Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service in Geneva.
Today is Tuesday, 11th of November.
We have a list of guests coming to us from various places.
And I would like to start immediately with Anna Mutavati, who is the UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
She's connecting from Nairobi to tell her about the very dire situation of women and girls in Sudan.
We can see you and let's see if we can hear you.
Good morning and good afternoon.
My name is Annam Tavati, UN Women regional director for Eastern Southern Africa, and I'm joining you from Nairobi.
So for more than two years in a row, every every frontline in Sudan is cut through the bodies, the homes, the livelihoods and futures of women and girls who have endured the sharpest age of Sudan's horrific conflict.
UN Women's latest gender alert entitled Gender Dimensions of Food Insecurity in Sudan indicates that nearly 11,000,000 women and girls are now acutely food insecure as fighting his engulfed El Fashah and severe food insecurity spread across Darfur.
Women and girls have experienced extreme hunger, displacement, death, sexual and gender based violence.
The UN Women Gender Alert, which was launched today, shows that simply being a woman in Sudan is a strong predictor of hunger, of violence and death.
Famine has been officially declared by the IPC in Elfashah and in Kadugli as of November 2025.
According to the report, 73% of women do not meet dietary diversity, signalling extremely poor diets and heightened malnutrition risks.
Let me share with you, ladies and gentlemen, key highlights from the gender alert.
In all crises, women and girls eat the least and they eat last.
Most women and girls may not be eating at all in Sudan.
Our field interviews confirmed that women often skip meals so that their children can eat, while adolescent girls frequently get the smallest share, undermining their long term nutrition and health.
In besieged remote areas like Darfur or Kodofan, women and girls are often the ones that are scavenging for survival.
Field reports describe women foraging for wild leaves and berries to boil into soup.
While doing this, they face additional risks of violence, including abduction and sexual and gender based violence.
These are testimonies that I also heard from women and girls when I visited Sudan earlier this year.
Women's nutritional deprivation has dire ripple effects.
Health workers report rising cases of severe acute malnutrition in infants, often linked to mothers starvation and reduced breastfeeding.
So there's a ripple effect of the hunger that women are experiencing.
Health services have collapsed, over 80% of medical facilities have shut down since the war began.
And what this means is that local women LED clinics in Darfur have been reporting acute maternal risks, especially in 28% high risk pregnancies and in 45% pregnancies that have had a miscarriage history.
Women speaking to us from Elfasha, the heart of Sudan's latest catastrophe, tell us that they've endured starvation.
They've endured displacement, rape and bombardment.
Pregnant women have given birth in the streets as the last remaining maternity hospitals were looted and destroyed.
The crisis is worsening dramatically as fighting expands around Elfasha, thousands of women and girls.
They fled to Towila to Coma and Malit, where humanitarian presence is very scarce.
What the women tell us is that on their horrific journey, they report that they that every step that they've taken to fetch water, to collect firewood or to stand in a food line is carried a high risk of sexual violence.
There is mounting evidence that rape is being deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war.
Women's bodies, ladies and gentlemen, have just become a crime scene in Sudan.
There are no safe spaces that are left, no way for women to gather safely, to seek protection or even access Even the most basic psychosocial care, basic dignity has also collapsed in not the food.
Today, a single packet of sanitary towels cost roughly U.S.
Meanwhile, families that are receiving cash assistance, humanitarian cash assistance, get slightly below $150.00 per month for a family of an average family of six people.
One basic necessity of a woman in a household now takes up 1/4 an entire quarter of an entire family's cash assistance.
So when families are forced to choose between food and medicine and dignity, the essential needs of women and girls fall to the very bottom of that list.
These are not abstract numbers, ladies and gentlemen.
They reflect impossible decisions that families in Sudan are making every day and they show clearly that when the needs of women and girls are not prioritised, they are suffering deepens and their dignity is lost.
And we saw this again first hand in in Sudan earlier this year.
They witnessed rape and the disappearance of their children, waters that no one should ever have to endure.
Many are left in severe psychological distress, yet there's almost no access to mental health services or psychosocial support anyway.
Across the affected areas.
Women LED organisations have warned us that this absence of safe spaces in Tarwila, Coma and Malit is amongst the most glaring gaps in the humanitarian response right now.
Even in these dire situations and conditions, it is women LED organisations that have remained the bedrock too and sustaining the humanitarian response.
In not therefore they manage communal kitchens that reach families beyond formal assistance.
In CODOFAN they identify malnourished children and teach mothers how to prepare nutrient nutrient dense meals.
Yet only 3% of humanitarian funding reaches women LED organisations directly.
They mostly rely on volunteers and one of small grants.
Sexual violence, forced displacement, and the collapse of essential services.
It's transformed Sudan to the most extreme, to the world's most extreme crisis for women and girls.
Simply put, the war in Sudan is a war on women, one that requires the world's immediate and urgent action.
UN Women calls for the following.
We call for an immediate halt to all violence in Sudan.
The proposed humanitarian ceasefire offers VOP, but it must be fully implemented.
We call for all parties to immediately ensure safe corridors for women and girls and all civilians.
Indeed, all routes to for humanitarian relief must be opened and communication must be restored to enable life saving coordination and the documentation of violations that are going on.
We call for human humanitarian actors to prioritise women and female headed households in food assistance and in the restoration and rebuilding of livelihoods.
We call for the protection of all humanitarian personnel, particularly local women aid workers who risk their lives daily to sustain their communities.
We call for all parties to protect women and girls and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.
We call for increased direct support to the women LED food kitchens that are the lifeline to thousands of families across Sudan.
Women's Health We call for Women's Health and protection to be at the centre of the humanitarian response, including access to reproductive healthcare, psychosocial support and gender based violence response services.
We call for provision of context, appropriate agricultural inputs or cash vouchers, the assistance with cash or vouchers and micro and small enterprise supports in safe market spaces so that they keep their livelihoods going.
Lastly, UN Women it is I'm almost done.
UN Women it is donors to recognise, resource and partner with women LED organisations.
Based on the Grand Bargain commitments in the localisation agenda, women are sustaining what remains of the response for women and girls.
We urge all donors to provide direct, flexible funding and ensure women's full and equal participation in decisions.
As I end, UN Women maintains a strong presence in Sudan, working closely with local partners, including with women LED organisations to deliver life saving support, promoting women's voice in the shaping of the humanitarian assistance and a call to the end of the war.
And all of this being done under extremely challenging conditions.
As UN women, we carry the weight of every woman who is silenced by the way in Sudan.
Please remember that women and girls in Sudan are not statistics.
They are the measure of our shared humanity.
And every day that the world delays to act on Sudan, another woman gives birth under fire, or buries her child in hunger, or disappears without justice.
Thank you very much, Anna.
I will open the floor to questions now.
First of all, I see in the chat if it's possible for your colleague to send out your notes as soon as possible.
And otherwise I have Olivia.
Olivia, you have the floor writers.
You're talking about, you know, many women describing extremely distressing situations and experiences and you're saying about the difficulty of accessing mental health support.
Do you mind just clarifying, did you say that there is no support whatsoever in areas which they might be fleeing to, whether it's humanitarian support or just very little yet?
Any clarity on the on the level of support for mental health services to to women fleeing out fascia would be would be helpful.
You were saying about the high cost of sanitary products.
Are you able to spell out why that cost is, is so high and potentially the issues you are having and in getting those supplies to, to to women?
And also in, in terms of what you were saying there about the, the massive scale of sexual violence.
I mean, what are agencies like yourself and other UN agencies actually able to do in those circumstances?
Because I presume that there is 0 hope at this stage of any kind of justice holding 2 accounts, etcetera.
So it'd be helpful to know what you are trying to do to, to support those victims in the interim.
Anna, yes, thank you very much for the questions about mental health.
So we did say in our statement that this is a service that's so much needed, but it is not available.
And this is also because the there's service providers or the humanitarian actors have had very limited access on the ground.
So that is also impacted on the ability of survivors to access the services.
I'm not sure that I got the questions that question fully, but I'll go to the question on the sanitary towers.
So the issue is that they're in shortage, they're in severe shortage.
And we know that in any situation that is shortage, they tends also to be then manipulation of the prices and also of the access.
And this would ordinarily I think where humanitarian access is available, our partners would be delivering these and distributing them without any bottleneck.
But now because humanitarian aid workers are not being allowed access to the communities, this is where the shortage is coming from and from the few available resources, they are being manipulated.
Also with the black market rate and then bringing the price up to $27.00 roughly that we mentioned in the statement on sexual and gender based violence, what what is it that we are doing?
So we do have partners on the ground, we do have women LED organisations that are working on the ground under very difficult conditions and what they are doing is documentation of the violations that are happening.
They are also providing supports because we know that systems for protection, systems for justice if also broken down.
So all that they can do now is to offer that safe space for temporary safe space for women to be able to talk about what has happened, maybe link them to a service that's still operational, provide basic social support and any medical care that's required.
But also just ensuring that the evidence is being preserved for youth.
I, I know that we are also providing cash and livelihood support so that with a little bit of cash, a woman might have a fair chance of maybe procuring a service that they need or that the girl in that family needs after experiencing these violations.
So it's a limited package, but it's a package all the same.
And I must add that it is being you, it is being provided by the women who are on the ground, women LED organisations, community based organisations.
Because when everybody else is no access, these are the women that stay to deliver.
Thank you very much, Anna.
Other question to you and women on Sudan, Let me see the platform.
I don't see any, any other.
So thank you very much, Anna.
And just to conclude the part on Sudan, let me remind you that the United Nations have rapidly is often cold and yesterday was the most recent time for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the protection of civilians and humanitarian workers and then to attacks to hospitals and civilian infrastructure and safe and hindered access for aid to reach those in need across Sudan.
And we have heard from Anna that they are very, very many and the situation is extremely dire, especially for women and girls.
So thank you very much for this briefing and for the appeal.
And so let me now turn to my left and right.
I've got really the pleasure to have with us today Dominique Hyde, who as you know, is the UNHCR Director of External Relation, together with Matt Southmarsh.
Dominique, you're going to tell us about the Window phone tracing campaign of UNHCR.
But actually before before I switch to that and I just, I just want to take a second just to say how valuable all of you here in the room are.
And those are listening and the journalists and the media.
There's never been a time where we needed you guys more.
I know that you have really hard time.
You try to pitch stories, you try to tell our story, but I just, I just wanted to, to just, this is not for publishing.
Just how grateful we are at UNHCR for all of the work that you're doing.
And just with what we just heard from UN Women.
As you know, we will be reaching the, I don't know if she said this at the beginning because I wasn't listening or I wasn't in the room, but we have the 16 days of activism that starts on the 25th of November.
And I can tell you from my travels around the world, the situation of women and girls has never been so atrocious.
It's I, I'm back from Uganda, as some of you know, in July, August, I'm just back from Syria and I'll get into that.
But it's the, the, the, the world is a very difficult place for women and girls.
And just supporting my UN woman colleague on that.
But switching to to our winter campaign.
I don't need to introduce myself as Alessandra just did.
You will have all received a copy of our press release on our winter campaign.
And I wanted to talk to you a bit about this as the winter sets in, in the global N millions of refugees of internally displaced people of returnees are.
Impacted by the bitter season with much, much less than in previous years, families will have to endure rising freezing temperatures without essentials that in previous years we've actually been able to provide.
But this year, as you know, we're facing a real financial constraints as UNHCR and we need the public support.
We need your support to help all of these families that are in such a dire situation.
Humanitarian budgets are stretched to the breaking point and assistance from UNHCR or to UNHCR is dwindling.
Our overall financial health is precarious.
You've heard me say this before.
As things stand, we project ending 2025 with $3.9 billion in available funds.
That does sound like a lot, but just to put that in perspective, that's the amount of funding that we had in 2015 when the which when of course the number of people needing support was so much less.
It's a decline for us at 25% decline from the previous year.
And and obviously without an injection of new funds, we're simply not going to be able to help the million of refugees who actually need our support.
So today we're launching our winter campaign.
It's one of our most important fundraising campaigns in the year and it's really to help families that have been forced to flee and families that have been also happily returning or unhappily returning in some cases and they need our support.
Our campaigns is focusing on Afghanistan, on Syria, on Ukraine and the neighbouring countries.
Our campaign is supporting winter related programmes in these regions.
This could be cash grants so that families can actually purchase firewood, fuel and other essential winter distribution items such as warm blankets, warm clothing, stoves and support also for shelter, including small repairs to windows to doors that have been missing that because of course of the bombing or the precarious nature of where they're coming home to installation upgrades to collective sites.
And also in the case of Syria and Afghanistan, where we've seen returns support to livelihood opportunities, in some cases through cash, as I said, and in other cases is through in kind contributions.
This year, we'll be looking at 28 countries and we're hoping to raise more than we did last year.
Last year we raised 34 million.
We're accurately aware that giving and donations this year is challenging and the needs are acute everywhere.
As we just heard for the Sudan situation, we're hoping that we're going to get flexible and unirmarked funding so that we can really respond where the needs are greatest.
We're raising these resources for mostly individual donors.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but on an annual basis, we receive funding from 3.2 million people around the world.
And and that's been on the increase contrary to government funding.
And mostly it's coming from Spain, from China, from Japan, from Korea, from Sweden and from Germany.
And we're hoping also foundations and companies will support us.
So why now in Afghanistan and in and in Ukraine, as you all know, the mercury is dropping and the needs are rising for displaced populations.
I've just come back from Syria yesterday and Jordan, where temperatures are decreasing at a, well, normal rate there, there's a handful of people, as you know, more than a handful of people who have returned to Syria in the past year.
So we're almost last year since the fall of the Assad regime, we have seen over 3 million people return, 1,000,000 refugees and 2 million internally displaced people.
Just in the past week, 44,000 refugees have returned home to Syria and 25,000 have returned as internally displaced people and they're coming home to complete destruction in some cases.
The entire village that I saw in Zara has been obliterated to an Al Qusair, which is in the homes district where houses have been have been destroyed.
But people are coming home and doing their best to rebuild their lives.
We've lost our memories, we've lost our homes, we have lost friends and family, and we've lost our history.
And we don't want to forget everything we've lost.
But now it's time come as time has come to rebuild.
I, I just want to quickly, Alessandra, tell you a quick story and then I'll, I'll, I'll close.
She's in living in Al Qusair in in the homes district.
She fled her home 14 years ago after intense bombing of her area.
She first fled to homes as an internal displaced person with her husband, but then the situation got untenable in homes.
So then she fled and lived in a in a in a refugee camp in Lebanon for 11 years where she had three of her four children who are all under the age of 14.
She has now returned home without her husband.
Her husband died while she was in Lebanon.
This is the house where she got married.
This is the house where she had her first born and there's almost nothing left.
There are no more windows, there are no more doors.
There is nothing to cook on.
There is nothing to keep warm.
They have blankets on the windows and on the doors to keep the cold air from coming in.
They don't have enough clothing and they don't have any heating to get ready.
UNHCR, while I was there is helping her and many families like this just actually with very simple things, getting windows, getting a door, getting the the latrines redone so that their houses are livable.
I'm not telling you it's going to be beautiful or anything like this, but it's the bare minimum.
But we simply don't have the funds to help families like Nada's to continue.
She's we're hopefully going to also be helping her to get to start her own enterprise.
It's very difficult for women and for her to to leave her house to work outside.
So we're looking at entrepreneurship activities that she can do from home.
And the situation continues to be challenging, especially with winter approaching Ukraine.
Obviously, temperatures there can plunge to -20 Celsius, which also illustrates for us the urgency.
It's a lot away from the media glare, although still there.
We're seeing the confluence of challenges, the relentless continuation of the war, the onset of winter and escalating as tax on energy infrastructure, causing the power outages that you're aware of and really limiting access to heating and water.
This past weekend, aerial attacks hit multiple regions from Kiev to Kharkiv to Zabaritska, Mikolaev, Sumi and Nipro.
And displacement continues from frontline errors like Donetsk, with many of those fleeing being, you know, elderly people, people with disabilities, and others with very low mobility.
So what we're trying to do at UNHCR is we're aiming to close, to reach close to 390,000 people in Ukraine with winter aid this season.
But of course, we're desperately low on funding.
And at this point I'm not sure we're actually going to be able to support them in Afghanistan.
Sub zero temperatures are already leaving families exposed, 9 in 10 Afghan live in poverty and over 2.2 million have returned home from Pakistan and Iran this year.
Some have never actually lived in Afghanistan and they're arriving empty handed with few prospects.
You've been following the two devastating earthquakes that have also happened in recent months, which have compounded their returns and their vulnerability.
And then vulnerability Unit share is providing traditional, traditional heating device devices called, and I'm not going to say this correctly, Bukharis and thermal kits and shelter repairs to help families survive.
So despite these funding cuts, I just want to tell you, our colleagues on the ground are working relentlessly.
Remember that the majority of our colleagues have also been impacted by what's happening in Ukraine, by what's happening in Afghanistan, what's happening in Syria.
They have gone through these wars, they have gone through these conflicts, or they're living them right now.
So, but they're not, they're not despairing.
They are dedicated, they are determined and they're determined.
And we're determined to protect the most vulnerable from the cold and from everything else.
But we're running out of time.
We're running out of resources.
We're counting on everybody to assist these families to not be living through the cold months without our support.
We need solidarity right now more than ever.
We need solidarity from the media.
We need solidarity from foundations, from companies, from those individuals I mentioned at the beginning.
All of the support will make a difference.
One act of kindness can change somebody's life.
This is a time when we need to come together.
Thank you very much for for these words.
I understand that I've seen that the press release is in your mailboxes and there will be more notes from Dominic's briefing.
But yes, absolutely, you're absolutely right.
Every, just every gesture counts.
Could you clarify something for me if, if I've understood it, you're hoping to raise more money this year than last year, 35 compared to 34 million, but you think you won't be able to do as much in terms of helping people with that money.
And then secondly, in Afghanistan and in Syria, realistically, can you, can you keep up, can you keep pace with this flow of returning refugees or are you always having to play catch up?
So to the first question, we are hoping to raise more than 34 million and obviously every penny that we raise, we will be able to have an impact and and either through cash or through in kind to get to the families.
But we need it now as soon as possible so that we can be ready as soon as possible.
We are seeing for example, in Syria, the temperatures are still bearable right now.
But I was looking at the forecast for the coming weeks and it's going down significantly in the next coming weeks.
So the quickest we get funding, the faster we'll be able to mobilise support to those that are most vulnerable.
Luckily we do vulnerability assessment map in all of these places so we know who are the families that are the most vulnerable and those are the ones that are going to be targeted.
Single headed households with women, with children, elderly, disabled families that don't have the possibility of working.
Your next question, you know, is, is is a tough one and you're asking are we able to keep pace?
Our staffing has been cut, but this is an all of UN approach.
I was together with UNICEF, with the World Food Programme, with UNDP, UN Habitat OCHA last week.
We're all teaming up together and I would say that we can't reach everybody, but we're doing the best we can.
The government has been really stepping up.
We've seen a shift in an investment in health and education and even in judicial laws that are moving forward.
So I think I think we're seeing shifts.
Thank you, Dominique, other question in the room.
So let me yeah, you have a follow up and and on Ukraine, the people that you're hoping to reach this winter, are they people that you've reached in previous winters or are these are these new people that you've not been able to get to before?
And and secondly, this seeming shifts towards attacks on civilian energy infrastructure, does that mean that you have to to shift what you hope to do in terms of helping people through this winter?
I'll answer the first question and I'll get Matt maybe to answer the second if he has a bit more information.
But on the first, I would say that there's some people that are the same, but obviously a lot of the new people, because it's new areas that are under attack and we're going wherever we can go in order to help them.
But some of the families that have been vulnerable in the past are supported, but many are new as well.
So I'd say it's a mix and it's dependent on where the people are newly displaced that that's where the support is going mostly.
In terms of the attacks on on energy infrastructure, indeed this is is having a devastating effect on the civilian population, particularly in those those frontline areas where people are most at risk.
But also across the country that we know that in recent weeks, several regions have been left without power for many, many hours, even in some cases several days.
And that leads to delays in in getting supplies through to them.
Many people we know without heating right now, even as the temperatures are going down South.
And to your question about are these new people, I mean, we're constantly assessing the situation and trying to get where we can and trying to get assistance in where we can.
So I think think some of them would be people we haven't been able to reach, but but many of them will be people we've been helping in in previous years as well.
So Gabriella Sotomayor process.
Yes, thank you very much for giving me the question.
My question is if you have a Plan B, because USA I think it's not going to give a funding to to your agency.
We saw that Mister that the government of USA left The Who they left.
The Human Rights Council, so maybe it it could be that they leave UN.
So my question is, if you have a Plan B, where, where to have where to find funding that is not coming from the USA and I don't know, maybe rush hours, another country that has a lot of money.
So first of all, this year the US will actually have given us over 800 million if if all comes to play.
So they are still our top donor to the organisation and, and we're hoping that they will continue to stay by our side.
That's still a massive reduction from last year where we had raised over 2.1 billion from the US government.
But they are still a partner of UNHCR and a partner of other humanitarian organisations that are by our side.
And I would just like to add that it's the, the, the drastic funding cuts are not just, we're not just being hit by the US, but Germany, France, the UK are also seeing a decrease in overall development assistance.
And we have seen other countries increase and, and we're trying to balance it all.
Where we're seeing a larger growth is in private sector funding.
So we are seeing a growth when it comes to individual giving.
So which you know, makes me believe that populate the populations around the world, People like you and I actually believe in the work UNHCR does.
And I hope that they can also raise their voices and advocate on behalf of all our humanitarian organisations and UNHR in their countries to ensure that official development assistance continues coming to UNHCR, but more importantly to refugees, to internally displaced people and stateless people.
And as you said before, possibly an earmarked so that you can put them where it's more urgent.
Any other question to Dominique or Matt's?
Don't see any other hand up.
Thank you very much, Dominique.
I really hope that this appeal will be listened to and you'll be able to continue with your important work.
So let's now now go to another preparation process which is taking place in the Philippines.
We have with us the World Food Programme.
Deputy Country Director for the Philippines, Dipayan Batacharia there is coming to us from Manila to tell us about the preparation and response for the second typhoon which is which has actually landed on the Philippines.
Phone Wong, which reached the Luton island this this weekend and World Food Programme is preparing for that.
So you have the floor for your initial remarks.
I hope I'm I'm audible so good can hear you very well Manila.
Good evening from Manila and good morning to everyone.
You know, as you have already read in the media reports that this was a super typhoon and this definitely brought catastrophic winds, torrential rainfall and heavy flooding in the northern part of the country.
We call it Luzon, which is the largest and most populated part of the country.
And this was the 21st storm of the season and with the another typhoon which was Kalmaygi that hit the central part of the country just a week before.
So combining the two, more than 8.3 million people got impacted, displaced about 1.4 million people living communities reeling from these two back-to-back significant disasters.
I must tell you that this overall impacted number which is 8.3 million is still, you know, a number that would further be revised upwards as more and more reports are coming in percolating from different parts of the impacted areas.
In terms of WFP operation, I think the most important milestone I would say is the activation of the anticipatory action cash transfer.
This was the first ever in the Philippines based on a Category 5 typhoon hitting the country.
And this is also at the backdrop of a milestone legal framework or a new bill that was approved by the president just a couple of months back.
And this bill is called declaration of imminent Disaster, which basically provides the legal framework for the Philippines for the government to provide cash transfers ahead of a disaster.
Because so far government could only provide cash transfer after a disaster as a relief.
But to provide a cash transfer, they didn't have the legal basis.
And with the support of WFP and other agencies, the government managed to frame this law and in a very rapid manner, they approved this, understanding the the importance and urgency of that.
So with that background, WFP managed to provide cash transfer that reached 210, 1000 people, which is equivalent to about 42,000 families and each family received a cash transfer of equivalent of 68 U.S.
dollars straight into their account from WFP account.
But of course, the beneficiaries were targeted jointly with the government, particularly the Department of Social Welfare and Development and we used their flagship conditional cash transfer social protection programme to identify the most vulnerable households in these eastern seaboard areas.
Also for your information, these cash transfers that reached 42,000 families were part of five most impacted provinces, which are in the North Aurora, Botanes, Pagayan, Isabella and Nueva Asia.
We would continue to assess the situation and hope that with further resource mobilisation, if we managed to do, we'll be able to provide further cash assistance to these families and other impacted families.
As a part of our response, we also provided food assistance in the form of rice.
So what we did, we once again coordinated with the same department, which is the Department of Social Welfare and Development and pre positioned family food packs containing rice and other food items.
So WFP provided the rice and the government provided all other food items that you know go into each and every family food pack and we pre positioned 271,000 family food packs.
And out of these 187,000 family food packs which can support almost a million people already were delivered jointly by DSWD and WFP with WFP providing also transportation augmentation.
The other component of WFP support is essentially around telecommunication and logistics.
In terms of logistics, we have been providing generators, warehouse equipment, mobile storage units to the government and we also have been augmenting transportation capacity which is utilised by the government in two ways.
One is to pre position the food family, put food packs and non food items in strategic locations of the country basically as a preparedness for disaster response as well as as you know as a part of last mile delivery of these life saving items, we provide transportation augmentation.
We also have been providing Technical Support to the government in designing and you know, deploying mobile emergency communication vehicles and 10 or 11 of them are now being deployed in the different parts of the of the country.
And some of them were utilised also as a part of these current double prices that hit both the central part and the northern part of the country.
As a final backdrop, I would like to mention that since Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, so we provided, we have been providing technical assistance to strengthen government's disaster management system and capacities.
And we clearly see that because of the sustained collaboration with WFP, other partners and the government, you know, the government has definitely improved its ability to plan, pre position and also respond to different disasters in the most effective and efficient manner.
Thank you very much, Sir, for all these details.
It's really important to prepare and to take action at the way you described.
Let me see if there is any question for you.
Hello, I'm Alicia Guard from the Spanish news agency.
I'm wondering if the situation of the Tiffons and storms have worsened in Philippines in the effects on the people And also how are you calculating the effects on the in on the long term?
So you know what we can say is that based on the pattern of all these disasters, the intensity of typhoon is definitely much, much higher as we you know pass every year.
So the intensity as well as severity is, is higher.
And just imagine if the same community is hit by repeated typhoons, their, their resilience, ability to manage these shocks would go down over a period of time.
And that's why we really are are focusing not just in terms of emergency response, but also during normal times, how we can really strengthen their ability, you know, so that they become more resilient to, to the shocks and stressors.
We are very closely coordinating with the national government, with the, with the Army, Philippines Army through the Office of Civil Defence, as well as all the various local government units to constantly gather information.
And we also have deployed our staff members in some of these affected areas.
As we speak, even our country director is now in the field really assessing, you know, the situation on the ground and talking to the local governments and to identify what are the gaps that, you know, event systems and other humanitarian actors can fill.
Assuming that government is definitely at the driver's seat, They are the the first responders and the role of event system is essentially to augment and feel the gaps, if there are any.
This preparedness work is more important than ever.
Other questions, let me see on the platform.
I don't see any other question for you, Sir.
Please keep us informed of the situation whenever you can.
The situation in the Philippines, how it is evolving.
Let's now go to the last speaker of the day.
We have sent you revised attendance list because we have Ricardo and I can see him connected who has also some information about winterisation of aid, but this time in Gaza for UNICEF and also the vaccination campaign.
Yes, I'll quickly update about in our vaccination campaign, which started on Sunday, 2 days ago, UNICEF, WHO and partners have launched a catch up immunisation, nutrition and health campaign to reach over 40,000 children under three who have missed routine vaccines due to two years of war and conflict.
On the first day of the campaign that we've managed to reach over 2400 children with multiple vaccines.
The campaign will be conducted in three rounds with round one taking place from 9th of November.
On Sunday it kicked off until the 18th of November.
We hope to roll out round two and three over December and January.
We have procured 1,000,000 vaccines and got them across and into Gaza to protect children against deadly but but preventable diseases such as polio, measles and pneumonia, along with nutrition screenings and treatment for malnourished children.
The campaign will operate through 149 health facilities and 10 mobile units, supported by over by over 450 health workers trained by UNICEF's before the war.
It's important to to remember Gaza had 98% vaccination coverage and 55 immunisation sites.
Now coverage has fallen below below 70% with 31 vaccination facilities destroyed or damaged.
This emergency intervention is the first step towards restoring peak pre conflict vaccination levels and rebuild Gaza's damaged health system, which will require important, important and urgent donor support.
So far there have been no security incidents reported affecting the campaign, which is good news.
The campaign success also the paints on a sustained ceasefire and the protection of humanitarian access, workers and families.
We know the ceasefire has been very fragile.
So that's another call from us, from UNICEF that the ceasefire holds and all parties respect the agreement that was that was announced a little longer ago.
The biggest problem yet that UNICEF is trying to tackle right now is to get syringes and solar powered refrigerators into Gaza that were procured months ago.
We have bought 1.6 million syringes.
The vast majority are still outside Gaza.
The auto disabled syringes and the auto critical supplies have been blocked or are awaiting custom clearance since August 2025.
Both the syringes and the Solar Direct Dr refrigerators are considered dual use by Israel and these items are, we're finding very hard to get them through clearances and inspections and yet they are urgent.
Many of our services rely on the consistent flow of supplies, including for this vaccination campaign very quickly on winterization, our winterization response is on the way across multiple locations in Gaza.
Over the past two days, over 38,000 winter clothing kits and pairs of shoes have been distributed targeting children under the age of 10.
Over 160,000 blankets have been dispatched, including 62,000 for hospitals and 22,000 for Primary Health care centres supporting children under 2 years of age.
Some 300 and 85385 thousand clothing kits and winter jackets are in the pipeline and UNICEF distributed 200,000 blankets through partners actually to to the state with another 1,000,000 blankets to be distributed as soon as possible.
So that's indeed as the temperature drops and the issues affecting children worsen, not only on the health front, but they're also exposed to the weather because they're living on makeshift tents for for some of them or the majority of them, for nearly the entire continuation of the war.
Just very quickly to wrap on aid and restrictions, since the ceasefire, UNICEF has collected an average of 3992 pallets per week, around 260% increase compared to the weeks preceding the ceasefire.
So we can see indeed that when the guns go silent, humanitarian workers are able to turn the situation around rather quickly.
But still, there's a lot of work to do.
We can't even begin to solve the problem that was caused by two years of war, violence, deprivation and lack of access in in a couple of months.
So just to reinforce that the the it's a long road ahead and we're still finding difficult to get some very essential supplies through.
According to the UN 2720 dashboard, UNICEF collected aid from 5500 trucks inside Gaza between 12th of October and 10th of November.
However, as I said before, essential supplies considered do use remain being denied, including syringes, syringes and solar driven refrigerators.
We're moving significantly more aid, but we need this to see the volume increase even further.
Some critical items continue to be denied entry by by Israeli authorities in school, including spare part for water trucks, spare parts for our own vehicles to move inside a devastated terrain, material to treat and purify water, high-powered generators, as well as UNICEF education and recreational kits for children who haven't been allowed to enter and go to school and and have their childhood back.
These items haven't been allowed for many months.
UNICEF calls for these supplies to be urgently permitted and try entry.
And one very important example of this is that we have still at least 938,000 bottles of ready to use infant formula stuck across the border since August.
So that's nearly 1,000,000 bottles that could be reaching children who've been suffering from different levels of malnutrition and, and need urgently treatment and, and more food to get them out of the the hunger that they've been facing for so long.
Just to wrap again and finish essential items such as such as maternity kits are being withheld and field staff are having a tough time explaining these restrictions to affected communities post ceasefire.
So in a nutshell, things have improved from our side.
We have seen a considerable increase of, of aid getting through.
But again, some very essential items are being held back and, and we need to get them through to really start turning the situation around and moving the needle and seeing the level of, of, of well-being of children.
Over 1 billion children live in the strip in very direct conditions.
And, and we're hoping that as the winter comes, as the vaccination campaign rolls out, as aid increases indeed, that we can see a, a better flow of, of aid into Gaza that will start really making a difference.
And really Ricardo, as you say, we we really need and hinder the access for humanitarian aid.
Let me see if there is any question to you.
Yes, Alicia got from Spanish news agency.
I wanted to ask if you plan to reach all the children in the strip with all the debris and the closed crossings.
We can sorry I I, I'm not sure I, I, I understood if I'm if we're reaching to rich children with sorry.
If you think you're going to reach all the children in the gas strip if it, if it's that's possible.
I mean we with winterization coming, the coming and winter coming rather and our winterization preparedness, we, we are planning to reach every single child in Gaza with warm clothes and blankets so they can survive the weather.
When it comes to the other needs that children have, as I flag, there are restrictions and difficulties still in terms of amount of supplies, the types of supplies that are needed and indeed access.
A lot of movement is happening, is happening within the strip since the ceasefire.
Hundreds of thousands of people are reported to be going back home to the north and movement is also happening in the South and everything is still rather uncertain and, and that's felt by the population and children on the ground.
And we have reports on on a daily basis.
I speak to colleagues on the ground.
Fear remains a constant because even though the ceasefire is being somewhat respected, but let's let's remember that we've had incidents recently as well.
Since 11th of October, we documented reports of at least 58 children who were killed in conflict related incidents across the Gaza Strip.
So that's post ceasefire.
They remain scared and and uncertain whether there will be enough food next month, if health supplies will continue to get across, water and sanitation supplies, if they're going to be protected from disease again.
The vaccination campaign started, but we have two rounds to go.
And for that we need more supplies to get in, including 1.6 million syringes.
So yes, UNICEF is ready to try and reach every single child in Gaza, but we cannot do that that alone, that alone.
And we need a political commitment and and indeed the ceasefire to hold undisputable and and that's not always the the case on the ground.
Any other question to Ricardo?
Ricardo, thank you very much for this update.
It's a big, big work that you're starting and good luck with it.
Last I said you were the last speaker.
But in fact, we still have Christian who has an announcement.
Just a reminder, isn't he Christian?
And thank you, Alessandra.
In fact, three reminders, 1 today, the TB Global Tuberculosis Report 2025 embargoed press briefing at 2:30, embargoed until tomorrow.
That leads me to tomorrow.
Tomorrow at 3:00 we have the DG press briefing.
There will be an announcement coming very soon now.
And then on Thursday we have the OR the colleagues from the FCTCD.
The Framework Convention tobacco control have the opening press conference for their conference of the parties and and MOP member meeting of the parties.
So today TV, tomorrow DG and on Thursday FCTC.
Thanks for the three reminders and I will tell the reminder for you about the press conference of the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trading Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, otherwise known as CITES.
The Secretary General, CITES, Ivani Guerra is going to talk to you together with two other colleagues on the 20th World Wildlife Conference and 20th meeting of the Conference of the Party 2 Cities.
The press conference will be here on Wednesday 12th of November at 10, 13.
And of course we've already told you about the Committee against Torture.
We're starting the, we started the, the analysis of the report of Israel this morning.
That will conclude it tomorrow afternoon.
It will be followed by Argentina, Albania, sorry, Argentina, Bahrain and Albania.
And of course, on Friday 14th, the special session on the human rights situation in and around the fascia by the Human Rights Council.
I think Pascal sent you a lot of information about that.
And just a last note, I'll tell you more on Friday, but remember that next week on the 20th of November, we will have this fantastic event that happens every year at the Paladinacion, the Young Activist Summit, the 20th of November at 10:00 in the morning in Assembly Hall.
We will celebrate, we commemorate, we will thank five incredible activists who have made a change in their communities this year.
The theme of the summit is from Ashtag to Action.
So if the the laureates of the of the summit this year, our young people who have made a difference by using digital tools or on digital platforms with a change, a real change in their community and they are coming from all over the world.
They're coming from Lebanon, India, Japan, the other two countries.
They will come back to me in a moment.
But that will be something really very, very nice as we every year have this chance of of celebrating activism in young people that make a difference in the world.
The five activists will be here.
They will be available for interviews.
And so don't hesitate to to let us know if you're interested.
We will also have the director general closing the summit, which will be open by our Under Secretary General, Melissa Fleming, who will be here in person for that Civil Dion, the eco activist and film maker from France will also speak.
And we will have also Natalie Fontanet from the Canton of Geneva.
So a very good programme.
I hope you will be able to follow, be there with us for this 7th edition of the Activist Summit.
Yeah, I think that's all I have for you.
Later on, we will speak about the 15 days of activism against gender based violence, which was mentioned by Dominique this morning.
There are two events at the Palate, but I'll tell you more when we get closer to the date.
So if there are no question for me and I don't see any, I thank you very much and I'll see you on Friday.
