Very good morning to you and thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva today, Friday, the 12th of June.
Another important agenda for you, we have a colleague who will be joining us momentarily from Port-au-Prince in Haiti at the UN Women Representative.
We will connect with her shortly.
We have a short change to the agenda.
So we're going to start with our colleagues from the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to speak to the situation of Ebola.
We also have Tarek with us as well as Doctor Olapado Oladapo, excuse me, oh, from WHO is going to speak to the situation of maternal and perinatal health.
And we also have announcements from the ILO and something for from AIDS, UN, AIDS, excuse me.
So let's start right away with our colleagues on the podium With me, I'm very pleased to have Doctor Douglas Noble, who is UNICEF's global lead for public health Emergencies and global Incident Manager for Ebola, who I'll go to immediately, and then we'll go to our colleague in the field.
Thank you very much and welcome the opportunity to be here this morning.
Let's start from this project.
Thank you for having me here this morning on behalf of UNICEF.
I have just come in from Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and what I saw there stays with you.
The first thing that hits you is the context.
Eastern DRC has endured years of conflict.
Many children and families have been displaced.
Hospitals and clinics are often short on supplies.
People are constantly on the move, fleeing violence, following mining routes, seeking services, which makes surveillance and response especially difficult.
And the situation of children is particularly challenging in Ituri.
By way of context, more than half of children under 5 are chronically malnourished.
More than one in five are 0 dose children, which means they have never received their first dose of the basic diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine that's a proxy for limited access to healthcare.
The point is, these are already very vulnerable children, so the capacity for this community to absorb any additional stressors was already stretched to breaking point.
Past Ebola outbreaks in this region have shown what this can mean for children.
They have in the past made-up a significant share of cases and an even greater share of deaths, with the youngest facing the highest fatality rates and many left orphaned or separated from caregivers.
During my recent visit to Rampara Hospital in Bunia, at the epicentre of the outbreak, health workers told me people had stopped coming in for routine care because they were afraid.
But when families stop seeking care, children miss vaccinations and illnesses go untreated, and the outbreak starts costing lives, not just by Ebola, but by things it never directly touched.
As of 11 June, the DRC has reported 676 confirmed cases and 136 confirmed deaths.
Most cases to date have been among socially and economically active adults.
But as the outbreak evolves, we must be prepared for increasing household transmission, which means we may see more children affected in the days ahead.
Early symptoms in children, fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, tiredness and loss of appetite are hard to tell, apart from other diseases such as malaria, which is common in a Tourie.
So precious time can be lost before Ebola is even suspected.
And for the Bundabergo species, there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment beyond supportive care.
That means preparedness, infection prevention and control, and building community.
Understanding and trust are our frontline tools.
And that trust can't be taken for granted.
A recent UNICEF U Report survey of 50,000 young people in the DRC found that 2/3 were not aware how Ebola spreads or how to protect themselves, about one in five didn't believe the disease is real, and nearly a third would not welcome a survivor back into their community.
When I was in one of the hospitals, I was told there was a body in a nearby displacement camp and the community were not yet ready to give it up.
Dialogue between the health professionals and the community were under way.
But it was a reminder to me that building shared understanding and trust is essential.
And that's why UNICEF works with the World Health Organisation and partners to prioritise community engagement, understanding education and ownership in health systems.
We have already delivered 150 metric tonnes of supplies to Bunia, trained and deployed more than 1600 community health workers and mobilizers and 24 decontamination teams, and reached over 160,000 households as of yesterday.
We're also establishing nurseries in facilities close to Ebola treatment centres.
These are safe spaces where children can be cared for while their parents are treated and our first crash opens in Bunia in the coming days.
The need for that type of support is real.
Our staff on the ground we're told of a family in which the grandmother, father and mother died from Ebola, leaving a week old baby who is now being closely monitored.
The outbreak has also crossed into Uganda where 19 confirmed cases and two deaths have been reported.
Uganda remains at risk, particularly along the 800 kilometre porous border between the two countries and we are supporting with partners the national response across 37 high risk districts, including refugee hosting areas, border districts and Greater Kampala.
Let me finish by saying that we can spare children the worst of this outbreak.
Fast detection, strong paediatric care, monitoring of contacts and communities that are informed and engaged can help bring this outbreak under control.
What we now need are the resources, humanitarian access and the trusted communities to succeed.
We are appealing for $70.7 million over the next six months, of which 17.4 remains unfunded, and that's part of the broader continental response plan led by the World Health Organisation and Africa CDC.
Thanks to you, Doctor Noble, for that very clear and important update.
Now I'm going to turn to our colleague in the field who's joining us from Benny in North Key View, Dr Olivier Le Pollan, who's the unit Head of Epidemiology and Analytics for response of The Who.
So thank you very much for joining us.
Thank you and thanks for having me this morning.
I'm connecting from Benny, as you said, in North Kiru after three weeks on the ground here.
And I just want to tell you a little bit more about the situation, complementing what Douglas has provided already as a context.
Also look at some of the gaps in what we're doing to support the government response.
So we see the outbreak continues to expand both in terms of case numbers but also in terms of geographic spread.
As mentioned already, as of yesterday, 676 cases confirmed cases have been reported and 136 deaths.
The vast majority of those cases are in Ituri province, but with cases now identified in 34 different health zones across Ituri, N Kivu and S Kivu provinces, almost everyday cases are being identified in new health zones.
And that reflects really the scale of this outbreak scalar is much bigger than what is being detected and the high mobility of the population.
In this part of the DRC, we've been working with the government on a risk prioritisation of health zones to tailor interventions to the risk and to the scale of the outbreak in those health zones.
For example, 17 health zones right now are quantified as hotspots requiring more support compared to zones with only one or two cases.
The prioritisation also identifies importantly a number of areas of of very high risk where there's not yet reporting of cases, but we identify those areas as high risk based on where they're located and the mobility pattern of the population from hotspot zones to those areas, and especially in those areas where surveillance needs to be strengthened.
Speaking more broadly, we know where the key drivers are of epidemics like Ebola and what needs to be done.
Safe and dignified barrels, reducing the risk of infection in healthcare facilities, a big challenge in a context like the Kivu's and Nituri where you've got a very large network of formal and informal healthcare facilities.
We should be able to isolate and provide care for patients very early on in their disease course.
That's good not only to reduce the infection in the community, but importantly to improve the chances of survival.
We also need to strengthen surveillance and contact tracing and to do so engage communities, as been mentioned already.
But given the size and the scale of this outbreak and the high population mobility, which is one of the defining features of the epidemiology in this outbreak, coupled with a very weakened health system and ongoing security, these are all challenges that we will need to address in the context of this response collectively.
But there is no knowledge, and I've seen it first hand in Beni over the last few days.
There is knowledge and expertise in Ebola control.
They've had those outbreaks in the past.
There's still a lot of capacity from the outbreak that happened in 2018-2019.
We know people, healthcare workers, public health professionals know do.
It's a matter of capacitating the teams further and showing they've got the right materials, right supplies, right logistics, but also the right human resources to be able to tackle the challenge right now.
Having said all that, there are still many blind spots in some areas that are high risk.
We know those areas are high risk based on where they are located.
The mobility of population to those and surveillance really needs to be strengthened in those areas.
Likewise, the full scale of the outbreak is not yet clear and we'll get more clarity as surveillance improves, as testing improves.
For example, in Ben yesterday, the lab really has been put in place with a throughput of more than 500 tests per day.
That will really help get clarity about the scale of the outbreak in Beni as well.
And then we'll need to learn more.
We need to learn more about the epidemiological and clinical features of the virus.
There's only been 2 Bundibucho outbreaks so far.
And so we will learn through this outbreak whether there's also some differences in addition to the lack of course, treatment and vaccines, but some difference in the in the epidemiology clinical presentation compared to other Ebola outbreaks.
We continue as W show with partners to really support the government in most pillars of the response, including expanding surveillance in terms of workforce, in terms of supporting with analysis supplies, with laboratory capacity, with logistics, importantly also with community engagement with partners, as already mentioned by Douglas, IPC and a number of other areas.
But importantly, we are implementing A decentralised approach and that is really the government's approach to this outbreak.
Leveraging the public health infrastructure in DRC, leveraging the capacity you've got at the zonal level and being able to augment that with a tailored response and with all that skilled risk communication is extremely important.
No outbreak will come under control if there's no appropriate community engagement, risk communication and have the communities on board.
So overall, the outbreak is expanding more geographically and in terms of number of cases, there are many blind spots, but we are seeing the elements of the response coming into place, and we'll continue to collectively strengthen this response.
Thanks to you, Olivier, and of course, again to Douglas.
So we'll take questions for both of our guests, starting with you, Cristiano, the German news agency.
Rolando, could you please repeat the latest figures and where they come from, including maybe if you have the number of contacts that are being traced now?
Maybe Olivier, if you want to take that, Sure.
I don't have the latest set wrap in front of my eyes.
So in terms of numbers, we've got 676 cases, we've got 136 deaths.
These span an area from Aru in the north to meeting rest in the South.
So it's over 1000 kilometres and we have more than 30.
Well, we have 34 health zones affected as of yesterday.
So those health zones continue to expand with new areas in north Kiev also reported yesterday.
In terms of contact tracing, it's improving.
It's below what would be ideal and what would be expected, but it's been improving over the last few weeks.
We now just over 70% in terms of the contacts that are being appropriately traced.
That's a huge improvement from where we were about a week or two ago, but it's still too low to ensure appropriate control.
A couple of questions for Olivier and then also a few in the room.
Olivier, so if these cases are now popping up in in new health zones, are they spreading only through movement or or is there something else going on that you're not yet aware of?
And secondly, just an overall view, do you have anywhere near the tools that you need to to be able to fight this outbreak?
And then secondly, on, on children, do you have disaggregated figures for how many children have been confirmed as cases and have died?
And secondly, when you say that you must be prepared for this to start spreading through households to children, does that mean that it's something that that you're expecting or just something that we need to be cautious about?
We'll start with you, Olivier.
So we're not only seeing cases spread because they've travelled from the hotspots right now.
That was most of the feature that we saw over the last few weeks.
But we also see local community spread in new areas.
Ben is Ben is one example.
Right now we've got some cases with travel links to Bunya and to Mangwalu, the hotspots.
We also have cases that have been identified in Beni with no clear link to trouble to those areas, investigations ongoing.
But the hypothesis is that there are bigger outbreaks going on already in those many of those health zones that will only be really picked up and detected when surveillance is fully up to scale.
Clearly the mobility from the initial areas of hotspots has played an important role, but we have already outbreaks that despite small numbers look like they've have been somewhat established.
And so that is why we need that decentralisation, ensuring that we've got that, ensuring that we've got treatment and care providers to confirm cases in the various health zones, but also importantly have laboratory capacity and and surveillance capacity in terms of, you know, the tools and what needs to be done.
There's a lot more that needs to be done, I think across the board, more supplies to ensure that we've got safe spaces to isolate patients.
Surveillance can scale up, but if you don't have any space to put your patients safely, it becomes very difficult.
So all of that chain needs to be linked.
The lab needs to be linked with the surveillance.
The the healthcare capacity needs to be linked with the surveillance.
One of our big challenges right now is rapidly scale up the best capacity.
We see that with the outbreak and the direction it's going out.
We will need more beds that we have right now.
We have about 250 beds for isolation right now across the provinces.
That is insufficient and likewise we need more capacity when it comes to the isolation of suspected patients who yet need to be confirmed.
But as surveillance scale that scales up, you will have many more of those and that there can be safely isolated in the health facilities that have the standard of care required for those those patients.
So a lot more needs to be done.
It's moving ahead, but it will need to further shift case.
Yeah, thank you for that question On the disaggregated data for children under the age of 18, maybe just first a caveat of that by saying that the data context has been very uncertain.
As you know, this was going on for a few weeks before we came to the first confirmed case.
There were backlogs of samples and there are still deaths that are being investigated.
We've done some preliminary analysis which would indicate that around 14 to 17% of cases are in children, but I'm not really in a position to say more than that at this stage.
We are hoping in the days ahead to be able to release more specific data on the exact effects on children, the symptoms in children, the mortality rates in children, but I don't have any more on that at this moment in time.
In terms of household spread, again, given the uncertain context and the data uncertainties, we're working based on experience from previous outbreaks.
And if you look at the trend so far, we're seeing many young adults affected who are socially and economically active.
Now the number of cases are definitely going to rise more and as we see that very active group being more in communities, we may expect to see more transmission within households, which we know can then affect children more.
So to answer your question, yes, we are expecting it and we are taking steps in our interventions to with partners and to support government to respond to that.
Just maybe one last thing on the tools, and I agreed with Olivier on that.
In addition to the space needed, let me just say for a moment something about the importance of humanitarian access.
Some of my team this week have not been able to do their job because they cannot get access to where they need to go.
So humanitarian access and cessation to violence in the region is absolutely essential to being able to deploy resources and for humanitarian workers to be able to respond.
A considerable amount of attention is needed to that area by the international community.
Thank you, Douglas, for mentioning that.
And just to remind you colleagues, our our peacekeeping colleagues, MONUSCO are obviously deployed in the region as they have been for, for many, many years now and they're providing critical logistical assistance.
For the rapid delivery of medical supplies in particular to Ubunya.
So this is an important angle to this crisis, of course.
A question for Doctor Lupula, please, Or two, how do you calculate the death toll?
Does it only include bodies that were tested and does the data come exclusively from hospitals and is that a limitation?
And secondly, the CDC has given projections for the scale of the outbreak, saying that it could be worse than the 2014 sixteen outbreak in West Africa.
What are the WH O's projections at this stage?
2 very important questions when it comes to first, let me start with beds.
These are not just hospital beds.
So it's really important to have to be able to ensure that we've got surveillance in the community.
And that's one of the key elements right now, especially at this stage of the outbreak when things are not fully in place and we still see patients coming very late and sadly a number of community deaths.
So the approach to surveillance is ensuring that they've got safe and dignified burials for all those deaths and swabbing and testing of those deaths so they're accounted in the death toll.
It's not only hospital deaths.
And the focus on ensuring that there's strength in surveillance for community deaths, it's really important at this stage of the outbreak.
We know the risk presented by burial practises and funerals when they're not safe and we know the challenge that can pose in terms of the outbreak spread and also derailing an outbreak.
So very important to focus on that.
And the debts are certainly coming from the community as well and will needs to be strengthened in terms of surveillance.
When it comes to the numbers, a few things to say there.
We've seen the model from the CDC with projections over a few months.
I think one thing to say first is that the parameters upon which those models are being built are still fairly limited right now.
So any model would be based on scenarios.
Importantly, when it comes to Ebola, there's an element of clustering which is really important.
We can't assume that the outbreak will spread homogeneously in the population.
It is and all Ebola outbreaks have seen that there is an element of local and community clustering and that will need to be taken into account in projections, potentially taking some of those numbers down if you were to do that.
On our end, we haven't made firm projections.
What we really are working on right now is scenarios and bed capacity.
We know the bed capacity will need to increase.
We also are working right now on the data we have to better understand the epidemiological parameters, so the delay distributions to be specific.
So how much cases are being delayed, What is the growth rate in the community?
What is the growth rate in Bunya, what is the growth rate in Rampara?
With those parameters, we can then make some assumptions about what we need in next few weeks in terms of bed capacity.
That is the focus right now of the projections we're working on.
I don't have numbers to provide you at the moment, but what we know is that our bed capacity right now is too little compared to where the epidemiology is heading and will need to be Caleb, Mike's property.
Thank you, Olivia, before we go to you, John, let me just go back to Emma.
I actually forgot to pose my question to UNICEF.
It was on children and school.
Are you seeing parents that are withholding their children from school because they're afraid of them being infected and on what scale?
Thanks, Emma, for that question and your good reporting during the week.
We're not specifically seeing that in our our current social listening and engagement with communities.
We are seeing some fear on behalf of children going to school.
Schools have remained open.
Ebola is a very different disease in terms of transmission routes to COVID.
There's no reason for a school to close.
Infection prevention and control measures do have to be taken and there does have to be education within the school, amongst the teachers and the staff and amongst the children.
But we're not seeing parents withholding at this moment in time.
But we are, we are picking up fear from children themselves and that's certainly an area that we're seeking to engage in.
OK, we'll take a question from John from The Lancet.
My questions taking the opportunity of Doctor Noble being with us to ask you, Sir.
Today, a major report came out by UN AIDS which shows that children living with AIDS account for with HIV, account for 3% of the total caseloads but account for 11% of deaths.
And the number of children on ARV treatment is far below that of adults.
What is UNICEF's answer to this big gap and what are you doing about it?
And secondly, with cutbacks in aid funds, have your programmes on prevention been affected, especially in conflict zones?
Yeah, thank you for that question.
I have not seen that report released today yet, so I cannot give you a specific answer.
We can refer you to our colleagues in HIV AIDS to answer those questions.
What I would say with regard to the current Ebola outbreak is that we are seeking to respond to all vulnerable groups in the communities, both children and adults, including those infected with HIV AIDS.
So that's certainly a priority for us.
In terms of funding gaps, thank you for raising that.
In the general sense there, as we know, there were many funding cuts and gaps last year.
Inevitably that has affected many development and humanitarian programmes and the international assistance available across the board, not just for the Ebola outbreak, but of course for many other needs, including in HIV, AIDS prevention and response.
Thank you very much, Douglas.
That was that's an issue that we are going to address later on in this briefing.
I think in terms of the Ebola questions, I don't see any more hands up online or in the room.
So on this note, I'd like to thank you very much Douglas Olivier very much for joining us here.
And important updates of course, and we'll continue to spotlight this situation.
Thank you as well as Ricardo and I think Tarek you're going to stay on or maybe you know, might might as well.
So thank you again, Doctor.
OK, now I understand we have our guest from Port-au-Prince who's is connected and I think you could hear us, Marie Goretti in Dewayo, just want to make sure you can definitely hear us.
Thank you so very much and I appreciate it's really early in the morning.
I believe it's 5:00 in the morning in Haiti.
I just introduce you, you are UN Women's representative in Haiti and you're going to provide an update on and the situation of women and girls in the in the context of the situation in Haiti.
So thank you again very much over to you for your brief.
The opening of Haiti's first state supported safe safe house, known as Women's House for Survivors of Violence, is a woman of hope and a painful reminder of the dangers that women and girls face.
I'm hearing from women and girls that rape is being increasingly used as a tool by the gangs to terrorise and control communities.
We can see this is in in data.
In 2025, the United Nation Integrated Office in Haiti, Binu verified 1863 cases of sexual violence.
This includes 1668 women, 187 girls, two men and six boys and represent a 163% increase compared with 2024.
During the first three months of this year, sexual violence accounted for more than 70% of reported gender based violence cases.
There are also report of digital technologies and platform being used by perpetrators to preserve image of sexual assault to exhort or father humiliate victims.
Gang violence once concentrated in here in Port-au-Prince, is now spreading across the country, forcing nearly 1.48 million people from their homes, including 790 women and girls.
Women and girls living in displacement sites face some of the highest level of vulnerability.
Aun Women Report finds that gender based violence was reported in all 22 sites that we surveyed.
Most displacement sites don't have adequate lighting.
Most of most do not have functioning looks in bathroom or separate facilities for women and men.
These conditions put women and girls at further risk of violence.
We are also seeing that dedicated service for survivors are extremely limited, including psychosocial and legal support, which remain largely unavailable.
The mental health toll has been so huge that women repeatedly tell me that they no longer recognise their lives.
The violence that they that they survived followed them every day and every night.
The memories are of their houses being burnt down or guns following them into the forest of families, members and friends killed in front of them.
Mothers have told me how they used to grow fruits and vegetables, run small businesses and generate income that their families relied on.
Today, extortion at illegal checkpoint of gang controlled roads, repetitive kidnapping and sexual violence have left women and girls fearing for their safety and leaving them unable to even take part in daily life.
At the same time, the pressure of women have increasingly immensely.
Before displacement, most women had some form of income generating activities, often through Informa trade or small businesses.
Today, only a fraction access to these opportunities in displacement sites.
Our data show that more than 80% of women are unemployed, yet it's women who continue to take care of most household responsibilities and expenses.
We have also witnessed a complete deterioration in access to healthcare, education, safe water and sanitation.
More than 1000 six, 600 schools have been forced to close.
Nearly 30% of health facilities in Port-au-Prince are no longer functioning.
Alongside immense suffering, women are increasingly leading local humanitarian, peace and security efforts.
An example of this is in increasing increased participation in displacement site committees from just 2% in September 2024 to more than 40% in 2025.
Women's organisations are supporting survivors of violence, providing cash transfer, helping families access services and the basics and strengthening protection, participation, prevention and recovery within communities.
UN Women support these organisations and is working with the state and UN entities to provide life saving support to women and girls and help them rebuild their lives.
The opening of Haiti's first State supported Safe House, led by the Minister of Women's Welfare and Women's Right with support of UN Women is an important milestone in the response to gender based violence specifically.
But the need are growing and international aid to Haiti has collapsed.
Women and girls urgently need expanded gender based violence prevention and response services, increased food and cash assistance, access to healthcare and education, support to rebuild live livelihoods and increased funding for women LED organisation on the front line of the response.
The women and girls of Haiti have shown incredible resilience, but this resilience alone cannot be the answer.
Women and girls in Haiti need safety and protection and they need the international community to respond.
Thanks very much to you very, very important brief.
We're very happy to connect with you to share this situation as difficult as it is.
So let's take questions in the room we have AFP for you.
On the safe houses, how many of these safe houses are there and what what's the sort of capacity and, and their facilities?
And secondly, in this in this very volatile environment, how can the the women who need those services feel that, you know, feel reassured about their their safety in those safe houses?
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your question.
The women houses are designed as integrated service centre providing comprehensive support to survivors of gender based violence.
The first of four facilities include dormitories, receptions and counselling areas and Infirmary, recreation space in cafeteria and a dedicated child friendly space for survivors.
In addition, survivors will have access to a range of essential services including legal assistance, medical care, psychosocial support, case management.
Refer to specialised services, live food support as exists, strategies and information on their rights and of course, available protection mechanisms.
Of course, the first of the four safe houses opened in Port-au-Prince at the end of May.
Three more will open in other departments location impacted by growing gang violence like the Department of the Centre at Tibonit and Grandas, which are the four main areas which are affected.
OK, further questions in the room or online?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So Miss Dwyo, thank you so very much for for briefing us.
This is an immensely important brief and we'll we'll do what we can to share, spread the word.
And thank you again for especially joining us so early in the morning.
And we really appreciate it.
And you and women colleagues, thank you so much.
And you and women colleagues will of course share the notes of Miss Dwyo.
OK, we're going back to WHO and very pleased maybe Tarek you, you want to introduce to our guest here?
Just before that we, we shared the notes of Doctor Olivier Le Pollo.
So you have those notes with you in your in your e-mail.
Really happy to have Doctor Femi Oladapo with us.
It's not his first time as a parley speaking to you, but he told me the last time was many, many years ago.
So he will tell us more about a new WHO and Lancet series of postpartum postpartum haemorrhage and doctor.
Doctor Femi is head of maternal and perinatal health unit at WHO.
You also got his opening remarks.
There's also press release that will be shared with you shortly as it is being published together with the with the document itself.
Doctor, Doctor Femi, thank you very much, Tarek.
Good morning, all, and thank you for the opportunity to be here with you today.
I'm here to share with you a new blueprint to hand one of the deadliest complications of pregnancy.
That is excessive bleeding after birth.
Every 12 minutes, somewhere in the world, a woman dies of excessive bleeding after childbirth.
Many of these women have survived many things.
They survived the pregnancy itself.
They've survived displacement, forced migration, conflict, hunger, and dangerous journeys to to reach care.
But then they do not survive childbirth itself.
So a new three-part Lancet series that we just published about a few minutes ago now argues that most of these deaths should never happen in the 1st place.
The series estimates that the Spartan haemorrhage, that is excessive bleeding after childbirth effects 27,000,000 women, that is roughly one woman per second and kills nearly 43,000 mothers every year, making it one of the leading direct cause of maternal death.
But also very importantly, it has a huge cost to the society and health systems because it cost over 10 billion U.S.
And that does not include direct and indirect costs to families who have to pay out of pocket for to seek care.
But the tragedy in all of this is that we already know how to save this woman.
Today, many women are giving birth in some of the most challenging environment, as you know, because pregnancy doesn't stop during conflict.
So in displacement comes in health, fragile health systems.
In hospitals struggling with medicines and health workers, there are people presenting for care.
But when a woman develops severe bleeding after birth, Survivor depends on speed, how quickly you can intervene.
So the series frames postpartum haemorrhage as a race against time and it tries to identify 6 critical delays that can determine whether a woman survives or leaves after survives or or or dies and how we can prevent these delays.
So from diagnosis and treatment to escalation of care to access to to blood products, a series hagues that one of the biggest obstacles is surprisingly simple.
Up till now, a lot of healthcare centres around the world still are still using guesswork to determine when a woman requires treatment.
That is visually estimating blood loss, looking at the the linen, the the beds, the soap, whether they are soaked to a silent extent before they determine a woman has postpartum haemorrhage.
That in itself should be a global scandal because visual estimation of blood loss has been shown to miss up to half of postpartum hemorrhoid cases, which means that a lot of women don't get treated when they should.
But the problem is not only that too many women are missed when they have the excessive bleeding, it's also that they are treated too late.
And for decades, clinicians have typically had to wait for a woman to bleed up to half a litre of blood before they make that diagnosis an intervene.
But the series evidence showed that treatment could actually begin sooner in some women who are at higher risk if such women reach a threshold of blood loss of 300 millilitres of of blood.
But if that is accompanied by abnormal vital signs, which means that intervention can then begin before bleeding becomes catastrophic.
But prevention of excessive bleeding after after birth could start long before labour, before pregnancy itself.
There are several things that we could do upstream to to reduce that.
So the series highlights several missed opportunities to reduce risk, including tackling anaemia, for instance, when a woman before a woman gets pregnant and why she's pregnant.
Expanding access to contraception.
If we reduce unplanned pregnancy or water pregnancy, then the complications that come with pregnancy are also much reduced.
Reducing unnecessary Caesarean sections.
Caesarean section by default will lead to more bleeding after childbirth and ensuring that every woman receives effective medicines, quality assured medicine that can prevent excessive bleeding after bath at the point of bath.
Perhaps the most striking finding on this series is a simple treatment bundle that we call the motif bundle.
This is a 5 in one emergency response bundle that can be given to a woman immediately that diagnosis of postpartum haemorrhage is made.
And, and this has been shown that if you identify a woman with postpartum haemorrhage early and you implement this five in one bundle, you can actually reduce progression to life, pregnant bleeding and and emergency surgery or death by up to 60%.
And this, this approach has been designed in such a way that midwives and fraud line aid workers can act immediately.
So you don't need a doctor or a specialist to review a woman before that treatment can be instituted.
But I bring the message of hope.
I think the, the important thing we need to to be clear about here is that it's not just about bad numbers that the, the, the series is trying to project, but the message is that there's hope.
We know how to deal with these issues and there are solutions.
We, we have the knowledge, we have the medicines, we know the tools that work.
But the challenge is how to ensure that every woman, wherever they deliver, whether it's in Geneva or Gomer or Kiev, that they survive pregnancy and that they have access to effective care to save their lives because every minute counts.
Thank you very much, Femi.
Very informative and educative.
And so thank you so very much for sharing this important information with us and on this series.
So let's turn over to you colleagues if you have any questions.
Is this a question of money providing money to healthcare systems in countries that don't have it?
Or is this also a matter of health services in in better equipped countries who don't seem to know well enough how to deal with this problem?
Thank you for that question.
It's it's a lot of issues.
Definitely money is a problem because the we find out that the burden of the problem is mostly in countries that are struggling economically.
But also the political will has to be strong sometimes.
Many of these countries actually have many, but they do not dedicate enough resources to healthcare.
And So what we found is political will is very important and in places where there's strong political attention to addressing deaths from postpartum haemorrhage, we've actually seen a strong decline in in postpartum haemorrhage death.
Let's see if there are further questions in the room online.
No, I think you are abundantly clear.
And thank you again for this important information, this update.
And please do come back sooner then the last time you were here.
So thank you so very much, Sena.
Would you like to join me here on the podium?
So Sena is here to provide an update on the ongoing International Labour Conference.
And you also have something about a media briefing.
And then lastly, we'll have a short announcement on UN AIDS.
All right, good morning, colleagues.
As some of you are aware, today is the last day of the International Labour Conference, which began on the 1st of June.
And I'd like to share with you the outcomes of the discussions in the four committees that met throughout the conference.
The committees are the Committee on the application of standards, on a gender Equality in the World of Work, on social dialogue and on Decent Work and the Platform Economy.
I'll start with the gender the gendered discussion on the gender equality at work.
The committee did adopt A resolution and can and conclusions on the transformative agenda for gender on the transformed agenda for gender equality in the world of work.
And The conclusions acknowledge tech, technological, environmental and the demographic transitions that are reshaping the world of work.
And the conclusions aim to provide a strategic road map to how to navigate these new challenges in order to ensure that the world of work is inclusive and equal when it comes to gender, and also to work towards building institutional capacity, enforcement mechanisms and support with adoption of the right policies and legislations.
The Committee on Social Dialogue and Try Partism was a reoccurrent discussion and it focused on how to improve social dialogue, which is dialogue between employers, workers and governments and strengthen Tri partism.
Social dialogue and Tri partism, of course, are key to demographic to I beg your pardon, Democratic Liberal governance and the conference managed to adopt the conclusions and the conclusions will hopefully provide action, provide guidance for ILO actions to support constituents in strengthening social dialogue in their respective countries.
The Committee on the Application of Standards met and they looked at 23 individual cases.
There were special sittings on Belarus and Myanmar and and all resulting in conclusions and last but not least, of course, is the decent work on platform economy.
I am pleased to share that the Committee approved a Convention on Decent Work in the Platform Economy, and the Convention will be submitted to a vote in this morning's plenary sitting in order for it to be officially adopted.
And this convention aims to become the first globally binding labour standards, specifically addressing work performed through digital labour platforms.
As some of you are aware, because we communicated with you via e-mail yesterday, we are also holding a media briefing via Zoom this afternoon at 2:30 PM, Geneva local time with the members of the committee who led as well as the ILO leading one of our leading ILO experts to talk about the convention, explain what it includes, what it covers and what it means to when it comes to work in the platform economy, otherwise known in some cases as the gig economy.
Thank you so much Sena, for this important update, these important updates.
On the on the platform economy, could there still be amendments to this in the in the coming hours?
And and secondly, do we have an idea to the the timing a bit more precision on the timing, could it come, will it definitely be before the briefing this afternoon for example?
Thank you for the question, Robin.
So in principle, we expect to for the text to be adopted as is and the text is already available online.
And the vote should be done by the time we meet this afternoon because it has to be done.
The ILC closes after the morning plenary seats sitting and this is where the vote will happen.
Thank you, Sena for the questions, for Sena for your Rep.
No, that's not the case, Sir.
Good luck this afternoon.
I should know that by now, shouldn't I?
Thank you very much Francois, Let me do that again.
So as I mentioned earlier, there is just have a short announcement from UN AIDS.
John, you you had referred to this report.
So today, in fact, UN AIDS did release the latest data on HIV following major disruptions in 2025.
This was a report that was issued to that effect.
And this is days before the UN General Assembly high level meeting on HIV AIDS taking place 2223 June in New York, when UN member states will come together to adopt A new political declaration on HIV to guide the response over the next five years.
An important gathering, of course.
The report details the impacts of funding cuts in the rollback on human rights and on the AIDS response, particularly on HIV prevention and community LED services.
So you should have received all the embargoed materials.
Sophie is online as is Charlotte now from you and AIDS.
If you have any questions you can raise your hands now or otherwise you can connect with Sophie and or Charlotte afterwards.
Again, you have the report at your disposal, so they're available to answer any questions you might have.
No, no questions for the moment, so maybe do connect with them afterwards.
Just a couple of statements.
I want to make sure that you are aware of the statement that we shared with you last night from the Secretary General.
This follows on the situation in the Middle East, one of a few statements that we've issued recently on the conflict in the Middle East particularly.
And the SG is once again expresses deep concern by the continuing escalation in the Middle East, including the strikes by the United States on Iran and the strikes by Iran on neighbouring countries in the Gulf.
So this is a, a statement that we shared with you after hours last night.
And as always, the, the the Secretary General is calling on the United States and Iran to redouble their efforts towards a peaceful, comprehensive and durable agreement that advances a regional and international peace and security.
Another statement we shared with you is a statement from the Secretary General once again, remarks in fact, on the launch of the Muscat Plan of Action.
For those of you not familiar with the Muscat Plan of Action, this is an initiative that is aimed at countering hate speech and help prevent genocide and atrocity crime.
The plan highlights the roles of traditional and indigenous leaders in promoting peace and strengthening social cohesion.
In his remarks, the Secretary General stressed that hate speech is a growing threat to peace and security and to call for and he called for breaking this cycle through education, support for those targeted, and stronger action by governments and technologic technology companies.
Important statement that we shared with you last night.
In terms of meetings, we have the Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of their family ending its session this afternoon in about an hour from now, around 12:30, at which time the final observations for the three reports that they reviewed this session, Ecuador, Gambia and Ghana, will be shared with you.
And as you well know, the Human Rights Council Session 6260, second Regular Session starts this coming Monday, the 15th of of June.
It lasts to the 7th of July.
Lots of important discussions there in you've seen the, the notes that Pascal and Matt have shared with you.
The President of the Council also briefed you on Wednesday to provide an insight to this important gathering starting next week.
And that's it for me, just to mention that indeed, of course, we will be, despite all the measures being taken in terms of G7, starting next week, we will be open for business.
We are reducing our footprint to an extent, but we will be having our briefing here on Tuesday.
And so please feel free to join us if you plan to come in over the week and do let me know.
We're trying to minimise our footprint.
We will be allowed access, but with the condition that you inform us and that you also inform security if you do plan to come.
But of course, the idea is to minimise the number of people at the Palais.
But we will be carrying on business as unusual usual for next week during the G7 and I know many of you will be covering that.
Many have asked the question.
That's why I volunteer this information.
I have one from Catherine.
If you want maybe to connect with me afterwards or maybe drop your question in the chat very quickly before we wrap up or let me do you see it?
In the meantime, are there other questions we might have?
Any information about logistics to find parking places Monday.
I think by virtue of the fact the question is about parking on Monday, I think by virtue of the fact that we, the staff members are reducing their footprint where many only critical staff will be working or staff will really need to be here, will be instructed to come here.
So that should free up a lot of spaces for Monday should you wish to come and park.
I think it'll be a lot easier than perhaps other days, even despite the fact that we have the Human Arts Council coming.
We should have, we should have more spaces than usual.
So wishing you a nice weekend, hopefully get some rest.
