Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service of the UN in Geneva.
Today is Tuesday, 3rd of November.
I'd like to start this briefing focusing on children.
For this, I'd like to welcome Maisa Jalbu, who is the Director of Education.
Cannot wait, the partnership that you know well.
You have been having various events in Geneva and she will talk about the next conference and report Mesa.
Thank you, Alessandra and good morning colleagues.
This Thursday, governments and partners will gather here in Geneva for Education Cannot Wait high level replenishment conference hosted by the government of Switzerland.
We're calling for 600 million U.S.
dollars in predictable multi year financing to reach 10 million children and adolescents with quality education between 2027 and 2030 with two days to go.
My appeal is to governments, foundations and private sector partners to join this effort and make a commitment today.
258,000,000 children, school aged children and adolescents are affected by crisis worldwide.
93,000,000 are entirely out of school.
Nearly 80% of crisis affected children who are out of school live in just twenty countries.
We know where the needs are concentrated and we have partners working to reach them.
For these children, education offers safety, continuity and the chance to build a future amid conflict, displacement and disaster.
Every year of learning lost makes the future harder to recover.
Over the past decade, ECW and its partners have reached 16,000,000 children across more than 40 countries.
We've demonstrated that education can be delivered in some of the world's most difficult settings.
The task now is to sustain those gains and reach more children.
That requires predictable funding.
A child education cannot depend on whether their crisis is still making headlines.
Keeping children learning through a prolonged conflict and displacement requires support that lasts nearly 80% of crisis.
Governments and partners will announce their commitments on Thursday.
Alongside those announcements, the conference will advance 3 priorities.
First, national and local leadership ministers from crisis affected countries will speak about the decisions they face, how keeping education going, supporting teachers and reaching children, and in insecurity and displacement.
Their priorities must shape how international support is designed and delivered.
ECW has committed to directing at least 50% of its financing to local and national partners by 2030.
The conference will be an opportunity to strengthen the partnerships that make this possible.
Second, bringing more resources into education and emergencies.
While sustained government support remains essential, we will also bring together development finance institutions, philanthropy, banks, and institutional investors to explore how additional resources can support children's education.
Innovative financing can complement public funding and connect new partners to a proven education response.
Does it bring additional resources and improve children's opportunities to learn?
Third, learning from students and teachers.
They will bring their experience directly into the discussion, continuing an education after displacement, teaching through insecurity and rebuilding learning when classrooms and communities have been disrupted.
They highlight what it make, what it takes to keep children in school and ensure they achieve meaningful learning outcomes.
Their perspectives will help connect the commitments made in Geneva to the conditions needed for education to continue.
The commitments made this week will determine how many more children we can support, how quickly we can respond, and how long that support can last.
I urge governments and partners to make the strongest commitments they can on Thursday and those who have yet to join us to come forward.
For journalists, interviews with ministers, senior officials, students, teachers and financing partners will be available with a dedicated media corner at the conference.
And I'd like and I'd like to add that we have distributed on your behalf the immediate advisory and the press kits.
You have it in your mailboxes.
So let me open the floor to question now on this important conference in the room.
I don't see any hand up or on the platform.
I think everything has been very clear Mesa on this, on this conference and you please stay if, if you wish, we continue speaking about the same subject basically, but applied to 1 country because Ricardo has some information to share with you on children in Ukraine, exactly what Mesa was talking about children in an armed conflict.
Thank you Mesa for the briefing.
Indeed, it segues well into what I came here to talk about today.
Children in Ukraine are facing growing disruptions to their education as air raid alarms continue to interrupt their school they amid ongoing escalating attacks.
The impact is being felt in classrooms across the country.
Since the start of 20262027 school year, children have experienced an average of 34 hours of air raid alarms during school time, equivalent to more than 13% of scheduled learning, according to data covering the period up to 20 of October.
Air raid alarms have occurred on nearly 2/3 of school days in the period of September and October 2026, compared with around 1/3 in the equal period of 2025.
The average duration of alarms during school hours has almost doubled from September 2025 to September 2026.
In Kiev alone, school time alarms rose from 2012 Excuse me in September 2025 to 71 in September 2026.
In Niebro, Petrovsky, Kirovrad and Kharkiv regions, children have experienced more than 60 hours of school time alarms, equivalent to approximately 1/4 of scheduled learning hours, affecting more than 560,000 children.
15 year old Katya from Vikolaev region is one of them, she told us.
I've just returned to in person school.
However, we still spend most of our school day in a shelter because of air raids.
It is difficult to concentrate and learn properly in these conditions.
In addition to air raids and alarms, the UN has verified almost 2000 attacks on education facilities across Ukraine, including some 22170 in 2026 alone.
That's 270 this year alone.
Children must be protected from attacks, and every child has the right to learn in safety.
And what's going on in Ukraine is showing that education is being impacted and a solution needs to come quickly because a whole generation is at risk of not catching up to their full potential.
Alessandra, I have a line also to read on Myanmar, but maybe I could pause.
So we can ask questions from both.
We're also alarmed by reports that three children were killed and five others injured when an air strike struck a school serving displaced children and families in Loicav Township, Kayak State and Myanmar on 31st October.
Further air strikes were reported in Rakhine State over the weekend, including one that struck a temporary healthcare facility, reportedly reportedly killing a newborn baby and healthcare workers.
Children are again bearing the brunt for conflict.
They're being killed and injured in the very places where they should be safe and protected, including schools and healthcare facilities.
UNICEF calls on all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligation under international humanitarian law and take all necessary measures to protect children.
Question whether on Ukraine or yeah or Let's start with the refi, Jeremy.
Now just a quick one on the on the figures you said, if I understand correctly, 2000 more than 2000 attacks on education facilities.
Is that since the start of the war in 2022?
Yes, that's since the beginning of the conflict.
I saw another hand on that side.
I'm wondering if anyone has started to measure the impact of this either on learning exam grades or on mental health for children in Ukraine.
Thanks for that question, Emma.
Indeed, in terms of mental health, the impact is being measured.
I don't have the figures right here in front of me, but surely I can go to our country office and ask for the latest survey or, or results that they might have had in doing a poll with with young children and and adolescents.
But when I was there about a month ago, talking to children who've been learning on the ground through school shelters, because it's not safe for them to be above ground.
And even then they are dealing with air raid alarms, alarms all the time.
You could feel that some of them, especially the older ones, expressed a lot of anxiety and, and shared with us their kind of ability, inability to fully concentrate and kind of leave what's happening above ground behind when they go up underground to learn.
And even though the facilities are safe and the, the teachers are there and classes are trying to go on as as expected in any school, children have been just absolutely exhausted by nearly five years of war.
And the impact it is visual.
And when you talk to them, they, they're very front forward in sharing how it's been impacting their mental health as well, especially with anxiety.
And, and that this inability to keep what's happening in terms of the war outside the door when they go underground into the shelters in terms of the impact on their learning.
Indeed, there was the Pisa results that came out in September for OECD countries and and Ukraine was, was part of that analysis and I did a Palais back when I was in Ukraine specifically mentioning that.
So I, I can share with you again some of the numbers, but the, the overall message is that indeed it is impacting their potential.
It hasn't dropped compared to the the results that were that came out in 2022.
So right at the onset of the war.
They haven't worsened, but there is no improvement, which means children are being extremely resilient and and their former resistance is staying in school and trying to keep up with their peers, but it's not improving either.
And Ukraine has always been, I guess, historically a country that showed a lot of potential in terms of the upcoming generations and their ability to learn and their results in terms of education.
And now it's to say the bare minimum stagnated because of the war.
So there is definitely a direct impact.
I remember when you showed us a classroom underground.
That was really incredible to see these children underground studying.
Macy, you want to add something to that?
Yeah, I just wanted to add, whether it's Ukraine, Gaza or Sudan, these wars have huge impact on children and their ability to learn to the point where we at education cannot wait.
And all of our partners are having to prioritise funding for psychosocial counselling, carving away money that we essential, money that we need for teaching and learning in order to support the children's ability to cope with learning in very difficult circumstance.
Given the numerous attacks on school infrastructure in Ukraine, do you have an estimation on how many school right now are still operational compared to before the war?
Thank you for your question.
I, I don't have that figure here right in front of me, but surely less schools are operational now than than before the war, especially because school infrastructure has been hit across the country and even the ones that are still standing most of the time children and and young people are being asked to go underground to learn.
Just because of the amount of air raid alarms that go through the day.
When I was there again, I remember a university building was was struck during the day and luckily because of the air alerts, the students were underground learning.
So nobody got injured or impacted.
But surely it has has had a negative impact on the number of schools.
If you have, if you found this figure, please.
Yeah, I will check with our country officer.
So thank you very much to both our speakers.
My Sajal Boo, the director of Education cannot wait.
Good luck with the conference.
We really cross fingers that they funding call appeal will be fulfilled.
And thanks Ricardo for this update on the situation our children in these two particular conflict.
So let's now go to the second part of our briefing, which is dedicated to Yemen.
For this, I'd like to welcome Francisco Galtieri, who is the country representative for Yemen of the UNFPA.
I can see you are connected, but I cannot see you yet.
I think we need to put on your camera.
Yes, That's that's Yeah, that's it.
You wanted to give us an update.
Welcome on the situation for women and girls, especially in Teresa and the other IDP camps, please.
Thank you very much, Daniela, and good morning to all the colleagues.
Thank you for having me for the second time since the escalation of the hostilities.
Before entering into the humanitarian updates, please allow me to take a moment to remember our OHCHR and former UNFPA colleague, Mohammed Al Shami, who died while being held in arbitrary detention by the de facto authorities here in Yemen.
Sincerely, my thoughts and the thoughts of our team here and heartfelt condolences go to his wife, his children and and their family.
Francesco, if you allow me on this particular point, I wanted to read it at the end.
But since you have mentioned our our colleague, if you don't mind, I, I can that I read the statement on that.
Well, first of all, on Saturday, we have distributed the statement of the Secretary General.
You have received it, but I would like to also read this.
As you've seen, over the weekend we received the horrible news of the death of one of our colleagues, Mohamed El Shami, as Francesco has mentioned, while in detention by the Houthis.
And we shared the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights statement from this yesterday and the Secretary General one on Saturday.
Mr El Shami served with the Office of the High Commissioner in Yemen, and he had been arbitrarily detained by the Houthis since the 6th of June 2024.
The circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.
Since his detention in 2024, the Houthi de facto authorities have provided neither information about his well-being nor had provided proof of life, despite the repeated requests by the United Nations.
The Secretary General has called for an immediate, impartial, transparent and thorough investigation into this incident.
The Secretary General remains gravely concerned for the safety and and physical and psychological well-being of the 70 United Nations personnel, five former UN staff members and personnel from humanitarian and civil society who remain arbitrarily detained to this day.
He reiterates his call for their immediate and unconditional release.
And we extend of course, how our heartfelt condolences to Mr.
Al Shami's families, friends and colleagues.
As Francesco said, thank you, Francesco, please go ahead on with the briefing on the situation of women and girls.
So since the last brief you 6 weeks ago, fighting of course, in, in parts of Yemen have intensified to level that haven't been seen since 2020.
So the displacement from the West Coast and tide has tripled ever since, with nearly 300,000 people now uprooted from their homes.
And more than half of them, of course, are unfortunately women and children.
And 33% of the displaced families are LED through this extreme hardship by women as a fighting intensifies.
As you can imagine, women are losing access to very basic services they need to survive, from maternity care to protection against violence.
Already since the beginning of this year, 6.2 million women and girls lack access to basic protection services.
And of course, in displacement sites, they faced heightened risks of gender based violence, including sexual violence, harassment, exploitation, post child marriage and other harmful practises.
These threats of course, compounded by displacement, loss of uncertainty are also taking a severe toll on their mental and psychosocial health and well-being.
Just to give you one story, Safa is a 14 years old girl that our service providers have met and she fled in Lash.
She told UNFPA that she had lost her mother earlier this year and has no siblings, and her father married her when the crisis started to an elderly man just a few weeks ago because the father feared that he would have no chance to protect to protect Safa in case he had been harmed or killed.
During the hostility so honestly, Sapa words show how war can strip away protection at every turn through bereavement, displacement, fear and child marriage.
Unfortunately, her story is a stark reminder of the impossible choices some families are facing and the devastating consequences, particularly for girl now specifically on Thai city, the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation on health and protection is what I will go.
I'm going to to be addressing specifically.
So nowhere is the cost of interrupted care clearer than in that area.
In ties and around ties, life saving services are being significantly cut off for more than one 147 thousand women and and girls of bearing childbearing age.
Out of the total 27 designated emergency maternal neonatal hospitals, only 5 are partially functioning and UNFPA estimates that over 13,000 pregnant women currently lack essential services, including 1500 who are due to give birth within the next two weeks.
And 75% of or protection services had to be suspended for the lack of funding, problems with access and the lack of qualified service provider personnel.
Currently, the UNFPA supported Swedish Motherhood and Childhood hospital.
There has been in the news the city's main materialised the city main maternal care facility.
The number of childbirth delivery have halved from 4:50 average per day, while the number of functioning incubators had to be reduced from 40 to 10 because of fewer shortages.
Night times hospitalizations have dropped to almost 0 because of insecurity and shelling is preventing women are preventing women from travelling and staff as well.
Health personnel are extremely overstretched and they struggle to get to work because of lack of fuel and the prohibitive prices.
And this limits, of course, the hospital's ability to manage obstetrical OR emergencies and complications at the time of delivery.
So unless access restrictions are lifted in the coming days, the hospital itself could close.
Inside the city, midwives report that severely malnourished pregnant women are surviving on one or maximum 2 meals a day.
But we are talking over a cup of tea or some bread and plain rice.
And so midwives report that the number of miscarriages and increased home unsafe deliveries has increased.
And meanwhile, of course, the lack of safe humanitarian supply routes is preventing the replenishment of essential reproductive health supplies as well as the fuel for the hospitals and other life sustaining supplies.
Of course, we all agree that no woman should have to risk her life simply because she's giving birth to a new life in a war zone.
So UNFPA with our partners, we are responding wherever access allows through the UN Rapid Response mechanism that UNFPA leads on behalf of the humanitarian country team in Yemen.
We have currently reached more than 182,000 people, which is roughly the 75% of the displaced households since the beginning of the escalations.
And noting that of course, this is the number of the of the people assisted since the beginning of the escalations.
Before I will give, I was giving you the total number of displaced people since the 1st of August.
And we have dispatched 55 metric tonnes of maternal medicines and supply to support that would be enough to support roughly 100 and 120,000 pregnant women in the affected conflict areas over the next four to six months.
We have 129 community midwives who are reaching out to their, what we call catchment areas.
So the areas they cover where they go and proactively seek and support pregnant women.
And we have activated 5 integrated reproductive health and protection emergency mobile teams that are sustaining life saving services in these areas.
And as of yesterday, they have been able still to reach 4 out of the five districts of Thai City and the surroundings.
So we do echo the Secretary General's call for an immediate de escalation, the protection of civilians and safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access.
We feel to to approach the closing that too often the needs of women and girls are the first to be overlooked and the last to be heard.
Societies always praise women's resilience without necessarily standing by their side in a tangible way.
And yet this women and girls are suffering.
This women and girls suffering.
Their voices must not disappear behind the statistics of war which seem to attract most of the attention.
Their voices must be heard, their rights must be protected and their lives must be treated as a priority because when the world listens, of course the world can act.
And in Yemen now, action is needed and cannot wait.
Thank you very much for this update.
Francisco, let me open the floor to questions now.
Let me see if any in the room.
I don't see any hand up or on the platform.
So I think we've been yes.
Jamie Kitton is Associated Press.
Jamie, you have the floor.
Thank you so much for for coming to see us.
I just wanted to know if you could talk about the issue of safe drinking water and water in general since the Houthis have tightened their encirclement on Thai city.
How are women and pregnant women navigating these issues right now?
And how many a turn maternity hospitals and facilities are still functional in the city?
I mean, are, are pregnant women starting to show signs of malnourishment and dehydration because the city has been, you know, cut off from supplies since early October.
So that would be great if you could address those questions, please.
Francesco, thank you very much, Jamie, and thanks to The Associated Press to have us also last week, you know, the currently we are starting seeing major issues with safe and drinking water as well as with food.
So as I was mentioning, the malnutrition is evident and the number of women who are living just on a cup of tea and maybe some rice every day is increasing the number of pregnant women.
So with the colleagues from from the food security cluster, we are extremely concerned and pregnant and lactating women are one of the priority groups for the mega resources that are available for the water.
Of course, UNICEF is leading the effort to provide support, but unfortunately, as we know, the main routes, particularly from the government of Yemen controlled areas into Thais have been completely cut off.
Now for the past few weeks, we have been seeking proactively a partnership with the private, some private sector actors because they have a greater agility sometimes to bring in smaller quantities.
The current major challenge is that some of the supplies that are needed are bulky supplies and so already the mountainous roads of Yemen are not easy to navigate for trucks.
You can imagine when as a logistic clusters supporting the humanitarian aid deployment, I mean distribution, we currently have 18 trucks waiting to go, but they cannot pass from anywhere for both security issues and and infrastructural problems now.
So it is an issue, we have been trying to addressing it, seizing every opportunity, including the partnership with the private sector.
But we realise that this lifeline is not going to be sustainable for long.
Now when it comes to the reproductive health facilities in the city of Thais.
And of course, we include also the two nearby districts.
We are at 5:00 as I was mentioning and, and it's very concerning also because the only 5 out of 27 that are still functional, they are all in the urban area of Thais.
But we, we, we, we are still very much concerned about the people in the rest of the locations, including the people in on the West Coast and the pregnant women on the West Coast who are luckily still having an access to the Doctor Without Borders facilities in Mocha and Khaka.
Because as UNFPA leading to reproductive Health working group within the Humanitarian country team, we are closely mapping what each partner is able to do, no matter how limited and small, because those are the resources we have available to offer to these pregnant women.
Thank you for this briefing.
Francesco, just a question about what you mentioned there about miscarriages.
I think you said that midwives are reporting an increase in the number of miscarriages and and unsafe deliveries.
I was just wondering, sorry, just to catch which, which part of Yemen those midwives were reporting that and whether they are directly making the link between the current conditions and, and, and that phenomena.
And I was also wondering as well, you know, giving details as well on the situation in Marie.
But I mean, is, is this the problem across the border?
Are there certain areas where this is this problem is just much more acute?
Obviously Kai is being being one, I'm sure.
Thank you very much, Olivia.
So we our midwives, I mean the network of midwives that TNFPA supports directly and or through our partners specifically in the most affected areas is 59 midwives.
And they are deployed as I was mentioning with within you know, to to take responsibility within specific catchment areas, within specific locations so they can do a more frequent follow up and so on.
Now what when we look at numbers just within the area of ties, right currently we estimate around 13,000 pregnant women and 6400 are from the displaced women.
For the 6400, we expect roughly 1500 obstetric emergencies because of the distress this women have gone through because of the the physical trial there to go through by walking, being pregnant, carrying the families, carrying their goods.
And so this, this increase in miscarriages has been observed within the most affected areas, primarily the areas in and around Thai city.
When it comes in, unfortunately, sorry, just to say we don't have an equally regular incoming set of information and data from the West Coast with the exception of course of the of the two facilities supported by Doctor Without Borders and 15 of our previously 18 supported midwives in the area of Babar Manda who are still there and with whom we're still in touch.
Three of those 18 being currently actually in Djibouti, they left the country.
When it comes to Maori, the situation is still concerning when it comes to the displacement.
At the same time, facilities are still running and numbers are not equally overwhelming as in tyres.
And in addition, we still have supply access to Marib.
Just yesterday through the rapid response mechanism, we could restock our suppliers for 5000 more households should higher numbers reach the city of Marib.
And we've also been able to reprogram some of the resources that we were previously providing to some hospitals in Married that now no longer provide reproductive services because they are dedicated to trauma.
We have redeployed those capacities and the financial and commodity support to the main hospitals in Married that are receiving pregnant women.
So the situation is not alarming, is of course, still a situation where a high number of the population is is in humanitarian need and in a country where maternal mortality is the highest in the whole Arab region.
So three women before the escalation were estimated losing their life while giving birth every day.
Thank you very much, Francesco.
These figures are appalling.
Really no other hands up I can see.
So thank you very much, Francisco.
Keep informing us of this dire situation in Yemen.
Good luck with your work and I'd like now to call to the podium our colleagues of Aiello.
Welcome, Zaina, you have brought us J He Chung.
I hope I pronounced it well.
The Senior Relations Specialist of the Bureau for Employers Activities at Aiello.
You have an update on a report on women in business and management.
Thank you very much and good morning colleagues.
Indeed, As Alessandra just mentioned, the ILO has released its Women in Business and Management Scaling Success report today, 3rd of November.
The embargo has been lifted.
It was lifted at 9:30 GMT and we're lucky to have my colleague Jahi Chang with us, who's the co-author of the report as well as the Senior Relations Specialist of the Bureau of Employment Employers Activities at the ILO.
So without further ado, I hand over to Jahi.
Thank you saying that and thank you, Alessandra.
Women today are more educated and skilled than ever before.
And globally, women's participation and tertiary education exceeds that of men's.
Yet women still hold only 30% of management positions worldwide.
And despite the number of women employers nearly doubling over the past three decades, women still account for less than 1/4 of employers globally.
Why is this growing pool of female talent still not translating fully into business and economic opportunities?
This is exactly the question that we asked ourselves when we set out to do this research and produce our Women in Business and Management Scaling Success Report.
Our findings draw on three rounds of ILO Enterprise Surveys in 20/13/2018 and 2025 as well as on three decades of labour market data.
We looked at nearly 12,000 enterprises across 99 countries and I would like to highlight three key findings.
First, there has been real progress at the top.
In 202528 point 2% of enterprises had a woman CEO and this is up from 23.4% in 2013 and the proportion of women board chair more than doubled from 13.1% to 30.9%.
But looking further down the management pipeline, the picture is more mixed.
Gender balance has improved at senior and top management levels, but it's declined at junior and particularly at middle management levels.
Women are also much more represented in areas such as human resources administration then they are in roles that have more direct responsibility for business performance, like in sales, operations, research and development.
And there is these functions that can provide important pathways to senior leadership.
So progress at the top is encouraging, but it needs a strong pipeline beneath it if it is to continue and to be effective.
Second, enterprises are reporting a stronger business case for gender equality and diversity.
Nearly seven in 10 enterprises surveyed in 2025 reported achieving Better Business outcomes with their gender equality and diversity initiatives, and this is an increase of more than 11 percentage points since 2018.
Enterprises reported benefits for attracting and retaining talent, innovation, reputation, employee engagement and productivity, and they also reported increases in profits.
Enterprises with women CEOs and women board chairs were also more likely to report stronger business outcomes.
But there is another finding in the report which deserves attention.
While we know more about the measures that enterprises consider effective, fewer enterprises report actually implementing such measures.
Enterprise that identified A maternity leave and support programmes, measures to prevent and address faster harassment at work and equal pay initiatives.
Among the most effective actions yet across the initiative examined, the average share of enterprises reporting implementation of these measures, and especially measures that they themselves told were effective, fell from 37.4% in 2018 to 26.5% in 2025.
The survey tells us that this decline has happened.
It does not tell us why, and understanding what lies behind this trend will require further research.
But the finding raises an important question.
How do we move from policies and good intentions to concrete and sustained action?
The report points to practical approaches like measurement targets, stronger management pipelines, and better access for women to functions and sectors that can open opportunities for leadership and enterprises.
Action is only part of that picture.
Structural barriers outside of the workplace, including unequal care responsibilities, persistent social norms, also effects women's opportunities to participate and progress at work.
In conclusion, the evidence in this report reinforces a clear message there has been progress.
There is a strong business case, but considerable potential remains underutilised.
The priority now is to sustain that progress and scale what works.
So thank you for listening today.
And before I close, I would also like to let you know that the full report will be presented tomorrow, 4th of November at 1330 Central European time at a global live streamed event through ILO TV.
And we will go further looking more closely at what the data tells us about the Magent pipeline measures that appear to be working and how these findings play out in different national and regional contexts.
I'll start with Emma Reuters.
Sorry, I haven't had a chance to read the report yet.
30%, Could you just comment on where this is historically, I assume this is the highest ever and has it evolved, how it has evolved over time?
The question from Reuters, indeed, we have looked at the labour market data across 30 years.
So that's three decades and the the share has been increasing over the years, but at a very, let's say slow plate pace.
And within the report, we provide that figure, and I think it goes from about maybe 24% to 30% over the past three decades.
I've not gone through the report, but my question is a bit more different in the sense that do the patriarchal societies where hierarchy still continues to be a major impediment, bring down women's elevation in higher positions?
I'm asking this question in the specific context of India and where do these figures, what do the figures about India suggest?
Thank you for the question.
So in the report we actually present the global average of the various indicators that we are looking at and we also look into the regional averages as well.
And there are differences per region in terms of where women are positioned and situated.
If if you look at Asia Pacific in particular, it is it is a region that does require a little bit more, let's say attention and effort and that is especially compared to for example the Americas region or the OR or the European region.
Obviously alongside Asia Pacific, Arab states is also a region where women, women's position within companies across the management levels need a little bit more attention.
In terms of the specific question on India, the this the survey that we conducted did reach India, but but to provide a more accurate picture in terms of where India is this is positioned, I would need to, you know, go back and look at the data in more detail.
But I would be happy to present that information to, to the to the colleague who raised the question just now.
Now we do not make correlations, associations with countries that are perceived to be more patriarchal or where there's more, you know, challenges in social norms that this report does not do.
Any other question to Aylo?
No, I don't see any other hand up.
Thank you very much for this report and I trust saying I will distribute it to the journalist.
OK, so let's go to our next speaker who comes from ITU.
In fact, there too, David has brought us Terry Geiger, who's the senior economist.
Sorry with ITU also to present us a report.
At ITU Facts and Figures 2026 was issued this morning at 10:30 our time.
So you'll hear more about that report from our guest, Terry Geiger from ITU Senior Economist.
As Alessandra has mentioned, the material supporting the report should all be in your inbox by now.
You should have the press release.
You should have the report all now again after the embargo has lifted.
The report material is also available online.
You can find it at itu.in T/FF2026.
Terry, thank you very much and good morning, everyone.
So indeed, ITU release these facts and figures 2026 edition today.
This report is an annual assessment of digital connecting around the world.
It brings together statistics on different aspects of digital connectivity, including Internet use and network coverage, affordability, Internet traffic, digital skills and and this data helps us track digital divides between regions, income groups, countries, special country groups, but also between genders, between generations, between urban and rural areas.
So within within geographies and across segments of of the population.
Obviously, connectivity plays a critical role in economic and social development.
It is very prominent on the development agenda with 7 indicators among the in the SDG framework.
With the rapid development of AI and other technology, there is a risk that digital divides that we see today will widen further, leaving those who are already digitally excluded even further behind.
And understanding where the gaps are, who they affect, who is left behind is the first step towards addressing these issues.
So let me just highlight a few, a few findings.
I won't give you all the numbers, but but maybe let me start with Internet use, which continues to grow.
We estimate that in 20266 point 3 billion people use the Internet, representing approximately 76% of the world population.
That's up from 74% in 2025.
Obviously, this global average conceals wide disparities.
For example, 93% of people in high income countries use the Internet, compared with just 32% in low income countries.
Obviously to use the Internet you need access and we estimate that today in the world 97% of the population is within range of a mobile broadband network, meaning 3G or better.
So technically this enables 97% of the population to use the Internet.
So that's, that's a a positive development.
That said, we also see a very wide divide between in terms of the type of technology used.
So there is only so much you can do with 3G network and 3G access.
5G is now, you know, the, the, the, the best standard available.
So in high income countries, 86% of the population is already covered by a 5G network, 5G network.
Whereas in low income countries only 4% of the population is covered by 5G.
So this obviously effects what people can do online.
3rd, as I mentioned, coverage does not necessarily translate into use.
It's a necessary condition, but not not sufficient.
There are multiple buyers that prevent translating access to to actual usage.
For example, in in LDCs we see a gap between the share of the population having access.
So technically able to to to access the Internet, the gap between this share of the population with access and the share of the population actually using it.
This gap is 50 percentage points.
Well, there are a number of barriers starting with affordability and the report also give the latest estimates about the price of or the cost of using the Internet.
And we've seen some small progress.
So globally, a basic mobile data package now cost the equivalent of 1.2% of monthly income per person, down from 1.3% back in 2025.
So that's how we measure affordability as a share of the average income of a person, how much must be spent to get a basic data plan and, and, and that that's how we measure affordability and, and connectivity remains unaffordable for many in low income countries.
The basic mobile data package cost the equivalent of 8% of monthly income per person.
That's 20 times the median price in high income countries.
So these are just a few findings from from facts and Figures 2026.
Just to conclude, the report confirms that the world continues to make progress towards universal and meaningful connectivity, but that progress progress remains very uneven.
Absolutely, very interesting figures me open the floor to questions if any on this report that you should have in your yeah, Emma writers.
I I just wanted to check whether this is something that's going to be addressed as a policy priority at the ITU meeting in Doha And if not, if you could just also talk us through the priorities there in terms of ILO sorry ITU policies.
So as far as the priorities that are set up for, for PPE plan potential conference which will run in Doha from 9 to 27 November, connectivity is among the priorities that have been set up along with emerging technologies, resilience and other issues.
And so it is part of the that priority.
It's the what PP is going to be looking at will also be the infrastructure, the investment that's required to bring the connectivity that Terry is talking to, talking about to the people that need to be connected in a meaningful manner.
I don't know if, Jerry, if you want to talk a little bit more about how the statistics inform PP.
Yeah, I mean, I think that the this notion of universal meaningful connectivity that I alluded to is very much present in in the ITO agenda.
It's been the case for a few years.
So the idea that we need to move beyond providing access to enabling the actual use and meaningful use that is good quality connectivity, enabling anyone to do what they need to do online.
So the report provide these kind of stock taking and, and to, to see how we're doing in terms of, of providing this, this situation of universal meaningful connectivity, which is, which is a core goal of of ITU and its its stakeholders.
And it's also an important, again, it is connectivity is on the part of the SDG framework.
So these numbers also help inform progress towards the, the, the development agenda, the goals.
Thank you very much, John Zarrocostas.
Thank you for the briefing.
I was wondering if you have any analysis what is contributing to the continued digital divide?
The UN and specialised agencies have been writing and talking about this for more than 30 years to my knowledge.
And here we are today talking of the divide continuing.
What are the two or three principal policy impediments to that?
And also I was wondering if you have in your data any figures on number of Internet shutdowns globally for whatever reasons, technical or political?
Thank you for the question.
So the good news is that the divides are closing slowly at a different pace depending on the region, depending on the countries, but there is progress.
We see progress in the digital divide between men and women.
Some regions, some country groups have closed the gap.
We see a narrowing between the herbal and rural areas in the in the coverage network coverage, but also in Internet use across different age groups also so and and and and the poorest countries catching catching up and yet and yet the the gaps are still there.
But, but, but there is progress and, and, and with the the poorest countries catching up, I mean growing much faster than than other country groups.
So, so, so there is, there is, that's positive in terms of the reason what we see, what we observe is that digital development is very much linked to economic development in general.
So there are very few countries able to escape this, this, this reality and, and, and doing great in terms of, of digital development and, and, and struggling economically.
So the, I would say that the, the primary reason is again, economic development or lag thereof.
And, and then when it comes to it takes investment to deploy network, it takes skills to use the Internet.
It takes money to buy a device.
And all these are barriers and, and I, I mentioned the affordability of, of the service.
All these are, are, are buyers to use that and, and, and, and perpetuate the device.
And you can imagine that all these reasons, investment skills, device, all these are linked to to economic opportunity and economic development.
So these I would say, yeah, some of the factors.
So tackling economic development will help tackling digital development or lack thereof.
Thank you very much, Ravi Kant, Washington Trade Daily.
My question, I'm following John's question is about this digital divide and the same divide continues to surface even in the electronic commerce.
Would ITU suggest or recommend or advocate that there should be what you call customs duties on electronic transmissions in countries which are lagging behind both in connectivity and capacity building so that they can raise income to bridge this gap?
Would ITU recommend such a policy measure?
Pardon, the report really much focuses on, on, on the situation on the ground.
So it doesn't look at the enablers and and, and the solution, which is typically tackled in other publications or the FORA.
But but the report itself looks at the situation on the ground in terms of of access, in terms of use and and and doesn't doesn't comment on on on the solution, which is typically part of yeah, other publications and and and reports.
But obviously the, the policies to to enable digital developments are many various circumstances circumstance based.
So I wouldn't want to to prescribe a solution or yeah, specific policy.
I think this was the last question for ITU.
Thanks a lot for the for the report and for the information I've distributed.
Thanks for coming, Terry.
And last but not least, definitely our Claire at the bottom of the room to tell us about the updates of the state of the climate WMO.
And then I think he's the first time in my life is a spokesperson that I have to announce a briefing on ski and snowboard, which I'm happy to do.
Yes, just briefly today we've posted on our website and we also sent a press release to you.
The World Meteorological Organisation and International Ski and Snowboard Federation have issued a joint report on weather and climate services for ski resorts.
It's to support the winter sports and tourism industry at the time, obviously as we know of rising temperatures, more uncertain snow conditions.
What it doesn't do, it's not intended to be a forecast of the upcoming ski season.
And I'm already getting media enquiries about this.
And no, we're not, you know, we're not, we're not predicting when you know how much snow there's going to be and when the slopes and you know what the slopes will be like in Switzerland over over Christmas.
That's not the role of this guide.
It's more it's more a one stop shop of guidance resources.
To help ski operators, destination managers and winter sports organisations make use of weather and climate information.
It, It is quite a long list of you know, who does what and what time scales and there are, there are different time scales involved.
So you know, decisions on vary from, you know, ski managers, tourism managers need, you know, the immediate forecasts for their day-to-day operations.
They need the seasonal forecasts to help them plan ahead for the following season.
And obviously they need the long term predictions, you know, to guide investment to investment decisions.
Well, we're doing it today because the World Meteorological Organisation and the Ski and Snowboard Federation, we've got a technical webinar this afternoon and it's part of a, a series of events that we're having jointly with the Ski Federation to, you know, to get to give them support.
It's part of a memorandum of understanding that we that we signed with fees.
I think it was two or three years ago.
And so if this is very much, you know, it's it's quite a technical guide, but we hope it will provide, provide support.
Secondly, on Friday afternoon, 2:30 PM in this room, there will be an embargoed press conference with the WMO Secretary General Celeste Salo.
It's ahead of COP 31, which takes place next week in, in, in Antalya.
It's the first time that we're doing this under embargo.
And it is partly in response to requests from journalists here in Geneva saying, you know, they correspondence, you know, in at COP usually overwhelmed.
So, you know, it would help in in their reporting of the story if we could do it ahead of time under embargo.
So you are getting privileged priority treatment, please.
We are planning also a press conference on Monday, the 9th of November in Antalya.
But obviously, you know, you know, this will probably be before some of the international correspondents arrive, arrive in Antalya.
And so that's why we're doing we're doing it on on Friday.
And that will be, as I said, with with our secretary general.
Oh, and we will send you the press release and the report hopefully on Thursday already under embargo.
I'm not sure if all the language translations will be ready, but certainly you'll get it in English.
Claire, I see a hand up to me.
Yeah, I was just on the on the Ski Federation reports with WMOI was wondering how do you get the line with the Ski Federation when it's come, when it comes to best practises?
I mean like snow cannons and and and things like that.
How does WMO can help the Ski Federation, you know, do best practises?
Because I guess that's that that could be an issue with you.
Yes, as I said, this, this the the webinar we're having today is, is all part of their the sustainability series.
So the Ski Federation is obviously very conscious of the, you know, the need for sustainability and that includes the use of snow cannons.
I think that's rather for them to answer than than for, for WMO.
But you know, where we can help is, you know, snow cannons will only work, you know, they won't work if, if, if the temperature is is above a certain level, they, they won't work if there's not the right conditions, there is no point in employing ski cannons, you know, too low elevations, but you know, we're not expecting snow.
So we can give technical guidance on that.
But the, you know, the whole sustainability aspect of of snow cannons, that's a little bit beyond our mandate, but we can give the technical guidance to try to, you know, to make it more efficient and to support it for our host country ethic.
I also want to ask about this report.
I wonder Claire, if you can give us some examples of long term measures mentioned in in it and if one of these could be for some ski resorts closing if there's no climate conditions enough good to to maintain it?
Yeah, I can probably, it's probably best if I put you in touch with the technical experts on, on, on this.
But we're obviously and you know, these these are national, national decisions, resort level decisions.
But what we can do is to point out, you know, the the science and the state of the climate.
And so I'm just, and this, I'm quoting figures here, which were given in the in the press release.
And this is research published a couple of years ago in Nature Climate Change found that without snow making 53% of more than 2000 ski resorts across 28 European countries are projected to face very high risk for snow supply if temperatures increase to 2°C above the pre industrial average.
So we're not there, we're not there yet.
You know, we're by no means we're there at that stage, but it is an indication of what might happen in the, you know, in the, the decades to, to come in Switzerland.
I mean, the, the, the, the Swiss government has done quite serious research on, on this.
And the Swiss National Centre for Climate Services, they, they published a report, I think again a couple of years ago saying that at altitudes below 800 metres, snowfall days have halved since 1970.
And the 0° level in winter, which obviously, you know, determines natural snow accumulation has risen from 600 metres above sea level 50 years ago to 850 metres today.
And it's expected to rise even even further.
So that is the sort of information that we're including in, in, in the guide.
And as I said, it's really a compilation of, of what we hope will be useful resources for, you know, for, for, for the industry.
And it's the result of technical visit that we had with with this a year ago to the Jung Krau Yoch and that the request was made there for, you know, more focused, more focused guidance to support decision making.
Thank you, Claire, no other questions.
And we can talk about glaciers and snow this this Friday with the state of the climate press conference with with, with, with Celeste Salo, just to just to say the state of the climate update.
It's something that we release for COP every year.
It is normally, you know, one of our most keenly awaited awaited reports.
So and as I said, you, you know, you are getting preferential treatment on this.
And I think you mentioned the embargo now, yes.
And I'll clarify the embargo time.
At the moment we're thinking that the embargo will be lifted when the report is presented at Earth Information Day at COP and that will be 1:00 PM Geneva time.
So I will clarify it's, it's still changing every day, but, but I will clarify that.
But that is, that is the current plan that the embargo will be lifted.
So 1200 GMT, which is 1:00 PM.
Jimmy, the time while while the press conference is 6th November 230.
And before we leave the issue of climate, I know that Christian is connected.
There is also the release of the new WHO report on global benefits and cost of prioritise actions on climate change and health.
And I have a question on that, Christian.
I don't know if you want to talk about that or maybe later on you will send information about this to the journalist.
Christian, go ahead, Here we go.
Yes, there's a there's a press conference this afternoon which will be hosted from Geneva.
It's the outlook of the climate and what to expect that the COP many of you have already received the embargoed material, the pre available material.
This is that it's actually very soon.
Let me look at the time one second.
Yeah, it's in in two hours, actually less than two hours.
It's a really important press briefing.
Maybe Alessandro, you have the exact wording here in front of you.
Another note as I as I just have the floor.
Anyway, you may have seen the embargo for the one of the other big reports, the other lesson activities has been moved forward to 4:00 tomorrow on Wednesday already.
And that's also the time when the EG press briefing will start.
So it could be possible in person if you want to come or online.
Yeah, I know what I have is is just the name of the speakers, but I think the the journalists have received that.
So and as you said, the embargo, embargo time just speaking about also another, I mean this is also part of the of the environment.
We have the uniscus International Day for Biosphere Reserves, which is today is there since we've got Christian on the line.
Any question to WHOI don't see hands up.
Tomoko Christian is our new is the Nikkei's correspondent.
I don't know if Tomoko everybody has met you already, but yes, please go ahead with your question.
I'd like to ask about not on the report, but about Ebola.
There have been question on that, so go ahead.
Yeah, I'm sure Christian can answer.
I, I, I want to ask about the Continental Preparedness and Response Fund issued in June.
It covers the plan any measure, every measures until November.
So it's, we are coming to the end of this plan.
So I'd like, I'd like to ask about the budget.
It estimated $518,000,000 to prepare for the all measures And well, how, how, how, what, what is the situation of funding you so far?
And I'd like to also ask about the estimation of cases.
It estimated at that time 3600 cases, but now it's about 10,000 cases occurred in the region.
So how what do you analyse is the measures are not were not enough at the time or the measures are not everything implemented.
Thank you Michael, my question Christian, go ahead.
Yeah, the rapid increase of cases.
Yeah, thank you very much.
This is this many questions this merits nearly its own briefing like about the cases and why we are where we are.
Let me start with general terms.
The we have been warning since the first day that this Ebola of the Ebola outbreak and we will soon reach the six months timeline that we are running behind this outbreak that has started way before we we were alerted and the first tracing could have could have happened and the response was slowed down many the beginning for many, many different reasons.
There's huge success in the catch up of the response and, and the, the efforts put both by WHO and partners and the local authorities and all the volunteers and and nurses and doctors, community workers who help with the with the outbreak response and try to get this under control.
But we are still at the point, we're still running behind.
We're catching up, but we're running behind in terms of the funding.
The funding requirement as you mentioned was hundred 15115 million U.S.
dollars and for the WH OS response, the major donors are ECHO Surf, the UK, SDO, the African Development Bank, the Gates Foundation and the Netherlands.
And the this is this is this the the new contingency fund will certainly be coming up at at any whenever, whenever it is ready and necessary again.
So I don't have details of this with me, but the sustained and flexible funding and rapid disbursement are critical to enable both WHO and all the partners to respond at the speed and scale required.
So that's essential to respond.
The fully funded response is required for the for the outbreak evolves and you see we all see as the cases as still ongoing on the the cases, maybe let me quickly see now we have the latest figures I have that's 30 Octobers, that's now 2 1/2 days old.
Yeah, more than 10,000 confirmed cases exactly.
And we reached a 5000 confirmed deaths.
So that's a that's a bleak number.
The positive note is we also have what nearly two 2800 recoveries, But let's not forget that in all this we also have a good amount of people who have recovered.
But yes, it is still, they're still reported from 67 health phones with ongoing transmission across 8 provinces.
And we see cases in neighbouring areas, as you know.
Tomorrow, by the way, we have a DG press briefing again with experts on board.
So I'll encourage you also to join tomorrow at 4:00 for the DG press Briefing.
Thank you, Christian, I had seen Jamie, but I don't see him anymore.
Just to clarify, there was also a note on the last week, the week ahead advisory that you send out about a report on NT DS that's supposed to be published tomorrow.
But I haven't, we haven't seen anything else about that.
Is it still going out tomorrow and can we get copies?
Yeah, you could have the copies actually.
Colleagues have been reaching out to us as was was in the media advisory.
It's it's another colleague who's the focal point.
But please write to us and we're happy to to get the report to you.
Thanks, Alessandra and thanks, Christian.
Just wanted to touch base with you about the latest on the situation with mnemonic plague in Russia.
Have you got any updates from the Russians about that?
I know a couple of weeks ago as you were still asking some questions.
So could you just bring us up to speed as to where things stand on that?
We have no further updates on what we reported a few weeks ago.
That's still where where we stand.
I I just thought I'd check in on Ebola as well since it's been a few days.
There's two suspected cases in northeastern Nigeria.
Can you say if these are confirmed and any comment on it spreading within Nigeria?
And I believe investigations are still underway for the case of the Swiss woman who caught Ebola who was based in Nigeria.
Any news on how she became infected?
So on the Nigerian cases, I don't have much more with me right now or maybe that's also we should have ideally more tomorrow at the briefing.
And the also the, the Swiss authorities have also reported of on the Ebola case and the the contact in that both now in Switzerland.
I do have not seen an update on the the transmission looking forward that to that as well.
I don't see other hands up for you Christian.
I just have two committees to mention today and that will conclude the briefing.
We still we have the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights meeting and the reports they are going to review are Iswatini and Pakistan to be followed by Mexico and Austria.
The Human Rights Committee on Friday 6th November will hold an event to mark the 60th anniversary of the two main human rights international covenants, The first one on economic, social and cultural rights and the second one on civil and political rights.
That's going to be in room 14 starting 3:00 PM.
And of course, as you know, the Universal Periodic Review is has started here in Geneva.
And if you want more on that, of course Pascal is available.
So if there are no other questions to me or to other colleagues, I don't see any.
I thank you very much, Bon Appetit.
And we see each other on Friday.
