the secretariat but in the agencies?
Well, I can answer for the Secretariat.
As you know we have a liquidity problem which has to be very clearly distinguished from a budgetary problem.
At the moment the problem is cash flow and this cash flow problem exists and it has brought to a, a, a reduction of expenses and referred to the contracts as you were asking.
It has brought to a recruitment freeze that for the moment is still on.
Please don't mix up necessarily this and the situation with the teleworking, these, these are two different things.
There's a problem teleworking, as I said, we can't really estimate yet the gains or the losses that we've had.
As I said, we will do it and when I have the numbers at least for the Geneva side of it, I will give them to you gladly.
But then there is a separate problem which is the the, the issue of the liquidity in the Secretariat which is due to the late payments of some member states contribution and and these delays are related to the liquidity which has brought to this decision of frozen freezing the the recruitment.
So these are two issues which are different.
But again, you have very rightly spoken about the agency.
So I'll turn to my colleagues if there's anybody who wants to make a comment on the on the issue from the agencies.
And I'm looking at my chat and I don't see anybody.
So maybe if anybody has an answer for Katherine later on, just don't hesitate to address the issue.
So I'd like to thank you very much all for for being with us this morning and wish you a very nice day and thank you for being with us.
