UN Geneva Press Briefing: UNHCR, UNCTAD, WMO, OCHA, UNICEF, WHO

Very good morning. Thank you for joining us here at the UN Office at Geneva today, Tuesday the 20th of October. As always, colleagues, we have a very important agenda for you. A number of announcements, including those from the UN Refugee Agency, UN Trade and Development, World Meteorological Organizations, and topics covering Afghanistan, Yemen, and an important report from the World Health Organization. Without further ado, though, I'm going to turn to maybe Jens, if you can start off. We have a colleague who we're very delighted to connect with, Olga Cherevko, who is joining us from Kabul. But maybe over to you first, Jens.

Yeah, thank you, Rolando, and good morning, everyone. Just a quick remark. I have shared the The briefing notes that Olga Cherevko, that we see on screen now, is going to use, please check against the delivery. On that, I also have for broadcasters some B-roll. She'll speak a bit about some visits that she's done around Afghanistan, so we have some B-roll of that. But please contact me directly if you want access to that. Thank you. Over to Olga.

Thank you very much, colleagues. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for having me today. So this morning, I want to start with something that can frequently get lost when we discuss Afghanistan in numbers. And that is that a harvest can improve and markets can have food, but at the same time, families can still go hungry. And this is one of the clearest takeaways from my recent visits to southern and northeastern Afghanistan. There I saw firsthand that this crisis is not simply about food and whether it exists, but whether people can access it, whether they can afford it, if they have a means to earn a living or access basic services. or whether they have anything left to fall back on when the next crisis and shock hits. And the latest IPC snapshot puts this into stark perspective. Between September and October, 15.9 million people, this is nearly one in three Afghans, are facing acute food insecurity at crisis level or worse. That includes 3.4 million people in emergency conditions. And the outlook is deteriorating. During the winter lean season, which is from November to April, the number facing acute food insecurity is projected to rise to 19.2 million, of which 5 million are expected to face emergency levels of hunger. It is one step away from famine. The report also projects that more than 4 million children aged six months and five years old will need treatment for acute malnutrition next year. And over 1 million of these children are expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition. But around one third of nutrition sites have closed or suspended services across the country, largely due to funding cuts. And once these services disappear, the consequences could be irreversible, particularly for children. And I have seen this time and time again on the ground. And these numbers represent children whose parents cannot afford nutritious food and families whose ability to cope has been worn down by years of conflict, economic difficulty, drought, and other shocks. And one of the most striking findings is that food is available, but remains inaccessible for millions of Afghans. And while better rainfall and agricultural production have helped this year, one good harvest cannot undo the damage of several years of drought in a row. And a farmer cannot make the next planting season happen without affordable seeds, fertilizer, and other inputs. There's another dimension to this crisis that will shape Afghanistan long after the next lean season, and that is the systematic exclusion of women and girls. And when a girl is denied education, the consequences extend far beyond the classroom. It affects whether she can become a teacher, a doctor, a midwife, an engineer in her future. And when women are prevented from working, families lose an income, services lose skilled staff, and the economy loses talent it cannot waste. And the consequences are already being felt everywhere. UNICEF has recently raised the alarm that if these restrictions continue, Afghanistan could lose up to 20,000 women teachers and over 5,000 female health workers in just four years from now, by 2030. This is a shocking statistic. And the impact on nutrition is equally important because it's not just about having food. It is shaped by maternal health care, access to health care, to health services, dietary diversity, education, and an ability to earn an income. Undermining this weakens families' ability to protect their children and make recovery much harder in the future. And humanitarian assistance remains indispensable, but we must sustain And we must sustain that response, particularly as acute needs rise in various parts of the country and funding remains severely constrained. But we cannot keep asking humanitarian aid to compensate indefinitely for the absence of economic opportunity and essential public services. Afghanistan also needs sustained investment in the foundations of recovery. That is agriculture and rural livelihoods, local markets, employment, water systems, health and nutrition services, and opportunities for women to participate in economic life. And we must act before winter, not after families have exhausted all the options. That means getting food assistance to people in need, protecting livestock and productive assets, supporting farmers before critical planting windows clothes, and keeping essential health, nutrition, and water services accessible. My visits this month to the south and the northeast of the country reinforced to me why this needs to be understood and approached as more than just an emergency response. People have to have a realistic way to support their families beyond the next distribution, harvest, or winter. Humanitarian aid can and does save lives today, but only sustained, inclusive investment in livelihoods, services, and economic opportunity can help people build lives that are less dependent on emergency assistance tomorrow. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Olga. Very staggering and shocking numbers, but indeed very important that you pronounced them. So let's turn to you colleagues for questions, starting those maybe in the room. I'll give it a second. Okay. Well, I think your statement perhaps answered all their questions. It was very comprehensive indeed. I'm just doing a double check. I take good note that Jens mentioned that you have we have B roll for you colleagues and we also have Olga's notes, which we'll share with you. I don't see any questions, but again, I think your briefing was very, very powerful, comprehensive, and covered a lot of areas, and it will certainly amplify this. And thank you so much, Olga. It's always good to connect with you in your capacity now in Afghanistan. Please do so in future, and thank you so very much for the important work you're doing, and keep us informed. And thank you, Jens, for delivering Olga to us. Thanks, Olga.

Thanks very much.

And to you. Okay, colleagues, we're going to shift to the situation in Yemen. Ricardo from UNICEF is here. Maybe, Ricardo, you can introduce your guest, who's joining us from Aden, in fact. Go ahead.

Thanks, Rolando. Good morning. Bonjour a tous. We have, again, our country representative in Yemen, Aqil Yeh, joining from Aden, who will speak on the aggravating situation for children as conflict continues. in the country, specifically the situation in Tais. Over to you, Akhil. Thanks for joining again.

Thank you very much, Ricardo, and good morning to everyone. In Yemen, at this moment, escalating fighting on a number of fronts, resulting in shortages of key supplies and an interruption or disruption of the most basic services. are threatening an estimated 3 million people in the country. And we are particularly concerned about the situation in Taiz city, one of the largest cities within Yemen, which is effectively under siege, and the broader Taiz province or governorate. Taiz is already one of Yemen's most water-scarce areas in the country, and it is now facing enormous pressure on its water and sanitation services, among other services, for thousands and thousands of families, including displaced families. Since latest escalation of the conflict, which started in early September, an estimated 120,000 people, that is more than half of the total number of newly displaced persons across Yemen, have been displaced to Tays city and or within Tays governorate. In addition, the number of displaced, the percentage of internally displaced persons moving to other areas such as the city of Aden, there's a very high percentage that come from Tays. So Tays is certainly the number one concern at the moment in an ocean of concerns. Many people have fled repeatedly. They are arriving in already overcrowded camps or communities with little or no food. Clean water is almost nil until they arrive. They've literally arrived with just the clothes on their back and they have almost nothing left to sustain themselves. Now, behind every statistic, there's always a family, a parent, or a child. So we heard from Safa, who is an 11-year-old child who is currently displaced within Tays city. And she told one of our partner organizations, that her life has become extremely difficult, and that even collecting water has become a source of fear for her, because she pointed out that water or gathering water, getting water is a daily struggle. She waits in long queues to fill jerry cans among thousands of people that are waiting and sometimes fighting to fill their jerry cans, and it gets her terrified. and the situation is becoming more and more precarious and difficult. The conflict has disrupted or blocked critical supply routes, including the very important corridor from Aden to Tais. Food and the fuel are therefore becoming scarcer, prices are rising, and essential basic services are at a risk of total suspension. Our partner organization, the World Food Program, has warned that wheat flour stocks in affected areas of Taiz are nearly exhausted. And this is an alarming development in a governorate which already faces some of Yemen's highest levels of food insecurity, with 10 of its 16 districts previously classified as being at emergency levels. And for families struggling to feed their children, This is yet another devastating blow, particularly for those families having children who are already suffering from malnutrition. This year alone, UNICEF has screened more than 168,000 children across Tays Governor, and more than 52,000 of those children, approximately one third, were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition. So that's one in three children screened were found to have that terrible condition. Now, we were very worried about the water and sanitation situation in Tais because a shortage of diesel fuel, which is essential to run pumping stations in and around Tais, has been threatened by the lack of access or the blockage in the supplier routes, particularly from Aden to Taiz city. And the cost of trucked in water has also tripled since the escalation of the conflict. So we have a problem of Getting fuel to the pumping stations, we have a problem of the cost of water. If a family is depending on truck water. And we also have a serious situation of not being able to get enough fuel to the sanitation stations, which also depend on diesel fuel to run. So garbage garbage is piling up, particularly in Thai city, sanitation services come to a halt. What we're afraid of is this water and sanitation crisis will increase the risk of diarrheal disease and cholera, particularly at this time of the year. And these such illnesses can certainly worsen malnutrition because they prevent children from absorbing the nutrients that they desperately need, leaving them even weaker and more vulnerable to other infections. I would point out that the World Health Organization, a partner of UNICEF, has reported that suspected cholera cases have already tripled in just three weeks. So for children, hunger, unsafe water and disease, closing health facilities, shortages of medicine, even the most basic medicine and medical supplies are all becoming an increasingly dangerous combination. UNICEF has pre-positioned supplies, for example, nearly 8,000 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food to support treatment for malnourished children. And we continue to support health facilities and nutrition treatment across the government, but as I said, Access and closure of routes is a huge problem for us. We're calling on all parties to protect children and civilians, safeguard water systems, health facilities, and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law, and that includes allowing for humanitarian access by humanitarian actors. I think children across Yemen, including children in Taiz, have already endured years of conflict and years of deprivation, and they cannot afford to lose the very basic services that are keeping them alive. Thank you.

Thanks to you very much, Akil. So let's see if we have questions. Okay, yes, we have a question from Olivia, Reuters.

Thank you very much indeed for this. Forgive me, I actually have quite a few questions. Just starting on the water issue, do you have an example of how much the cost of water has gone up? You're saying that prices are becoming unaffordable, but if you had a kind of tangible example to show that increase, that would be helpful. An idea of how bad the shortage is would also be helpful to have. Are people now in a situation of having to ration water to drink? You said about basic services, they could draw to a halt, and you mentioned there about the garbage piling up. If you could add some more detail about what exactly you're hearing is happening in Tyres, is that widespread, the trash building up, and to what scale? And is there actually anything that humanitarian agencies can do in that situation, given that, I guess, that's the local authorities who would normally deal with that? Cholera, I just want to check, you're saying suspected cholera cases have tripled in three weeks. Is that in Taiz alone or across Yemen? And final question, and thank you for answering all of these. Just on the situation of ready-to-use therapeutic food, I noted there was a World Food Programme report saying that in one area there was now a stockout of RUTF. I was just wondering what your stocks are looking like in Taiz and whether you're... able to get more in or whether that's also another concern on top of the many that you've outlined this morning? Thank you.

Thanks. Back to you, Akil.

Thank you. I can probably i I can get back to you with examples of the cost increase in terms of fact water. I believe it has increased over over the last few weeks by threefold. But if you need specific information on, for example, the price per liter paid, we can provide that to you. People are indeed rationing water because mainly due to the fuel shortage, the pumping stations are not working. are not working constantly. And so when the pumping stations are closed, people are just waiting with their empty jerry cans. And so in the end, people are not being able to collect enough water. or they're not able, or when they come back for a second time or a third time, they're not able to fill their jerry cans at all. So they're getting less water per family because of this. And yes, they're having to very much ration their drinking water. The garbage piling up is a big problem in Tais city. The issue is that we're not able to get an adequate amount of diesel fuel to the local authorities. And a second problem is the garbage trucks are not able to pick up the garbage and access the and go to the dumping area. And so that's what's causing this massive garbage buildup in neighborhoods of the city. And we're worried that this is going to result in disease. The cholera increase was an increase across Yemen. And I just have actually now some information to answer your first question. The cost of a water truck was 23,000 Yemeni riyal before the escalation, and it is now approximately 70,000 Yemeni riyal per per water truck, if you're buying the water, all the water in the truck. So it is indeed threefold, just over threefold. Your question about the stocks of ready-to-use therapeutic food. In the case of Thais in particular, we had pre-positioned enough ready-to-use therapeutic food before the escalation of the conflict in Taites. The problem is that that therapeutic food has to be distributed to a large number of health facilities across the governorate, and all of the routes are closed. So it is more an access problem than a supply problem contributing to the stockouts at the level of health facilities in Taites. Now, more broadly speaking across Yemen, most of the stockouts of ready-to-use therapeutic food are in the governorates that have been or and are still under the control of the de facto authorities, the Houthi authorities. And one of the reasons for the stockouts is there has been for the last months almost a year, a pause, a pause in the operations of UN agencies, including UNICEF. So we have not been providing on a steady basis those supply commodities within the areas controlled by the de facto authorities. However, recently we have been granted an exceptional authorization to do so. And so we will be moving ready-to-use therapeutic food into the Houthi-controlled areas shortly, and we will have a supply that should last us approximately six months. And some of those supplies will be distributed through NGO partners, and others will be transported directly by UNICEF to to other health facilities, even if they're not necessarily supported by an NGO.

Thank you so very much, Aqeel. Satoko, I see your hand is up, but we have Tarek has joined us from WHO, and also Matt has raised his hand to chime in from the perspective of refugee agency, but Tarek, over to you first.

Thank you very much, and it's Really great to hear from colleagues from UNICEF on the ground. Just to add a few things on the burden of diseases right now in Yemen, as a colleague from UNICEF said that cholera is rising sharply, and he mentioned that it has tripled in a couple of weeks. I'll just give you the numbers, and this is across the Yemen, as it has been said. So it rose from 221 in epidemiological week 36, and that's week of September 6 to September 12 to 683 in epidemiological week 14, that's from October 4 to October 10. Beside cholera, Yemen has reported more than 22,800 suspected measles cases and 128 deaths alongside more than 12,000 suspected dengue cases and more than 400 suspected diphtheria cases. this year. I'll just give you also a few information I got from my colleagues this morning about the situation of hospitals in Taiz that UNICEF colleague talked a lot about. The situation indeed is very difficult as fighting and Rd. closures are threatening. hospitals' access to fuel, oxygen, medicines, and essential supplies, and obviously this puts at risk the patients who are being treated there. Concretely, there are 12 hospitals in Thies that have approximately four days of fuel remaining. The city is also facing a daily deficit of oxygen, while 115 out of 127 essential medicines have sufficient stocks for about one week or less. Thousands of patients depend on uninterrupted hospital services, including 1,110 patients requiring dialysis, 192 intensive care patients, and 154 newborns that are in incubators. I will send all these numbers in my notes, obviously. Emergency obstetric services have been suspended in five districts of Taiz, and at least five major facilities providing comprehensive emergency obstetrics and newborn care are only partially functioning. All these numbers will be sent by e-mail.

Appreciate that, Tarek, to focus on that perspective, very important indeed. Matt, I don't know if this is on Yemen, maybe if you have something on Yemen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Rolo. Good morning, everyone. Yes, indeed it is in Yemen. I just wanted to add a couple of points to reinforce what our colleagues from UNICEF and WHO have said. UNHCR is obviously deeply concerned about the escalating displacement situation inside the country of Yemen. The numbers displaced have now reached over 250,000, and that's against the last calculated figure of 213,000. That's up until the 17th of October. And as we've heard from our colleagues about the situation in Tays, that is particularly concerning because it's hosting around about 1/2 of the newly displaced people. The most immediate needs that we've been able to identify are around shelter, food, and multipurpose cash assistance, our teams in the country have been able to carry out some assessments of households in Abyan, Aden, Marib, Lajj and Taiz, and we have been providing some emergency cash assistance and shelter materials. By the 18th of October, some 2,000 families had received cash assistance and over 3,000 families had received shelter items. Obviously, we're aiming to provide much more than that, but as we've heard, the restricted access is limiting exactly what we're able to do, and our protection activities are continuing where the access allows. Also within the country, let's not forget that there are some 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers who are also urgently in need of support. Most of those are from Somalia and from Ethiopia. And then just finally to update on the situation in Djibouti, so far some 3,800 new arrivals have gone into the country. These are refugees, and 76% of them are women and children. And there are some 242 arrivals so far in Somalia. Thank you, Rollo. I'll hand it back to you.

Thanks to you, Matt. Important to get that angle as well. Let's, well, actually, let's turn to Satoko online, and let's see if there are further questions afterwards. But Satoko, Yomuri, go ahead.

Yes, thank you very much for doing this. You said that the, all the routes to Taiz are closed. So could you tell us who is actually imposing the blockade of the route between Taiz and Aden? And secondly, you said that you have granted an exceptional authorization to deliver therapeutic food. So could you tell us approximately when the delivery will likely start? Thank you.

Maybe other colleagues can please feel free to chime in, but maybe let's go back to you, Akeel, on those questions.

Thank you. Thank you, Satoko. So the routes into the city, but also across the broader governor of ties are essentially all blocked. They're blocked by the fighting in general. There's shelling and artillery fire, et cetera, on both sides. So both parties, so in fact, both parties are, because they're fighting so actively with each other, no route is safe and no truck, no vehicle can get through. In order to secure access, therefore, we would need to negotiate with both sides, not just one side. Regarding your question on the exceptional authorization, we have an exceptional authorization to move both ready-to-use therapeutic food and a significant quantity of medical supplies. mainly for health facilities at the primary healthcare level across the vast area under the control of the de facto authorities. In terms of the exact timing of the shipment, these are details that we're still working on because the exceptional authorization was only given to us a few days ago. So we We hope to have actual dates for shipments or partial shipments very soon, but we don't have the exact timetable yet. Most of these supplies are in our warehouse in Salalah, Oman. And so we're looking at various possibilities, logistically speaking, to move them first over to Sana'a. and then later on to the various governors and districts in the area controlled by the de facto authorities. It's a very large and complex logistical operation, as you can imagine.

Indeed, it is large and complicated, and obviously with the violence taking place, it must be very complicated. But thank you so very much for adding those points. Let's see if there are further questions. We do have a question. Yes, Olivier, Reuters.

Thank you. Sorry, I just wanted to pick up on a point that Tarek, you mentioned. Just to check that you said there are 12 hospitals and tires that have around four days of fuel remaining. Is that correct? And if so, What's the plan? I mean, do you have any kind of daylight on whether fuel is expected or are you actually preparing now for the worst case scenario of those hospitals completely running out, which I imagine maybe you can explain that fuel is needed to run incubators, oxygen supplies, et cetera?

Well, I think we will all agree that we need access. We heard from our colleague on the ground that it's extremely difficult to reach these right now and we need that safe access. to make sure that we provide not only fuel, but all sort of supplies that I mentioned. We also need taxes to be able to keep hospitals operational so people can get services. We also need to contain the cholera outbreak throughout Yemen. And cholera is happening because it's a combination of all these elements, insecurity, lack of health services, lack of safe and clean water, and displacement of population, obviously.

Thank you, Tarek. Colleagues, further questions on Yemen? Yes, Alexandre.

Yeah, a question for Matt, if it's possible. You're talking about 250,000 displaced people. Are there internally displaced people or all of displaced people, please?

Matt? I think we need to unmute Matt. Go ahead.

Apologies, I think that's better. These are people who have been internally displaced within Yemen between the 1st of August and the 17th of October.

All right, thank you very much for that clarification. Colleagues, any further questions, comments? No. Well, listen, I think it's immensely important to keep the spotlight bright, and thank you for doing so, colleagues. Oh, wait a minute. Sorry. A late hand. Maya, is this on Yemen?

Hi, thank you very much for taking my question, Rolando. No, it's not about Yemen, but Matt sent us a very nice intro to the history of UNHCR, and I would like to do a follow-up. So I emailed you, but perhaps with the thousands of emails you receive, if perhaps you could give us some guidance and more material, as well as access, I don't know, to the archives, and possibly, I think there are people still alive that would be able to be interviewed via Zoom, perhaps.

And Matt, I know you have another announcement, but maybe you can quickly address that.

Well, this was what I'm going to update in the announcement, Rollo, so let me leave it till the end of the briefing, and then I can address Maya's question then.

Perfect. Okay, so it's in relation to the announcement. Okay, I see now. Okay. So, yeah, if you don't mind, Maya, we'll put a pin in that, go back to Matt later on. But on that note, I'd like to invite our guests from WHO to join us up on the podium. And thank you, Jens. Thank you again, Ricardo. And thank you sincerely, Akil, for joining us once again from Yemen. So we have Dr. Soren Braunstrom, who is with the Director of Department of Noncommunicable Disease and Mental Health. But maybe, Tarek, did you want to start off? Go ahead.

No, just to say that you have received last evening the press release and the link to related materials, so those who were interested were able to read about it. And now we will hear from Soren.

Thank you very much, and good morning, colleagues, and it's nice to be back here in the press room in the Palais. I was here a couple of months ago, actually. At that time, I was acting director of communications in WHO, which was a bit outside of my comfort zone, but I was happy to do that as well. I have now returned to my comfort zone, it's fair to say, as director of noncommunicable diseases and mental health, which is basically a space I've been working in for more than 30 years. So that's -- and we are very happy to present to you today this new report, which we call "State of Inequality: Noncommunicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors." This is so far the most comprehensive analysis and report on the subject of inequality in health and specifically on noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs. And perhaps let me first explain what is NCDs, noncommunicable diseases. It's a bit of a jargon in our world, but this is basically all of the diseases in the whole world, except for the ones who are infectious. So that's basically my portfolio. These are the big killers. We all know the diseases, cardiovascular diseases, which is diseases of the heart, like coronary artery disease, heart attacks, heart failures. It will be your chronic respiratory disease, like chronic obstructive lung disease, which is a very suffocating, bad disease. A lot of people die from that, often due to tobacco smoking. pollution, occupational exposure to harmful substances. We also have, of course, the cancers with lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, breast cancer in women, et cetera, as the big killers. And we also have diabetes on the list. Just to quote some numbers, this is now eight out of 10 of the top 10 reasons to die in the world. We just published new estimates. Eight out of 10 top 10 reasons to die, more or less 3/4 of all deaths in the world are due to these non-communicable diseases. It wasn't always the case. If we go back 25 years to the turn of the century, it was approximately 3 out of 10, and back then it was dominated very much by communicable diseases, maternal child, infectious diseases, unclean water and sanitation, et cetera. But that has shifted over the last couple of decades. As more and more countries and more and more populations are moving up into the middle income bracket, it is basically becoming non-communicable diseases where we see the big burden and the big mortality, very much due, of course, to these successes in the communicable spaces. So this is what is challenging populations and, indeed, also governments and health care systems. Just to quote some numbers. Cardiovascular diseases, which is the biggest killer by far, globally almost 20 million deaths a year. Cancers, approximately 8, 9 million deaths a year. Chronic respiratory diseases, approximately 4 million deaths a year globally. Just for comparison, if you take two well-known diseases such as HIV or tuberculosis, each of them is around 1.5 million deaths a year. So you see a shifting burden. This is why we wanted to focus on NCDs and specifically also on the inequalities that are. Because as you can understand, these diseases are everywhere in all countries, all populations, young and old, male and female, but they are not equally distributed. So the risk of getting the disease is very different between genders, age, but also socioeconomic determinants. If you get the disease, The chance of getting diagnosed, the chance of getting proper care is unequally distributed. If you get proper care, your prognosis, your chance of surviving that disease is also unequally distributed. So this is what we wanted to dig into with these numbers. We looked at, in this report, we looked at the four, top four killers, cardiovascular, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes. And then we looked at the five main risk factors driving these diseases, which are alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and then air pollution. These are five risk factors that are also unequally distributed among rich and poor countries, among various parts of the populations. They are all amenable, meaning we can do something about it. to address this. And then we basically checked this across various different indicators, age and gender, which is where we have the best data, but also level of education, poverty or rich, urban or rural, employed or unemployed, are you a migrant or resident, et cetera. And then we broke it down. And just to give you some of the examples, this is a very, very dense report, but just some of the examples of what this data shows. One example is hypertension, which is where we have good data, high blood pressure, very equally distributed among men and female. But are you getting diagnosed is unequally distributed. So globally, roughly around 49% of men with hypertension will get a diagnosis, whereas 59% of women with hypertension will get a diagnosis. If you get a diagnosis, will you get treated? Again, unequally distributed. 38% of men will get properly treated. 48% of women will get properly treated. So already here we discover a disparity between the genders that is also well known from other evidence of basically health-seeking behavior. Men are just simply not accessing health care as much as women. So that is one example of a concrete inequity that we can then try and address with recommendations of how to change it and improve it. Another example is alcohol, very unequally distributed. More men than women drink globally, more or less in all communities, but it's also within the age bracket. So alcohol is very much a problem of men of productive age, from 25 to 65. Again, very important information that countries can use to address that driver of inequality in health. If we look at poverty and education, low education, very, very strong drivers of inequities in health, and this is true in both high-income countries, middle-income countries, and low-income countries. Poverty and education. Just A couple of examples here. Obesity is a very interesting thing to watch because that's really exploding in all domains. If we look at the low and middle income country bracket, obesity is very much a disease of the rich rather than the poor, of the urban population rather than the rural, and of females rather than males. This is actually the opposite in high-income countries, where obesity has become very much a disease of the rural population rather than the urban or city-dwelling, more a male disease, and certainly a disease of the poor and lower educated. So again, very important information that we can use in our support for countries and how to address it. Another very, very important driver is are you seeking behavior. Cervical cancer, which is a terrible disease affecting especially younger women and increasingly so in low and middle income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, great, great disparities. So are you getting screened for cervical cancer? The richest in the low and middle income bracket, 30% are getting screened, whereas it is only 6% among the poorest. We see the same disparity in the high-income countries, just with different numbers. In the high-income countries, the richest getting screened more than 90%, which is what is optimal, but only 80% in the poor income bracket. We see the same determinants for level of education. And then finally, maybe to wrap up, if you look at some of the risk factors, and the major, major risk factors driving these diseases are alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy diets such as sugar, and then air pollution. That is very much, again, driven by poverty and education. And again, if you look at the low and middle income, just to mention one data, which I will leave you with, which is air pollution, which we are increasingly realizing is a strong, strong contributor also to non-communicable diseases, including heart diseases, lung diseases, but also diseases of the brain, such as dementia, stroke, 40% of the rural population is exposed to air pollution in low and middle income countries, whereas it's only 13% of the urban dwelling, so again here you have poor, low educated rural populations are with that. And if you look at are you accessing healthy fuel for cooking in your home, it's more than 90% in low and middle income countries of the poor who are exposed to that, but very, very few of the rich. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Soren. A very important read, of course. Lots of information to unpack there, so thank you also for sharing that. Thanks again, Soren. Let's see if there are questions for you. Yes, Christiane, DPA.

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. So what do we do with this huge data analysis? What is the lessons drawn from that? What is a high-income country going to do with this now? Thank you.

Thank you very much for that excellent question. And we are, of course, also addressing this in the report. We wouldn't be WHO if we didn't give recommendations and solutions on how to change this data in itself does not change the world, for sure. We're basically pointing to three domains of recommendations in the report. The first is to scale up interventions that we know work. And we actually have that from different work we've done over the years in WHO. We know what it takes to address this, just a couple of examples. One is health taxes, basically taxing the unhealthy alcohol, tobacco, sugar, unhealthy diet. We know it works. We know it's super effective, not only in generating income for the countries affected, but also in changing the consumption of these unhealthy products. And we know that especially lower educated, younger people and the poorer, it is more sensitive to them. If you increase the price of tobacco, you will basically create equity, especially in the affected populations. So this we are strongly advocating, and we see more and more countries taking up this, especially with tobacco, but certainly much more can be done in that. The other thing, then we have what we call the best buys. We've developed them over decades. This is basically cost-effective policy options for governments to choose, and we have made them cost-effective so they are actually realistic. and pragmatic for low and middle-income countries. One example is cardiovascular disease and hypertension. What can be done in local clinics without specialized doctors, without expensive medication to basically change this and get an impact? That's another way we have also looked at it. And then we also advocate for the use of data for targeted interventions, so basically use this data that is sitting here and also follow up with more data. We have instruments to do that. We are making them available. of the free of charge as public goods for countries to use. One example is the stepwise instrument that WHO has been developing again over decades, which is basically a basic survey country can use in communities to see how is it with these various risk factors and diseases. And if you do an intervention, are you changing it? So that's some of the tools we are providing.

Quick follow-up, cost-effective policies with regards to cardiovascular disease, what would that be?

For instance, like I said, it would be a basic package that can be delivered in a local clinic by the available healthcare workforce, which will be Look at your risk populations, offer them easy access to have your blood pressure monitored, have a basic level of medicines, which are generic, cheap, very effective medicines, such as controlling blood pressure, you need a couple of different pills, you need to control the cholesterol, again, very cheap medicine, and then follow up on the patient, address the risk factors, such as tobacco, et cetera. Hugely effective. We take it for granted in high-income countries. huge challenge in access to health care in low-income countries, but this can be offered cheaply and effectively. So we are not advocating that governments in low- and middle-income countries put all their money in highly specialized cardiology centers, which would be not the vices spent for the money. So that's one example. On chronic respiratory disease, which is a huge killer, it is basically a way of diagnosing and treating easily with inhaled medicines that relax airways and expand them, and then steroids that reduce inflammation. This has been around for 50 years in high-income countries. It is now becoming cheap, but again, not accessible in low- and middle-income countries. A huge investment there. In cancer, offering screening, effective screening for cervical cancer, breast cancer in women, and then offering a referral pathway. Again, it can be done cost-effectively. So these are some of the options that we are pointing to.

Thank you so very much. was excellent, excellent briefing and very important. Of course, I don't see further questions, just making sure there are none. Well, Soren, thank you very much. In your comfort zone, but I would say your comfort zone is also in communications because it was an excellent brief indeed.

I do think it's very important. Thank you very much, Soren, and I'm happy to come back at any time.

Thank you so much, Soren. Okay, moving to my colleague Marcelo on the right from UN Trade and Development, important gathering coming up this weekend, I believe. So over to you.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Rollo. Good morning. It's just a brief update on the upcoming World Investment Forum, the ninth edition, which opens on Sunday in Doha in Qatar and runs until the 27th. UN Trade and Development, UNCTAD, is convening this forum with the state of Qatar under the theme Investing in the Future. We have now more than 5,000 registrations, including around 300 media representatives. The forum brings together governments, investors, business leaders, sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions, entrepreneurs, and international organizations, and comes at a geopolitical, comes as geopolitical tensions and technological change Reshape where investment goes, um, we recently released our trade and development report where we highlighted how governments increasingly use trade, investment, and technology policies to pursue strategic objectives, companies are reassessing suppliers and production locations. Creating, of course, also opportunities for countries to enter new industries and strengthen their position in global markets along the way. Our research, UMTAD's research, shows how quickly that investment map is changing. Strategic sectors accounted, and that includes, of course, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy transition technologies, they accounted for 44% of global greenfield investment project values last year. That's up from only 16% five years earlier in 2020. So the development challenges, of course, to turn these investments into local industries and jobs, our recent analysis makes this concrete. The financing conditions are central to these discussions. High borrowing costs and debt service burdens constrain government's ability to invest in the power, transport, and education systems that businesses also need. Last week in Bangkok, for those who followed the fall meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, and we were present, as I said, last week in Bangkok, the Borrowers Platform that we launched last April held its first governing council meeting. We're proud to state that 31 developing countries have formally joined this member state initiative. The numbers are continuing to grow. UMTAT serves as the secretariat. The Borrower's Platform gives borrower countries a dedicated space to share experience, strengthen capacity, and develop a collective voice on debt issues. The work addresses financing constraints and also that also shape countries' ability to attract and hopefully benefit from investment and the latest headline figure in that regard is that 3.7 billion people, 3.7 billion people around the world live now in countries that spend more on servicing the debt than on health or education, which connects to so many challenges we hear also in this room. Now, in Doha, we will have more than 70 sessions bringing together policymakers and investors together around these questions. So covering global value chains, energy security, critical minerals, AI, along of course, sustainable finance, entrepreneurship, and also tourism and culture. Holding the forum in Doha reaffirms also the continued international engagement with the region, which remains. We're having an opening press conference, which will be streamed. It's on Sunday, of course, it's a working day in the region. As you know, we stand by. for setting up interviews and comment from UNGTAD speakers, experts, and speakers attending the event. The plenary sessions are streamed live on UN Web TV, so thank you to our colleagues for that, of course, support, and can be followed remotely, full program and info on ungtad.org. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Marcelo. Do we have questions for Marcelo? I think you were abundantly clear. I think all eyes will be focusing on the proceedings Sunday, Monday, Tuesday this coming Sunday, Monday, Tuesday in Doha. And as noted, we will be streaming that and the package will be sent. So thank you so very much, Marcelo. Thank you. Okay, let's move to before we go back to Matt, we're going to save you for the end, Matt, but we're going to move to Claire. from WMO, who's got an updated WMO greenhouse gas bulletin and WMO state of climate update for COP31. So over to you, Claire.

Yes, thanks, everyone. Yes, just a couple of very, very quick announcements. We're coming up to COP31. The World Meteorological Organization will be releasing its annual greenhouse gas bulletin, in fact, a week today on the 27th of October. These are figures for 2025, greenhouse gas concentrations for 2025. There'll be a press conference at 10 a.m. with the WMO Deputy Secretary General, K. Barrett, and with our scientific officer, Oksana Tarasova, and we will endeavor to get you everything under embargo. Then moving on to COP itself, we will be releasing the state of the global climate update for 2026, scheduled on the first day of COP on the opening day of COP, the 9th of November. And what we are exceptionally exploring this year is possibly having an embargoed press conference on the Friday afternoon ahead of COP at the Palais for Palais journalists. So that would be the 6th of November. So we're working with UNTV on that and we hope it'll be possible. And the reason that we are thinking of doing it is that the first opening days of COP are sometimes a little bit chaotic, and this particular COP, some of the journalists will possibly only be arriving on the Wednesday of the Leaders Summit. So we're hoping to cater to the needs of international journalists who are accredited here in Geneva and who may not necessarily have anybody in Antalya. So if you've got any questions, queries on that, just please reach out to me. Thanks.

Thanks to you, Claire, another important gathering, no less. So let's see if there are questions for you. No, that's not the case. Once again, thanks for a very clear update, rather an announcement. So we'll keep eyes on those developments, of course. So thanks. Let's move to our last briefer, Matt, who's already started speaking earlier. But I think you had questions already, but let's leave it to you to announce what you want to and then turn to colleagues for questions. Over to you, Matt.

Thanks, Rola. So it was just an announcement to say that this Friday, October the 23rd, is the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. And that was a time at which 200,000 people fled Hungary in the snow to Austria and Yugoslavia. And it was also a time when we saw an unprecedented international effort to support those people who fled, who ended up being resettled on five continents and in 37 countries. It was also the first major refugee crisis to play out on our television screens. It's also important for us as an agency because at that time we were just a small agency, five years old, and we were named as the overall lead agency by the UNGA. And our statute was also used for the first time to recognize what we call prima facie refugee status when people move in mass across a border and are given blanket refugee status, if you like. Um, what is also, we think, quite important to compare those days with the current situation is that some, uh, 180,000 to 200,000 people, uh, were transferred, as I mentioned, to 37 different countries, they were resettled, and if we look at the figures today, or for last year at least, uh, only 80 odd 1000 refugees were resettled in the entire world. So the difference in the era is quite striking. Anyway, we've sent a an advisory to you, so we hope that it might be something that's of interest. There will be a press release on Friday from our Europe Bureau. There are events happening in Budapest, which can be covered. But we can also make available to journalists, we have a number of refugees who were themselves resettled or who whose families were resettled, and they're available to speak to journalists. They've made themselves available, and they are in various countries around the world, across Europe, North America, as far afield as Australia. So to answer Maya's question from earlier on, I will be sending her some of these contacts, and I can also share them with some of you if you're interested. What's also interesting is that there is a rich cache of archival documents around this from UNHCR. We can make many of these available. Some of them are absolutely fascinating. For example, we have a document showing that Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia actually provided money from Ethiopia to UNHCR to support the refugees who were fleeing from Hungary. another example of how the world has changed in many ways. We also have original photos, and I believe it's the first refugee crisis for which we have video documentation, and we do have video available, as well as, of course, UNHCR spokespeople. We've sent the advisory. It should be in your inboxes, but if you have questions, do reach out to me, and I will endeavor to support you. Thank you, Rola. I'll hand it back to you.

Thank you, Matt. Lots of rich content there. I'm sure our colleagues would be seeking that out. So thank you so very much for that. Do we have questions for Matt? Maya, I think you have your answer. I don't see any further questions. So thank you again, Matt, for that important information. So on that note, we have concluded our active briefers. I just have a few announcements, as usual. chiefly to remind you of an important gathering taking place here at the Palais des Nations tomorrow, the 21st of October. That is the sixth consultative meeting on enhancing coordination of peace initiatives and efforts in Sudan. So the meeting is expected to start at 9:30 tomorrow in the Council Chamber. It will last all day long. At the end, we will have a press conference. We'll share details with you, the precise timing and the speakers. It'll take place here approximately 5:30 in this room. The meeting itself, as you heard from our colleague from the Personal Envoy's Office, Nyla, she mentioned quite a number of details, participants, 27 delegations, upwards of 80 participants gathering. here in Geneva, bringing together international and regional actors. The aim is really to end the conflict in Sudan. So the participants include the members of the quad, neighboring countries, the five permanent members of the Security Council, the African Union, the European Union, IGAD, and the League of Arab States. Now the personal envoy, Pekka Havisto, the Secretary General's personal envoy, will be delivering opening remarks along with Alexandre Fassel of the Swiss of our host country at the onset of the meeting tomorrow in the Council Chamber at 9:30. That will be streamed live, though that is a portion of the program that will be public after Mr. Ambassador Fassel's intervention. will the meeting will go to private. So there will be opportunities for you to capture the arrivals from door four starting as from 8:45 tomorrow, roughly to 9:15 or so. We have sent you a message about pool arrangements, so all those logistical details are there. I just want to really mention that the focus of this meeting is to support the de-escalation and improve humanitarian access. respect for international humanitarian law, and advance inclusive incredible advance a inclusive and incredible peace process. So this is really the ultimate aim. So lots more information that you'll have tomorrow, indeed. Secretary General's activities, as you probably know, well, the Secretary General should be back in New York now. He was in Indonesia for a short visit where he delivered some important statements, which we shared with you. In one statement in Jakarta, he underscored and on the future of multilateralism, he underscored that the answer to deepening frustration with multilateralism is not less multilateralism; instead, it's better multilateralism. He said that we cannot risk a fragmented world. And the Secretary General spoke with the media afterwards, and he actually He highlighted that Indonesia is a fitting place to spotlight the role that emerging economies can and must have in an increasingly polarized, multipolar world, he said. So those remarks were shared with you. Meetings taking place here, we have the Human Rights Committee, which kicked off its session yesterday. Today, this afternoon, I should say, the report of Austria will be reviewed by the Human Rights Committee. Then reports later on this week will be Rwanda and Cameroon. So do take a look at the media advisory. Press conferences, I've already announced it before. I'll do so again this afternoon at 2:30 in this room. Colleagues from the CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, will be meeting with you to talk about wildlife trade and conservation policy discussions at the 81st meeting of the CITES Standing Committee. So 30 this afternoon. And last but certainly not least, just an announcement from our friends at UNOPS. There was it's pertaining to the visit of the Under-Secretary-General and UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva, his visit to Nepal, which was concluded just today, I believe. So there's a statement which we'll share with you. He speaks to what he witnessed firsthand, namely the devastating impact of the ongoing flash floods on communities, homes, basic infrastructure, and livelihoods in the areas Devighat and Bidur in Nepal. And he notes that the scale of destruction is absolutely colossal. So it's important, colleagues, that we keep the focus on the recovery efforts in Nepal. So do take a look at that press release, which we'll share with you. Okay. I have a question. Is that for me, John?

Can you hear me there, Rando?

No, I can. Go ahead.

Yes, yes, good morning. Tomorrow, the presser, the special envoy Pekka Haavisto, will he participate in the presser at the end of the day? And secondly, in the broadcast in the morning, will Mr. Haavisto's intervention be also broadcast live.

Yes, I did mention that. Well, yes, I can confirm that among the speakers, it'll be the personal envoy Pekka Haavisto who will be addressing. 30, that statement and the statement of Mr. Fasel, Alexandre Fasel of the Swiss delegation, will be streamed live, so you can watch it on web TV. Thereafter, it'll go to black, so it'll be private. Mr. Hovisto will be among the speakers addressing you in this room, in the press room, at the end of the day, again, approximately 5:30. I'll just need to confirm the name of the Swiss delegate who will be joining him, so it'll just be the two of them speaking from this room at the end of the day tomorrow. And we'll make sure to announce that and provide all the details over the course of the day tomorrow. Yeah, Olivia.

Thank you. Separate, though linked. I just wanted to comment from yourself, Rolando, or any other agencies listening in on the drone strike in the disputed Sudan, South Sudan area, which has killed at least 70 people.

We announced yesterday our absolute alarm over a number of strikes. There were repeated strikes, drone strikes, including in the capital in Khartoum, in West Darfur State, in South Darfur State, in North Kordofan State, killing a number of civilians. This is absolutely appalling and something that will no doubt be addressed in the meeting tomorrow. I mean, this is something that we've been calling for an end to the violence, a call for cessation of hostilities. And as I just mentioned, one of the focuses will also be about humanitarian access and respect for international humanitarian law. And these strikes are absolute violation of international law. I don't have more details specifically on these strikes. We are gathering information. As you know, the logistics, it's a rather complex setting where we're working. Our colleagues are working in very precarious situations. We also spoke to the situation of our Red Crescent volunteers who were killed, sadly. A number of Red Crescent volunteers have been killed, not to mention the innocent victims of this horrible conflict in Sudan. in various parts of the country. What I can do is try to get more information and share that with you, but I could just remind you again that the meeting tomorrow will be focusing on this among other very important issues with the ultimate aim of just putting an end to this violence and this conflict in Sudan. John, is that a new hand? Go ahead.

Yeah, I, I, uh, Rolando, I see, uh, Jens in the room. It would be nice to have a SITREP update on the humanitarian situation in Sudan and also in neighboring Ethiopia, if they're available, highlighting on the humanitarian needs and the casualty numbers for these two countries. I think there was a humanitarian killed in Ethiopia as well from the IFRC.

Yes, Jens is indeed in the room. What I just did was recite parts of the humanitarian update that Jens and colleagues from OCHA shared with you yesterday. I don't believe there's more. As I mentioned, we will certainly update you as we get additional information. In terms of Ethiopia, I think we'll also need to double back to you, John. Of course, we're focusing the focusing a lot of our attention on what's happening in the northern part of the country, in the Tigray region in particular. We don't have I don't have any specific notes. You've seen the various notes that the Secretary General has shared, as well as humanitarian updates, but we'll certainly get back to you and colleagues if should we have any more details in Ethiopia as well as Sudan. I think that does it. No further questions. So on that note, I'd like to thank you for joining us here and see you here on Friday. But of course, we'll see you tomorrow as well at the Sudan Talks. Thanks.