UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UN Geneva Press Briefing

[Other language spoken]

Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Information Service.

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Today is Tuesday, 8th of September.

I would like to change a little bit the order, because we have a little connection problem with a colleague of IUM in Yemen.

So I'd like to start immediately by giving the floor to Sofia Caltrup, the Chief of Humanitarian Action, who would like to present us a report on the situation of women headed households in Gaza.

Sophia, you have the floor.

Thank you very much there, Alessandra, and good morning, everybody.

Today, UN Women has published a new report looking at the realities faced by women heading households in Gaza.

Women reportedly had nearly one in four households in Gaza, an estimated 86,290 families, and this is double the pre October 2023 rate and follows the widespread killings of Palestinians.

We have been speaking to widows and to women whose husbands are missing, detained, severely injured, forcibly displaced or whose fate remains unknown, and we found an horrific amount of collective heartbreak.

Women are dealing with the grief of losing a husband and a father to the children and at the same time facing the sole responsibility of managing the household, protecting and providing for their families, all in extremely dire circumstances and in increasingly unlivable conditions.

Access to food, to safe water, to hygiene supplies and essential services is severely limited.

There are restrictions on human turn access, insecurity and continued Israeli bombardment.

Women heading households are everyday forced to make impossible decisions on how to allocate scarce resources, how to access assistance and simply ensure the survival of those in their care.

UN Women data show that women who had households are more likely to be deprived of shelter of food and finances than male headed households.

They are also more likely to be displaced or have their home destroyed.

Nearly seven in 10 women headed households do not have adequate shelter, compared with 55% of households headed by male.

And 3/4 of women headed households report housing damage, compared with 2/3 of those headed by male.

Women heading households have been forced to flee on average 8 times since October 2023, compared with seven times for male headed households.

And 2/3 of women headed households urgently require cash assistance to meet daily survival needs.

Recognising and responding to realities of both women headed households and those who are de facto heads of households are are essential to ensuring that women in Gaza are seen and supported.

I want to also use this moment to highlight the continued dangers women and girls face in Gaza despite the ceasefire.

246 Palestinian women and girls have been killed by Israeli air bombardment and military ground operations in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement came into effect in October 2025.

This is equivalent to six women and girls killed every week between October 2025 and 28th of July.

20, 2618 year old Rahad Ashur was killed in an Israeli strike on her way to her 11th grade high school exam in Gaza City.

31 year old Dina Almadoun was also killed in a strike in Gaza City, A six year old girl was killed in a helicopter strike on an encampment for displaced families in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, and the girl was shot and killed in front of her classmates in a tenth school in Beit Lahiya.

This must stop.

The ceasefire must be fully implemented.

International law, accountability for violations, unimpeded humanitarian assistance that reaches those in need at scale and without obstruction and the protection of women and girls must all be fully realised.

And the needs of women and girls must be placed at the centre of response and recovery, including their meaningful participation in peace building and reconstruction.

As you and women, we work on the ground in Gaza with women LED and women's rights organisations supporting their efforts to deliver life saving support for the women and girls of Gaza.

Thank you very much and back over to Alessandra.

Thank you very much Sophia, for the presentation of this important report.

I'll open the floor to questions, if any, in the room.

I don't see hands up or online.

There seems to be no questions for you, Sophia.

So thank you very much.

The reports and the press release I guess have already or will be distributed today, right.

[Other language spoken]

So it has been distributed by it has been distributed.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

OK, So thank you again and let me now go and see if our colleague is connected from Yemen.

Is is he connected?

Can we have confirmation?

[Other language spoken]

So Zoe, you want to come on the on the podium?

So we have with us the colleagues from IOM, Zoe Brennan with Abdul Sattur SOF, who is the IOM Chief of Mission.

I understand you're arena dancer.

To tell us more about the escalating hostilities and the displacement in Yemen's western coast, we start directly with your colleague.

[Other language spoken]

Oh, you start.

[Other language spoken]

Let's start with Zowe then.

Thank you very much, Alessandra.

Yes, we're here today to express our deep concern over the rising displacement across Yemen, which is prompted by the escalating violence on the West Coast.

And we're seeing the numbers sadly rising by the hour.

So I will turn to our Chief of Mission in Yemen, Abdul Sattor Esov, who's speaking from Aden.

Over to you, Chief of Mission.

Thank you very much.

Sorry, can can you hear me very well, Sir?

[Other language spoken]

So, yeah, thank you very much for having me.

We as as my colleagues, I mentioned the there is a situation that we are witnessing now in the West Coast of Yemen.

So we are deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in Yemen.

West Coast, which adds up to yesterday displaced more than 18,500 people in just 72 hours.

So families are arriving destitute with no shelter, food or safe options for the time.

Many by the way, have already endured multiple displacing over the past 12 years of conflict, which with the new player raises what little stability they have had managed to rebuild.

The latest escalation as we see today, the last few, few days comes like against the backdrop of of the protected crisis in which 4.5 million people remain displaced across.

And that is that, that is the, the number of the people that have been displaced over the over the years.

But in the recent days alone, as I mentioned, we have seen 18,500 people in this space.

It's it's it's more than 3000 households.

It is according to our the space in tracking metrics team data that they've collected and also the partners on the ground.

So the newly displaced further movement reported as a situation evolves.

So displacement sites have been emptied.

Those people who are forcing the families are forcing to move are actually are coming from a displaced camps and they are the increasing increasing precarious conditions.

The house communities in our Moha and highs in Mavsar and Jabal Kabashi which are all in the West Coast of Yemen are under immense strength, struggling to absorb the influx with already limited resources.

We are equally concerned also about the plight of the migrant standard in Yemen.

You know, Yemen is a country that also has is a transit hub for a lot of migrants coming from the East Mediterranean, the eastern do they call it from from the all of Africa.

So we are very concerned about the the plight of those of those of those migrants.

So today those migrants are also facing heightened risk and deteriorating security and humanitating conditions.

So the vulnerability is compound by the lack of safe passage and the collapse of the basic services.

The human toll is is rising, fatalities are increasing, families are trapped by blocked roads and insecurity and the access to the access are also constrained and which is hampering the delivery of the life saving system.

The protection concerns are also rising the mountain with civilian caught in frontline areas and unable to move to safety.

At this critical moment, the people of Yemen meet other and we have example.

IM stands ready to scale up its rapid response mechanism with partners deploying our Spaceman tracking metrics to monitor the movement of the people and and to see the needs of of this population and verify the needs and coordinate assistance.

We are also providing currently limited assistance, which includes shelters, health services, protection, social support and in community based programming that that needs to scale up as, as as the the needs and and and what we have exceeds the available sources.

We would like also to use this opportunity to echo the call of the UN special envoy for Yemen, which has initially statement yesterday with the escalation and full respect for international media law, civilian mass protecting all fans.

An essential infrastructure must not be damaged intact and every effort must be made to prevent further escalations.

We over the over the almost two years that I've been here working as the as in our mission here, I have been quite amazed of the resilience of Yemeni people, especially both the space families, which is extraordinary.

But I believe that we cannot the the the population cannot face this crisis alone and we urge the international community to stand in solidarity with the MO and to increase support and ensure that humanitarian actions are provided and humanitarian actors can continue reaching those most in need.

As I mentioned, by has already mobilised some of the systems to the population based on available stocks that we have.

So we have focused on the, as I said, rapid response mechanism and and also multiple cash assistance, multiple purpose cash assistance.

It is, it is part of that.

So some shelters are known for the items have been also provided in time and cash and we are looking at mobilising our WASH pipeline supplies.

As you know, I am in Yemen is managing the WASH pipelines on behalf of international humanitarian, communitarian organisations.

So we have some pipelines that are stored in the West Coast.

[Other language spoken]

So we are also providing health services in one of the facilities in the West Coast in yeah, yeah, health facilities.

This is where we also kind of extending support to the new arrival of families as a result of this in this specification currently.

And I'd like to, to, to stop here and, and, and go back to to you.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

And as we just reminded me, I put out a press release yesterday night on this.

And I also would like to call your attention to this statement by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen on this recent escalation that we have circulated yesterday, where he says Yemenis reports of civilians killed and injured, families displaced and civilian infrastructure damaged are deeply troubling.

Yemen has already endured more than a decade of conflict, and a return to sustainable large scale fighting will carry grave consequences for civilians and make an already difficult path toward a political settlement even harder.

He calls on the parties to seize all hostilities, exercise maximum restraint and make full use of existing channels, including the UNS Military Coordination Committee, to prevent further escalations.

All parties must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and he concludes by saying that he will continue engaging directly with the parties with the aim of containing the current escalation and preserving space for dialogue.

He also called on regional and international actors to use their influence towards these objectives and to support a return to political negotiations.

And I'll open the floor to questions now.

Anyas Pedrero, AFP Yes, thank you.

Question to to the chief of mission You, you may or maybe so as well.

You you mentioned that camps have been emptied.

Could you explain more what those camps were?

Who was inside those camps and how they have been emptied?

Is it, is it natural movement that people were having fear?

So they they, they, they, they went away or have they been emptied by, by groups, by by anyone?

If you could explain more about that.

[Other language spoken]

I'm the setter.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for the questions.

So the indeed what we are seeing now is the escalation of the station where the population have been displaced.

So there are a lot of number of the camps, quite quite large numbers of the camps in the West Coast.

They are small camps.

They are not, they are hosting from, from from few, few families to, to, to, to more than that.

So those camps that we are talking about amputated are those who are on the way of this escalation, right.

So this is those districts that I had mentioned earlier.

It is in the in hives in Maza Habashi.

These are the areas that had used to have IDP camps.

So this I think those people have been living there already for the last few years.

So they have those camps.

Those those IDP camps have been empty.

But there are also other IDP camps that that are on the way.

So it is they are also attracted to some.

But these are mostly in highs and Hausa and Jabal Harvish that Spaceman does take place.

We see it every time.

Then there is an escalation of the situations.

So the population fleeing the safety, they, they get displaced and once the situation stabilises, they, they, they come back.

So therefore, we don't know if how long it will take, how long it will continue and also if they would be able to, to return back to, to their camps.

Thank you very much.

Other questions, I don't see any hand up on the platform neither.

So thank you very much, Abdusator for this update and we really hope that our call, our common call for restraint will be heard by the parties.

Thank you very much, Zoe, for bringing us your colleague on this important subject.

I'd like to ask Marcelo to come to the podium.

So let's now stay in the region with the Strait of Hormuz and a new report, a new analysis from Ankit Marcelo.

Thank you, Alessandra, and good morning, everybody.

We're releasing today a new UN trade and development analysis on the economic effects in of the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

In our earlier updates, we looked at the immediate effects on energy, shipping, food exposure of vulnerable economies.

Today's update follows that transmission chain one step further.

It asks what happens when those higher costs reach firms and why smaller firms particularly are likely to feel them more.

The starting point is scale.

Small and medium sized enterprises, SMEs account for around 90% of businesses, 70% of global employment and half of global GDP.

Of course, it does not mean that 70% of jobs or 90% of businesses will be affected by the Hormuz disruptions.

It means that smaller firms represent a very large share of the global economy, small individually but collectively accounting for most businesses and jobs worldwide.

And that's why disruption, again at one strategic point in global trade, can ripple far beyond, in this case, the straight itself.

Importantly, the shock does not start from a level playing field, so the gap widens.

Large companies can, of course, spread risk across suppliers, markets, financing sources.

Smaller firms typically have fewer alternatives when energy, fried insurance and finance financing costs rise.

This analysis gives us a clearer evidence of the size of that disadvantage, besides or beyond what of course, a common sense approach would would indicate.

In developing economies, the cost of complying, for instance, with import requirements, reaches around 19% of the value of imports for small firms.

That's more than twice the roughly 8% in developed economies.

Almost half, 48%, of small firms in developing economies identify access to finance as an obstacle.

That's 70% more than the figure for developed economies.

And of course, borrowing costs, they reinforce this gap.

The average SME interest rates in the sample that we're presenting today, we're more than twice as high in developing economies, around 16%, compared with just above 6% in developed economy.

So we have long known, of course, that smaller firms are more vulnerable.

What this analysis adds today is a clearer evidence of the size of the gap, particularly in developing economies.

So the shock does not create this vulnerabilities.

It hits firms that are already operating under very different conditions and can widen the gap even further.

And this brings us to the most important point in this analysis.

The risk is not only the trade slows globally, it is that smaller firms can be really pushed out.

Of the value chains, even when overall trade begins to recover, we might call this the exclusion effect.

So headline trade figures may recover.

[Other language spoken]

Again headline figures while participation becomes more concentrated amongst larger firms.

So it's not a story about firms only.

It's of course the ripple effect, jobs, incomes and recovery in general.

The policy message from UN trade and development is practical.

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We also need to keep smaller firms connected to trade.

And that means ensuring access to trade finance, liquidity, working capital when costs rise and payment cycles lengthen.

And it means improving access to affordable logistics, trade facilitation, market information in business services.

And it means helping smaller firms maintain and diversify suppliers and customers, hence broadening the base for resilience so that one disruption does not cut them off out or cut them out of markets all together.

The objectiveness, not simply recovery in trade volumes, it's recovery without exclusion.

The analysis is already live.

It's on omtat.org.

We also have a data story we have as a news feature and of course our experts standing by for any more detailed analysis that you might be interested in.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Marcelo for this interesting data.

Let me open the floor to questions if any in the room are online.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see any hand up.

So thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

You're all very clear and comprehensive.

And let's go to our colleagues of WH2.

I think we start with an update on Ebola.

[Other language spoken]

Welcome, Christian.

And I'd like to welcome Luca Fontana, the technical officer of WHO on health and technical logistics.

Who wants to start Christian.

[Other language spoken]

Hello and welcome.

[Other language spoken]

And I'm very glad to have with us today.

My chair is very high.

Yeah, it's high.

So I'm very glad to have with us Luca Fontana, who is working mainly on the logistics part of the Evola response.

That's important.

So mind you, he's not our epidemiologist or virologist, but we'll talk about the whole way how the mission is being set up in the the expansion of the bad capacity and what this all means.

So thank you very much.

Thank you Kristen and thanks everyone.

I have returned from DRC less than 10 days ago and this was my second visit.

I was there in May when we open one of the very first treatment centre in Bunya.

I can't tell you that the scale of the response is massive, but only reflect the scale of the outbreak itself.

More than 900 beds has been built within the first two months of the response and we've now reached close to 1400 beds across 59 treatment centre.

This is one of the fastest treatment scale UPS I've ever witnessed, including during the West Africa Ebola outbreaks.

Yet despite this extraordinary F4, we estimate that another 1600 beds will be required to meet the rapidly growing needs on this most recent mission when I walk back into the treatment centre.

And so the staff had training June, working with confidence, managing patients with calm professional professionalism.

It made me incredibly proud.

I met patients that I'd seen lying on on those same beds weeks earlier, now standing beside us as a caregiver supporting newly admitted patients.

Moment like this made me feel that we were truly on the right tracks, but that feeling was tempered by the reality outside the gates.

Patients were arriving from village outside and far beyond Bunya.

A clear sign that the outbreak was spreading is spreading and that our response must adapt, moving forward with a more decentralised approach and bringing treatment closer to the affected community.

When we talk about bats, we mean much more than just furniture.

Each bed represents an entire space designed to deliver quality, dignified and humanised care for our patients, built to ensure the safety of healthcare worker and conceive to be accessible for family and community.

Expanding treatment capacity means having enough train healthcare worker to care for the patients and approximately we need 3 healthcare worker per patients.

To cover the need for the estimated 3000 beds needed, we need to train 9000 healthcare worker and ensure they have access to personal protective equipments, infection prevention control measure, laboratory support and essential medical supply to do their job safely.

Together with partner, we have been installing water supply, solar panel system and other essential service that will strengthen this treatment centre and benefit communities after the outbreak is over.

This progress has only been possible through close collaboration amongst the Minister of Health, WFP, UNICEF, MSF Africa, CDC, International Medical Corps, Samaritan Purse and Dalima.

Together we are building and equipping treatment centre and ensuring that patients can be safely transported from the community to the treatment centre and home back again.

But more support is needed.

We need additional partners and international organisation to help operate this treatment facility and deliver patients care.

Every treatment centre that is fully staffed and functional means more life saves and a stronger chance of bringing this outbreak under control.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much Luca.

[Other language spoken]

Let me see you have any hand, Christian Erich, thank you.

[Other language spoken]

Can you give us an update how far, how fast this is spreading?

Is there any dent in, in the rate at at which you you register sick people and dead people?

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel that's basing the question?

Well, what we're seeing is that on the 5th of September, so just few days ago, we had more than 6600 confirmed case and 3175 death that has been reported.

And these figures alone are describing the current state of the outbreaks in terms of spreading.

What we're seeing now, as I already mentioned, is that as with within the first couple of months, the majority of patients were coming from Bunya as the epicentre.

Now we're seeing geographical expansion of the outbreaks in the area outside Bunya.

Now we have 6 province that has been affected and that's why the scale up is not only about number of beds in the epicentre that was before, but with this more decentralised approach to cover the newly emerging affected area.

And is it difficult to find people who are interested in getting the training to to be care workers?

Is there a question of pay maybe?

Or are people afraid to come forward to, to do this dangerous and very exhausting work?

[Other language spoken]

Well, first I have to say, and it's my personal opinion, the safest place inside an Ebola outbreaks is the treatment centre itself.

You know, where the patients are, staff is trained and have all the equipment to protect themselves.

The problem is not just finding these healthcare worker to be trained, the problem is to find the right balance.

So we need nearly 9000 healthcare worker to run this Ebola treatment centre.

But at the same times we want to ensure the continuity of essential service for non Ebola care.

People keep getting sick with malaria, woman still get pregnant, still need to deliver and so on.

So the challenging is to identify those healthcare workers from neighbouring province as well, make sure there is a common language, move them to the affected area, train them to keep them and so on.

And for sure paying a salary at the end of the month.

So all these are are important piece of the puzzle that we're trying to address right now.

For instance, when we open a treatment centre that's the construction site WHO design WFP builds UNICEF, the WASH component supply all together and the Minister of felt identified those stuff that are then trained by all partner together before being deployed into a treatment centre.

And that's why more partner and needed as well for deliver the trainings for construction for for delivery of supply.

And again, I mentioned this 1400 bed built in nearly three months.

It's incredible.

But right now we reach this level of saturation that is due to the need of identify staff delivering supply and identify other international actor that are willing to take over those treatment centre once they're ready.

Sorry, just to to clarify, are you saying it's not difficult to find the people?

It's not that people are afraid to work in these centres or just don't want to.

Yeah, don't want to take up these jobs.

Are you saying it's not a problem to find the people?

[Other language spoken]

The problem is finding the right we can't find.

The Minister of Health is actually identifying staff from medical staff from other province and bringing them inside.

The problem is to identify those at fast enough to make sure that we can cover the need, the growing need.

[Other language spoken]

Hi there.

Thank you very much for for this briefing.

[Other language spoken]

I just wanted to clarify, when you said support, do you mean financial support as well as as human resources?

I know that there was a figure of the Congolese government's LED abode, a response plan seeking $1.3 billion.

Is some of that money hoped to be used for helping upscale these treatment centres or are you seeking extra additional funding?

And if so, a figure would be great.

And my second question is what, what is the current gap in terms of the number of healthcare workers that you need to work at least for treatment centres as they expand?

You gave a figure, I think of about 9000 that wasn't clear if that's what you're aiming for or that's what you currently have.

And therefore, what is the gap?

How many people are shorter you currently?

And just a final question as well, you said you need to need an additional 1, 7600 beds.

How quickly do you hope to get them and how urgent is it in terms of time scale?

Are we talking kind of you need them to be set up within weeks, within the next month?

Thanks so very much for this important briefing.

Thank you for this question that for me are all intertwined and connected.

Right now we have nearly 4000 worker currently working inside the treatment centre.

So it means we need X5000 more and how fast we need those human resource on fast.

We need this 1600 bed is as we say in emergence programme by yesterday.

However, we can probably build the treatment centre infrastructure quite fast, but we need to identify the stuff, bringing them to the training facility, trade them, keep them with all necessary personal protective equipment and so on.

And these take time.

Importantly, the decision on where, how big a treatment centre should be built, it's essential, right?

So we try to move now ahead of the outbreaks and try to give priority for the step of the treatment centre to this newly affected area to try to contain this spreading as fast as possible.

In term of resource, I think it's important to understand one.

One thing says that the financial resource, I know the Minister felt plan was released a few weeks ago, but to give you an idea of the scale of the financial needs to run a treatment centre of 50 beds, it cost approximately half, $1,000,000 per month.

So we now we're talking as of today we have 59 treatment centre, OK, we need thousands is 100 more beds.

So running an Ebola response is extremely expensive.

Every time a net care worker walk inside the patient's area wearing the full gear, the personal protective equipment, it's approximately $25.00 with 100 of staff walking inside the patient's area every single days.

And just think about this personal protective equipment that must be procure, shipped by plane, use once and dispose safely in the field.

So the resource needs are massive.

Another important limitation or talking about resource is international organisation.

If we build a treatment centre today and one of the usual organisation docked without border step in to run that facility, at some point they should be able to hand over that facility to someone else.

Otherwise doctor doctor without border resource will be soon saturated.

So more resources needed.

[Other language spoken]

Where are all the organisation that were running treatment centre in West Africa outbreaks in 2014?

[Other language spoken]

Why they're not currently in the field to support this coral response is probably because of lack of resource and this is probably one of the bottleneck now that can delay the scale up plan.

Could you just clarify, did you say dollars half $1,000,000 for per month dollars, not francs dollars.

Any other question?

And yes, AFP, yes, hello, I don't know if it's a question for you or for Christian on Ebola, because it's about financing.

What can you tell us about where the, the response, how much the response is financed, how much is required?

Because Gutierrez has been giving some figures, DRC, there have been some few days ago this 1.3 billion.

So if you could clarify a bit how much funds is needed and how much you are funded so far.

[Other language spoken]

So WHO and the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention that's the Africa CDC launched a six month joint continental preparedness and response plan for the Ebola outbreak with an overall funding requirement of 518,000,005 one $8,000,000 to support countries and partners to prepare for and rapidly detect and respond to the outbreak.

As of 29 August, partners reported 1.6 billion in pledged funding, including 867,000,000 dispersed and another 285,000,000 committed.

A lot of figures here.

W Jo's funding requirement under the plan is 115,000,000.

Double Joe has offers or received 112 million, leaving right now a gap of 2.6 million.

That's only a 2% gap, but given the rapidly evolving nature of the outbreak, the current resource requirements may not fully reflect the funding needed to contain and and the outbreak and are expected to increase.

Revised planning frameworks and cost estimates are being developed to better reflect the scale and cost of interventions required.

Maybe would be great if you would share this.

Yeah, it looks like these figures would be necessary here.

I'll, I'll, we'll send them the government LED plan for the next 6 months comes with an ask of another figure 1.3 billion U.S.

dollars covering the work of all partners.

And that's what we asked as we asked donors to increase and accelerate the contributions because that is an evolving situation.

[Other language spoken]

I'm I'm sending the the figures over.

[Other language spoken]

When was that launch?

And is the government figure inside the OR outside the global figure you mentioned?

I do not have the date here.

I only have the date that I had for the, the the pledged, the partners pledging on 29 August.

I don't have another date here right now.

And the numbers are overlapping or it's outside the government's request.

So that yeah, there there's the the one we prepared this plan because that's for the overall funding requirement of 518 and there's, there's more to it, which is then over, but also overlapping.

[Other language spoken]

Olivia, did Luca forget to answer any of your question?

If anything you said something interesting which I just want to declare to get further clarification on just in terms of this point about kind of bottlenecks.

So just to check.

[Other language spoken]

So you're saying that if a treatment centre is is created and for example run by 1 organisation, at some point you would need another organisation to come in and kind of provide either supplementary support or kind of take out assist with the running of it.

But you're saying that what thing is a gap there that that's just not happening and is that because of broader kind of global donor cuts and the kind of bigger financing landscape or something kind of more more specific that I've perhaps overlooked?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, indeed at some point there are not too many organisation that are able to set up and open treatment centre for Ebola.

It require an incredible expertise and let's say there are 56 organisation and they're all currently in in the field.

If we don't manage to free up the resource of those organisation, they will get stuck inside the current treatment centre and not able to move somewhere else where it's needed.

So yes, there there is a need to have more international partner to come in the field, take over a treatment centre that has been run for 6 to 8 weeks.

And now let's say everything is running smoothly.

This stuff has been trained and know what to do.

But we still need some organisation that is supporting for the management, for the supply, for the salary cost.

And what we're seeing is the field is that this support is kind of missing.

What's happening now is that the Minister of Health is taking over treatment centre that were open the very beginning of the outbreaks like Mungwalu.

So the Minister of Health is taking over from the organisation that's open, Mungwalu.

But at some point, the Minister of Health will reach their capacity level as well.

So more actor in the field will be needed to ensure that the most experienced partner can move in the front line again, Why they're not, Why this is not happening?

Yeah, most probably because the funds cut that is affecting the ability of this international organisation to step in, arrive in the field and take over those facility.

Thank you very much.

I think we've exhausted the questions on Ebola.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Luca, for for coming and and explaining all this.

Christian, you stay with us because you have another guest, your colleague, Dr Kirsten Shotte, who is the medical officer on the Tobacco Free initiative.

And I welcome her to tell us about I think it's a new report or for the International Day.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Alessandra.

Good morning, everybody.

Yes, WHO has launched a new report today where we summarise all the evidence on the link between tobacco smoking and infertility.

And what we found is that women who smoke have a 40% higher risk of infertility compared to women who do not smoke.

And we also found an association between tobacco smoking, second hand tobacco smoking and infertility.

So women who are exposed to second hand tobacco smoke have a 20% higher risk of infertility as compared to women who live without second hand smoke exposure.

Infertility, of course, it's not only a topic of women but also of men.

And in our analysis, we saw that men who smoke also have reproductive dysfunction issues, including semen quality impairment and sexual dysfunction.

There's also some good news in the report, we found that smoking cessation.

So if women quit smoking, they have a 25% reduced risks of infertility as compared to women who continue to smoke.

So for all people who plan pregnancies, our message is stop smoking, improve your health, improve your reproductive health as well.

And most importantly, all healthcare professionals that work with people who are planning pregnancies, they should inform these people about the risks of smoking and offer evidence based help to quit smoking.

That's it.

[Other language spoken]

Incredible numbers.

Wow, it's impressive the percentage.

Let me open the floor to question if there's any is that report has been distributed.

Christian the your mic.

So the publication is live as of today.

It's available on our website and we have a global webinar tomorrow at 11 AM Geneva time where we have a bunch of experts from around the world and we have interpretation in Spanish, French and Chinese for the webinar.

Thank you very much.

Is there any question waiting for the to ask them tomorrow at the web at the webinar probably don't see any hand up.

So thank you very much Doctor Shottes this really interesting report.

I know, sorry, maybe I can ask you to come back.

There is a question we've just been raised.

I think it's for you.

[Other language spoken]

Let's ask this is actually a set this is for Christian actually.

So on a separate who related to that issue.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks very much.

Yeah, sorry, it's just a question on Bangladesh, you know, reports of of rising cases of measles as well as dengue fever.

I was just wondering what the whose assessment is of what's happening in Bangladesh in terms of vaccine stock outs or shortages and where exactly the problem is coming from, particularly in relations to the measles situation or they would be curious if there's any impact as well.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you with microphone.

Thanks very much, Olivia.

I don't have data on this with me now today, but please give us a quick heads up at media enquiries dot at WHO and INT and we'll follow up.

Thank you very much, Christian.

Any other question to WHOI don't see any hand up.

So Christian, thank you very much again.

And let's repeat the appeal.

Do not smoke if you want to have children and it's easier.

Thomas for UNECE, another interesting important information on that, the centre and energy.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning everybody.

So UNEC experts have warned that the rapid expansion of data intensive technologies such as hyperscale data centres and particularly those involved in artificial intelligence, has significant implications for energy system reliability and resilience.

Now this is of course in addition to important implications for infrastructure investment, water resources, land use, economic development and local communities.

To put this into perspective, global electricity consumption by data centres is projected to increase from approximately 485 terawatt hours in 2025 to 950 terawatt hours by 2030.

So that's equivalent to 3% of global demand.

Some countries are even projecting consumption of 15 to 18% by 2030.

So significant use, additional demand as well comes from cryptocurrency mining and industrial electrification.

Now of course there are great sums at stake as I'm sure you're all aware in terms of capital expenditure on data centres, the forecast is, is a rise from roughly 800 billion per year in 2026 to 1.8 trillion per year in 2050.

So given the scale and speed of these developments and experts are coming together to discuss implications on on many areas and energy in particular is an area of focus at UNECE as you know.

And the experts have prepared a new paper to inform debates at our intergovernmental committee on sustainable energy, which we'll meet later this month.

Now, in many regions, demand growth from so-called large load facilities is outpacing the expansion of electricity infrastructure and while the former can be deployed in two to five years, data centres, transmission networks, so the grid and distribution often require more than a decade due to planning and permitting constraints.

Hence the importance of accelerating discussion and and the means to make sure the right decisions are made now.

Now the mismatch is already visible in several jurisdictions.

To give a couple of examples, Ireland has introduced connection restrictions in around Dublin.

The Netherlands have tightened planning decisions due to infrastructure and land constraints.

And in the US, large loads, particularly data centres, are projected to drive significant increases in equipment demand and supply chain pressures.

Now in systems with high shares of renewable energy, AI data centres can have disproportionate effects on voltage and frequency stability.

Now this is due to the rapid variability in the demand they put on the electricity.

Now in extreme cases, this can lead to voltage oscillations, unintended disconnections and cascading failures.

So naturally to be avoided.

So, highlighting the limited availability, sorry, the limited visibility of this behaviour and of these trends as a key operational risk.

The paper prepared by the experts UNECE is calling for enhanced data transparency as well as standardised reporting and real time information exchange.

This is to support both the planning and the operation.

An important aspect is stronger coordination among developers, system operators, regulators, local authorities and agencies, including those responsible for water, land use and infrastructure.

Location and sighting policies are also expanding, but not at the speed required and remaining only partially effective.

So the large loads are tending to cluster in areas with favourable connectivity and regulation.

So this leads to stress on the grid in those areas and a misalignment sometimes between private investment decisions and the needs of the system.

Now the paper emphasises that citing decisions must therefore account for water availability, land constraints, environmental impacts, digital connectivity and of course opportunities for local socio economic development.

On the environmental side, frameworks and reporting should therefore take full account of life cycle impacts covering energy, carbon emissions, water, land, materials and the footprints of e-waste.

They should also consider the cumulative impacts where multiple facilities are concentrated in the same areas.

The experts are also warning that in regions with low cost electricity, while there might be an attraction for large scale computing, the cheap energy alone does not ensure durable economic benefits.

Another issue requiring attention is the cost allocation for the grid expansion particularly.

Therefore, clear frameworks are required to allocate the costs and the risks fairly among developers, infrastructure providers and consumers.

So this paper and the ongoing work is has been developed by an international task force on Digitalization and Energy at UNEC.

The recommendation overall is that on the long term is that over the long term, data centres, especially AI oriented facilities, should be assessed not only through grid adequacy emissions, but also broader macroeconomic distribution and sovereign sovereignty as well as environmental perspectives.

And without deliberate policy design, countries risk using electricity resources to generate externally captured value while absorbing infrastructure costs and labour market impacts domestically.

The key message here is that aligning data centre growth with public interest requires integrated governance, treating energy planning, socio economic development, digital policy, environmental management, spatial planning and even national security as a unified strategic framework.

Experts conclude that authorities should respond to the growth of data centres and other large loads through a phased road map.

So this combines immediate risk management with longer term planning and reform.

The objective overall is to move from reactive decisions about power connection to a strategic integration of these issues, ensuring overall benefits for grid resilience, decarbonisation, economic development, responsible resource use and value for the public.

Now to learn more about all of these issues, and they are complex indeed, we invite you to attend the discussions on this and other topics at the upcoming session of the Committee on Sustainable Energy at your NEC.

That's 28th September to the 1st of October and we will inform you of highlights throughout that week's programme.

Nearer the time, the overall focus will be strengthening energy security, affordability and sustainability in an uncertain world.

That's it.

On that topic, I just want to mention another development very briefly.

We let you know last week that Malawi became the latest country to join the UN Water Convention specifically to strengthen their climate resilience through the shared management of water resources with their neighbours.

So that's the 60th party overall and the 15th, 15th from Africa and the 5th from Southern Africa.

So countries again looking to cooperate to address those increasingly complex challenges of water resources.

And we'll keep you updated as more and more countries join ahead of the UN Water Conference later this year.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for this exhaustive updates.

I don't know if there are any questions in the room or online.

I don't see any.

I think you have distributed those data because there are quite a few numbers.

Also, thank you very much for the update.

So I'm I don't see anything.

Thank you very much.

I'm left with a few announcements for you, quite a few in fact.

So I'll start now with the first one, which is about the press conference of this afternoon.

As you have been informed, this afternoon at 2:00 PM there will be an update on the human rights situation in Syria by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Republic.

And the the Commissioner will be there, so in this room at 2:00 PM.

And of course you have the programme of the Council, which continues his work he started yesterday, always on human right.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child will end the review of the report submitted by Uganda regarding the implementation of the Convention and then we'll review the report of Burkina Faso, which will be ended tomorrow morning.

UNIDIR is also organising a a conference here in Geneva today and tomorrow.

And the conference will concern the outer space security.

The Outer Space Security Conference 2026 here at the PAL.

WTO has asked me to read you.

I find it, where is it?

Sorry, too many papers here to inform you that the World Trade Organisation is organising.

[Other language spoken]

Press conference on the 2026 World Trade Report is going to take place on Monday 14th September at 1:00 PM Geneva time in Room D at the WTO and on Zoom.

The embargo lifts on the 15th September at 11:45 Central European time, a day after the press conference.

The press conference will feature Chief economist Robert Steiger and if you wish to participate where in person on online, you have to e-mail the media team@wwto.org.

WTOWHO, if I'm not wrong, will be closed Thursday and Friday for the junction of the Paladin will be closed on Thursday and we will see if we maintain the press conference, sorry, the press briefing on Friday, we will inform you, but definitely on Thursday, the palate will be closed.

A couple of information from outside Geneva.

One is Today is a big day in New York for the General Assembly.

At 11 AM New York time, the General Assembly will hold a plenary meeting to close its 80th session with statement by the Secretary General and by the President of the General Assembly and Elena Bail Book, followed by the oath of office by the President-elect, Dr Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh.

At 12 noon New York time, Doctor Rahman will deliver brief remarks to the press.

And then at 3:00 PM, always New York time, the General Assembly will open its 81st session, presided over by Khalil Rahman, with the appointment of the members of the Credential Committee and the adoption of the agenda.

You can follow all this on UN Web TV.

And then I'm asked by our colleague of UNOPS to give you 2 information first of all.

Yesterday they put out a statement or attributable to to Jorge Moreira da Silva there and the Secretary General, you know, Executive Director on the anniversary, one year anniversary to from the moment the Taliban, the de facto authorities of Afghanistan, implemented the ban on Afghan female colleagues entering UN premises across the country.

You may remember that we have also sent you on Sunday a statement attributable to the spokesperson for the Secretary General also on this subject.

This anniversary is a sad one and we all, father, we all urge de facto authority to leave all restriction, not only those imposed on UN staff, but also on women and girls and uphold their rights to full, equal and meaningful participation in all aspects of Afghan society.

And also I would like to inform you also on behalf of colleagues from UNOPS, that a senior colleague of UNOPS is in the poll for the floods response and she's available for interviews at distance of course too.

I think that's about it yeah, that's what I have for you.

It's not bad already quite a few information.

So if you don't have any other question, let me see if there's any on the platform don't see any quite any hand up.

So thank you very much.

I would, I would wish you a very good jungle well for Friday and and we will keep you informed for for on Thursday.

We will keep you informed on Friday and definitely of course we'll be back on Tuesday next week.

[Other language spoken]

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 08 September 2026