The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
OCHA press conference 27 November 2020
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33:51
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MP4
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298.7 MB
- Exterior wide shot, Palais des Nations flag alley, nations’ flags flying, a cloudy day.
- Wide shot, podium with speakers to rear in a near-empty Room XIV in line with COVID-19 distancing measures, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: “The picture we are presenting is the bleakest and darkest perspective on humanitarian needs in the period ahead that we have ever set out, I think and that is a reflection of the fact that the COVID pandemic has wreaked carnage across the whole of the most fragile and vulnerable countries on the planet.”
- Medium shot, podium with speakers, using listening devices, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: “We thought that nearly 170 million people in the world would need humanitarian assistance this year. Coming into 2021, we think that’s going to be 235 million. That’s a 40 per cent increase and the increase arises almost entirely because of COVID-19.”
- Medium shot, journalist writing on tablet, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: “We are in the GHO setting out plans to reach 160 million of the most vulnerable people in 56 countries and most plans, if they are fully financed, will cost $35 billion.”
- Medium shot, TV camera in foreground and podium with speakers to rear, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: “The impact of that is most acute in the countries which have also got the biggest humanitarian problems. Indeed, eight of the 10 countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change are ones where humanitarian agencies have got a huge amount of work to do already.”
- Medium shot, UN staff member typing on laptop and using listening device, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: “Unfortunately during 2020 we’ve seen new spikes of conflict in places that were previously more peaceful. We’ve seen that obviously recently in Nagorno-Karabakh, we’ve seen it in northern Mozambique, we’ve seen it in the Western Sahara and at the moment obviously, tragically, we’re seeing in in northern Ethiopia. They haven’t replaced conflicts which have been resolved and calmed down in other places; in fact, things are just as bad now in the biggest humanitarian settings driven by conflict as they were when we spoke to you a year ago.”
- Wide shot, near-empty Room XIV in line with COVID-19 distancing measures, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: “We’re overwhelmed with problems, as you know, but just the scale of the need and the scale of crisis is such that these efforts to anticipate things make things a little bit better than they would otherwise have been, but they still leave us with a terrible, desperate situation.”
- Medium shot, back of journalist’s head in foreground with TV screen to rear showing Mark Lowcock and OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: “If we get through 2021 without major famines that will be a significant achievement; you know, the red lights are flashing and the alarm bells are ringing.”
- Medium-wide shot, podium with speakers, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
- Close-up, UN staff member following press conference, wearing mask and headphones, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
- Medium shot, podium with speakers conferring and TV screen showing Mark Lowcock, Room XIV, Palais des Nations.
UN appeals for $35 billion to help record world’s ‘most vulnerable and fragile’ in 2021
A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year, a near- 40 per cent increase on 2020 which is “almost entirely from COVID-19”, the UN’s emergency relief chief said on Tuesday.
Citing the “carnage” caused by the pandemic before appealing for $35 billion, Mark Lowcock told journalists that the global health crisis had created impacted dramatically people already reeling from conflict, record levels of displacement, climate change shocks. He said that “multiple” famines are looming.
The situation is “desperate” for millions and has left the UN and partners “overwhelmed”, he cautioned.
“The picture we are presenting is the bleakest and darkest perspective on humanitarian needs in the period ahead that we have ever set out. That is a reflection of the fact that the COVID pandemic has wreaked carnage across the whole of the most fragile and vulnerable countries on the planet.”
Speaking via video link at a press conference in Geneva, Mr. Lowcock added that “we thought that nearly 170 million people in the world would need humanitarian assistance this year. Coming into 2021, we think that’s going to be 235 million…the increase arises almost entirely because of COVID-19.”
Echoing Mr. Lowcock’s call for global solidarity, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the world to “stand with people in their darkest hour of need”, as the global pandemic continues to worsen.
Although the humanitarian system had delivered “food, medicines, shelter, education and other essentials to tens of millions of people “the crisis is far from over”, the UN chief insisted in a statement.
This year’s Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) sets out plans “to reach 160 million of the most vulnerable people in 56 countries and most plans, if they are fully financed, will cost $35 billion”, Mr. Lowcock said.
He noted that while richer countries had invested some $10 trillion in staving off economic disaster from the COVID-induced slump and could now see “light at the end of the tunnel…the same is not true in the poorest countries”.
The COVID-19 crisis had plunged millions into poverty “and sent humanitarian needs skyrocketing,” Mr. Lowcock explained, adding that aid funding was needed to “stave off famine, fight poverty, and keep children vaccinated and in school”.
Cash will also be used from the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) to tackle rising violence against women and girls linked to the pandemic, Mr. Lowcock said.
He also highlighted how climate change and rising global temperatures had further contributed to the bleak outlook for humanitarian needs in 2021, their impact being “most acute in the countries which have also got the biggest humanitarian problems. Indeed, eight of the 10 countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change are ones where humanitarian agencies have got a huge amount of work to do already.”
Conflicts new and old had also contributed to increased needs, the UN relief chief continued, pointing to “new spikes of conflict in places that were previously more peaceful. We’ve seen that obviously recently in Nagorno-Karabakh, we’ve seen it in northern Mozambique, we’ve seen it in the Western Sahara and at the moment obviously, tragically, we’re seeing in northern Ethiopia.”
Sadly, these flare-ups “haven’t replaced conflicts which have been resolved and calmed down in other places”, Mr. Lowcock continued. “In fact, things are just as bad now in the biggest humanitarian settings driven by conflict as they were when we spoke to you a year ago.”
He added: “We’re overwhelmed with problems, as you know, but just the scale of the need and the scale of crisis is such that these efforts to anticipate things make things a little bit better than they would otherwise have been, but they still leave us with a terrible, desperate situation.”
In addition to providing the means to help communities in crisis, Mr. Lowcock underscored the UN appeal’s focus on preventive action.
This included a cash injection for the World Health Organization (WHO) in February at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, to ensure that poorer countries received protective equipment to tackle COVID-19.
Similarly, tens of thousands of potential flood victims in Bangladesh also received “support and cash” help in good time so that they could protect their belongings and livelihoods.
“What we ended up with there was a much cheaper, more effective response as well as one that dramatically reducing human suffering than we would have had than if we’d done the traditional thing - waiting until floods arrive,” Mr. Lowcock insisted.
The concept of “nipping problems in the bud” and acting on them before they become critical was “increasingly well-established now”, he maintained.
Nonetheless, the UN emergency relief chief underscored that the scale of the challenges facing humanitarians next year are massive – and growing. “If we get through 2021 without major famines that will be a significant achievement,” he said. “You know, the red lights are flashing and the alarm bells are ringing.”
Teleprompter
[Other language spoken]
Let me start by giving you a warm welcome to this press conference organised by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to present the Global Humanitarian Overview 2021.
I will start by giving the floor to Jenslerka, the spokesperson of our chair here in Geneva.
Yes, you have the floor.
Thank you, Alessandra and welcome everyone.
I know you don't really want to listen to me, but you are here to hear from Mark Local, the Emergency Relief Coordinator.
However, there's just a few like housekeeping issues.
I, I would like to just emphasise before we start, I have sent you under embargo the, the press release that we have.
We've also sent you this, which is the short version, the abridged version of the, of the document that we are releasing on Tuesday.
Both the press release and the document and all the information in it is embargoed till Tuesday, 1st of December at 6:00 AM Geneva time, Central European time.
I hope that works for, for all of you.
Indeed, on the 1st of December, we will have an event which is hosted out of Geneva.
The very interesting panel, Mr Lowcock is, is part of that as well.
It's the first of a series of events to launch our material that runs in the course of the day, but it all starts here in Geneva at 9:00 AM.
So you will hear it here first.
In terms of today, Mr Lowcock, we'll just give a, we'll start with with an introduction of what we have to say, pretty straightforward.
Then we'll go to your questions and answers as we do have a couple of guests from outside the regular Palais press corps.
I just want to mention to those, if you wish to ask questions, please click on the little hand so you'll raise your hands and Alessandra can see that you want to ask your questions and we'll try to take as many of them as we as we possible can.
With that, not further ado, Mark, I'll give the floor to you.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Yeah, and thank you very much.
Can I just check whether what I'm about to say is also under embargo just so that I don't accidentally read out the whole report and then take it?
[Other language spoken]
Is that right?
[Other language spoken]
If I can just clarify this, what we're talking here is not live broadcast.
It is all being recorded and it will be released on the 1st.
So what you say now is like if you were giving this press conference at 6:00 AM the 1st of December.
And that was clearly specified in the invitation to the press conference.
And I would like to just add to what Ian said before giving you the floor, Mr Local.
Sorry, I am as I'm going to moderate the question and answer.
I've got in front of me the names of the people who were registered then have had access to the conference.
Many of you have not specified your media affiliation.
Now the journalist from the INOG, from the Palais, I know you would no problem.
But if I could ask those that are not regularly accredited with us to maybe re state their media affiliations so that we know when you're going to ask questions to whom we are giving the question the floor and that I think it's enough housekeeping, Sir, you have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
Let me just start by saying this is the fourth time I've launched the humanitarian overview.
Every time I've done it in Geneva and every time we've been able to sit together press corps both in advance and on the day.
And I'm really sorry for obvious reasons that we can't do that this time.
But I have very, very much appreciated and admired the reporting that the professional media provided on this over the years and I thank you for your engagement in it today.
The picture we are presenting is the bleakest and darkest perspective on humanitarian need in the period ahead that we have ever set out, I think.
And that is a reflection of the fact that the COVID pandemic has reached pharmic across the whole of the most fragile and vulnerable countries on the planet, those where humanitarian organisations are most involved in their day-to-day work.
And of course it comes on top of the situation that we described to you a year ago coming into 2020 of the underlying causes and drivers of humanitarian need themselves growing and compounding.
And those causes are conflict, which has become longer lasting, more protracted, more common, which is partly a commentary on the state of global geopolitics and climate change, where we see more and more extreme events, both floods and storms and and also droughts.
And those two things together, together now with disease outbreak are what has caused this huge increase over recent years in the number of people who may not survive in the absence of humanitarian assistance.
Now you've got the main content of the report which Yen's has just referred to.
There's a huge amount of additional detail in the underlying report.
We've just today given you the abridged version.
We're very happy when you've had a chance to digest everything to answer more detailed questions.
One thing I do want to say is that the global Humanitarian overview represents the work of hundreds of organisations and thousands of professional staff all all around the world, not just the UN system, but the NGOs, and we've worked very closely with the Red Cross movement on it as well.
It is the world's most competitive, authoritative and evidence based assessment and it also represents the largest set of response plans to deal with the situation.
At the beginning of 2020, we thought that nearly 170 million people in the world would need humanitarian assistance.
This year, coming into 2021, we think that's going to be 235,000,000.
That's a 40% increase and the increase arises almost entirely because of COVID-19.
And in my forward to the document, which are all obviously free to quote in your reporting as from Tuesday, I've described as clearly as I can exactly the havoc and suffering that the virus, but above all the economic consequences of the virus is wreaking across the most fragile country.
In order to deal with this set of problems, we are in the GHO setting out plans to reach 160 million of the most vulnerable people in 56 countries, and those plans, if they're fully financed, will cost $35 billion.
I want to flag some of the particular dimensions of what we expect to say next year, that possibly the most alarming thing from my point of view is the ****** of the return of famines potentially in multiple locations.
I thought famine had largely been extinguishable condition.
There's only been one major famine so far in the 21st century, which was the one that took the lives of the quarter of millions Somalis about 10 years ago.
But previously in human history, famine had been ubiquitous.
It was a common feature all over the planet and it was really one of the remarkable achievements of human who have got to the point almost where famines were consigned to the document of history.
And unfortunately, tragically, famines are now back.
There are looming threats of famine in multiple countries.
That will be a significant test if we get through 2021, saving them all off.
We also see now very, very clearly the huge impact of climate change on humanitarian stuff.
The last 10 years have been the hottest on record, but the impact of that is most accused in the countries which have also got the biggest humanitarian problems.
Indeed, eight of the 10 countries most vulnerable to the effects of change are ones where humanitarian agencies have got a huge amount of work to do already.
Beyond that, there is the huge and unfortunately growing impact of conflict.
And you know, conflict displaces very large numbers of people.
We've got record levels of displacement this year.
We've described in the report about 85 million people, about 15,000,000 people more than last time.
We calculated the numbers both refugees and people placed in their own countries, and they're mostly displaced because of conflict.
Unfortunately, during 2020, we've seen new spikes of conflict in places that were previously more peaceful.
We've seen that obviously recently in the Goro Karabakh.
We've seen it in northern Mozambique, we've seen it in the Western Sahara.
And at the moment, obviously, tragically, we're seeing it in northern Ethiopia.
They haven't replaced conflicts which have been resolved and calmed down in other places.
In fact, things are just as bad now in the biggest humanitarian settings driven by conflicts as they were when we spoke to you a year ago, particularly in Syria, where the huge economic contraction is adding enormously humanitarian suffering, and Yemen, which as you know is right on the brink of famine already.
And the combination, and that's as a result of the combination of the drastic reduction in funding for our response plan this year, the effect of the effectively the economic blockade on Yemen and the ongoing consequences of conflict and the interference by the various parties in the ability of aid agencies to reach people in need.
One of the most shocking features of the COVID experience has been a plague despite of new violence against women and girls, mostly in their homes.
And we are trying to encourage the donors to give more emphasis in what they decide to fund, to support programmes for women and girls, to get them services to prevent the violence is taking place and to get them helplines and safe spaces.
And some of you may seen that with the heads of UNFPA and UN Women.
I published an article in the press earlier this week to say that we'd be using the Central Emergency response fund to put more money into that set of challenges.
But I was really doing that partly in regret at the fact we haven't been able to degrade the major donors to step up on that issue, although they I must say they talk about it a lot.
We would like if more people would put their money where their mouth is on that.
The humanitarian system has performed very well, in my opinion, during 2020 and meeting people's needs.
We've reached more than 100 million people so far this year.
We've raised as of November a few days ago, more than $17 billion of funding, including $3.8 billion for our COVID response plan.
I believe that we will have another record fundraising year this year when we do all the bring all the numbers together, which will be early next year by the time we double check everything that's come in.
But unfortunately the gap between what we need and what we're bringing in is growing.
That is, that's basically the reason why we're threatened with such an alarming set of risks and potential large scale loss of life next year.
If we've been fully funded, the level of risk being faced by these accepted vulnerable people would be lower.
So we really are hoping that the member states will step up to support us with billion dollars we are looking for next year.
[Other language spoken]
We know many member States have got multiple economic and pistol candidates of their own, but what is at stake is the lives of huge numbers of vulnerable people.
The cost of safeguarding their lives is actually very small in relation to all the other channel communities and it's an act of generosity and empathy and humanity, but also an act in the self-interest.
Better off to invest in these effects.
Alessandra Yens, let me stop there and answer the colleagues that people the questions that colleagues would like to ask me.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
Mr Logop, that was really a comprehensive introduction.
I have already a few journalists here in Geneva that would like to ask you a question.
And I will start with Laurent Ciero from the Swiss News Agency.
Laurent, you have the floor.
Thank you and, and thank, thank you for the press conference.
When you launched the, the GHO last year, you insisted on, on your will to shift towards prevention, prevention of crisis, prevention of, of disasters.
And then one month later there was COVID, but only in China at the beginning.
So did you observe a move from a few countries to to more funding for prevention in the first month on the pandemic when it was not yet in the other regions of the world?
And for the next years, there are so many consequences of the pandemic.
Do you think you will still be able to move forward with that shift towards prevention or or will the impact impede the Member states to really fund that that approach?
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Thank you, Laurent for the question.
So a few things to say about this.
Firstly, the humanitarian agencies in fact started their response to COVID before there was a single confirmed case of a person with virus in any of the countries in which we work.
In February in fact, I made the first allocation from the Central Emergency Response Fund to the World Health Organisation and to UNICEF to enable them to get going with public information campaigns, with the provision of testing kit and with provision of personal protective equipment across the countries which were going clearly to find it harder than better off countries that start to deal with the problem.
And lots of other agencies did the same thing.
And then as you know, we launched on the 25th March, a couple of weeks after The Who declared the pandemic our large scale global humanitarian response plan.
So the virus moved very fast.
Ultimately the virus and the consequence of the virus have overwhelmed lots of systems.
But I think we did get going as fast as we could at the time within the results that were available to us.
We have done some other important things on the prevention and anticipatory dive this year.
We, for example, in Bangladesh, during the flooding season, identified parts of the country and communities which were going to be very vulnerable to the floods.
And days in advance of their home areas and communities being flooded, we reached 10s of thousands of people with support and cash so that they could protect themselves and their assets.
And in fact, what we ended up with there was a much cheaper, more effective response, as well as one which dramatically reduced the human suffering then we would have had if we'd done the traditional thing, which as you know, is to wait until floods arrive and then deal with consequences.
We did the same thing in anticipating the effect of variable weather patterns on the certain communities in Somalia by releasing funds to tackle that in advance and enabling people to save their livestock so on.
We did the same thing in responding early to the locust outbreak, which I've been working very closely with the Food and Agricultural Organisation on.
So they, you know, what we did was go after the locust before they done their damage and thereby safeguard the harvest.
So I think these concept of the humanitarian agencies, you know, playing a role in nipping problems in the bud and anticipating problems and acting on them when we know they're happening but before the adults have been crystallised, is increasingly well established now.
And we have provided in the planning that my my office has done and the resources we have to do the same thing in 2021.
That said, you know, we're overwhelmed with problems.
As you know, the just the scale of the need and the scale of crisis is such that these efforts to anticipate things make things a little bit better than they would otherwise would be, but they still leave us with a terrible, desperate situation.
Thank you very much, Mark.
The next question comes from Antonio Broto from FA.
Antonio, you have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
Mr Logo, can you share some thoughts on the situation in Latin America?
How is the humanitarian needs going to change in that region since the pandemic has struck this region?
[Other language spoken]
Well, thank you very much.
At the moment, of course, we're very busy dealing with the consequences of the Hurricanes across Central America and we've been providing resources for Honduras in particular for that.
The countries of Central America are increasingly vulnerable, unfortunately, to adverse weather events as well as to as well as to the pandemic.
Latin America, of course, has been very severely affected by the pandemic, both in terms of the number of people infected with the virus, but also in terms of the, you know, the the mortality rate.
Unfortunately, it's been a very, very difficult challenge for the region to deal with, just as it has for so many other regions.
The biggest ongoing crisis that the humanitarian agencies have been involved in in 2020 obviously relates to the situation in Venezuela and.
The number of Venezuelans who have left their country to try and find refuge elsewhere.
And you know, we we're projecting large scale needs again as a result of the Venezuela declaration.
There's lots of numbers in the in the report on that which I won't, you know, go through in detail because you've got them, but it affected and those numbers deal both with the refugee situation, but also with the situation inside Venezuela.
The there are one or two areas where the situation looks to be a little bit better than than it has been earlier this year.
The situation in Haiti, for example, where we're where we're essentially reconfiguring the programming to try and focus on specific vulnerable groups and geographical priority.
We've reduced the need funding needs in Haiti 2021 compared to 2020 as a result of that.
But overall, the, you know, the situation is exceptionally challenging for for South America, Latin America.
One of the things that, you know, we do think it would have been better if the world had come together on during 2020, which is relevant to Latin America, is, is trying to make greater use of the capabilities and balances of the international financial institution.
If you think back to the 2008 nine financial crisis, the major shareholders of the IMF from the World Bank really took measures to provide instruction, you know, instructions and guidance to the institutions to provide substantial resources to fun of the country, including in South America.
But the all around the world.
Now unfortunately that hasn't happened in the to the same degree for what is a much bigger crisis through the COVID crisis.
As you know, we've been calling as the UN for much more general treatment of debt, of the issuance of special drawing rights to give people some fiscal space, have more aggressive use of the balance of the institutions to find more resources for vulnerable countries.
And the the IF is do have a particularly important role to play in South America.
So we do and the deputy General has been very vocal about this.
We do hope that shareholders with the IF is will take additional more generous and larger scale measures.
What I've just tried over the next six months, because you know, one of the big things that's driving the humanitarian need is the huge economic contract where hundreds of millions of people are losing income.
So they're falling into the categories of people that the humanitarian agencies additionally look at is people who are becoming just poorer and unable to cope themselves and coming into our remit.
And if if economies get more support, the number of people in that situation will will be smaller.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
You for taking my question.
I actually have.
[Other language spoken]
1 is on the amount of money that you're you're requesting, so 35 billion.
Which is more than.
Double the amount that you say is record that you've managed to raise this year.
So how optimistic are you actually in the current situation that you'll be able to get anywhere near that kind of funding?
And also you, you mentioned famines and I also saw this year we've seen the first rise in extreme poverty.
If you could say a little bit more about that and how likely do you think it is we'll see famines next year?
[Other language spoken]
Well, what we have what what the $35 billion comprises is the cost of plans to meet the lifesaving needs of 160 million of the people who we think are vulnerable.
About 2/3 of those who are, you know, the most vulnerable, the 235,000,000, it's always the case, by the way, that the UN coordinated plans try to meet roughly that proportion of needs because there's other plans out there as well, including for the Red Cross.
And I'm a very strong supporter of, you know, the proposition that the world should also be generated financing the International Federation.
They they do through their own appeals and work very complementary to what we're doing.
The $35 billion on one level is a lot of money.
On another level, it's a very small amount of money.
You know, the richer countries have invested, you know, the order of magnitude of $10 trillion or more, the state of their own economies and the world economy.
And they've been right to do that.
And what is needed for, you know, the, the most vulnerable, 2 percent, 3% of the world's population who are those most likely not to survive the crisis is very, very small in relation to that.
So, and, and, and actually it's very inexpensive to save a life in a humanitarian setting.
You know, the, the cost of food to keep people alive or the cost of potential immunisation or case of shelter is very small to, you know, other things that government and the world will spend.
Nevertheless, it is a big ask to get the $35 billion.
We will do everything we can to make the case to decision makers about why it's not generous, but actually ultimately in the national interest of their country to do that.
We'll have to see how we get on.
But I'm not at all sanguine about the scale of the the of what's required on the food security issue.
There's quite a lot of facts and figures in the document, which I won't repeat.
But there are four places where we are, you know, most concerned that we may be on the brink of famine or in some, in some famine conditions already exist at the moment.
And there's others that could where that could be the place.
Those four places are Yemen, which is the biggest problem simply because it's a country with a huge population in green need, Burkina Faso where there are family like conditions at the moment 10s of thousands of countries, South Sudan.
That's also the case in northeast Nigeria where we managed to stave off famine in 2017.
But unfortunately, the Nigerian authorities have not made as much progress as they would have liked in dealing with the extremist groups in northeastern Nigeria, Boko Haram, and also in the wider Lake Station.
And that means there are more vulnerable, who are more people vulnerable in terms of the sway of those groups.
Again, there's the range of other countries which we have been flagging as potentially also highly vulnerable, including a number in Sterling, the Sahel, including and also including the Democratic.
And as I said at the top, if we get through 2021 without major factors, that will be a significant achievement.
You know the red lights are flashing and the alarm bells are ringing as bright and loud.
It sounds it's sometimes it'll be broken.
[Other language spoken]
Your Mr Peter Kenny, I'm I'm working for Anadulu Agency.
Mr Lowcock, you mentioned you, you linked some of the areas where you fear there will be famine to the rise or the the ongoing extremism.
And I was just wondering if there, you know, you, you mentioned that there might be some other areas, for example, say is, is Mozambique an area of concern because this is an area where there have been food shortages and there has been a rise in extremism.
So could you perhaps elaborate on any other places apart from the four that you mentioned?
[Other language spoken]
Yeah, well, I, I mean, I touched on Afghanistan, the DLC, other parties to help.
But you're right, Peter.
I mean, we are, we're very worried about the situation in the Cabo Delgado area of Mozambique.
We have been scaling up humanitarian activity in the surrounding areas.
But, you know, there, there are reports of atrocities being committed by the by the extremist groups and there are large parts now of that part of Mozambique which certainly the humanitarian agencies don't have state access to, which is a real problem for us.
And obviously the Mozambican authorities are trying to deal with the insecurity problem, you know, in Mali, in Burkina Faso, similar problems really with with extremist groups, you know, exerting a greater influence and displacement numbers as a result really skyrocketing during the course of 20/20/19 and during 2020.
And I set out a lot of kind of out concerns about that.
[Other language spoken]
And then we had a successful event Co hosted by Denmark, the European Union, Germany just two or three weeks ago, where we were able to raise about $1.7 billion to, to, to basically finance and support programmes to deal with those problems.
My, one of my main concerns about the, the **** is, is there is increasing effort to try to address the symptoms, the displacement and the conflict, but there is not, I think the level of effort and scale of effort needed yet to be successful in addressing the underlying causes of those symptoms.
So, you know, if we want to see reductions as the years passed in the numbers of people who are affected by these crises, then we need to address the causes.
We need to address the causes, not just the symptoms.
Indeed.
Any other question for Mr Lowcock?
Let me give a moment more to the journalists.
I don't see any, Sir.
So maybe you would like to say some some concluding words, Mr Lowcock.
Well, thanks Alex.
[Other language spoken]
It's the main thing I want to say.
If you're interested in this, if you need anything else, please, you know, contact the team, the ends is there.
And if, if any of you want anything else from me over the next several days by, you know, if I can't help you, I'd be very happy to do that.
[Other language spoken]
And is there anything we haven't covered that you think it'd be helpful to people?
No, I, I think we, we haven't covered of course, the, the, the full report with all this underlying material that that Mark mentioned is not yet available.
It will all be available on, on Tuesday morning for all of you.
And then of course, you're more than welcome to deep dive into that and we'll be happy to, to, to help you on any reporting on that.
There's also, which we will share with you a bit later, more material that we can give you that may help your reporting, such as Excel sheets to make graphics, photos, B roll and, and and so on and so forth.
So apart from that, I think it's good.
Thank you very much.
And that now is my turn to thank you, Mr Lowcock to be with us and brief the Geneva press corps.
And of course, thank you, Jens, for bringing us this press conference and thank you to all of you for having participated and have a nice weekend.