HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY UN UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS VALERIE AMOS

Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said this was her first opportunity in Geneva to say a little bit about the work that she had been doing as Under-Secretary-General in charge of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) since the beginning of September. Everyone knew that the world was going though extremely challenging times in terms of humanitarian disasters around the world.

They started the year with the earthquake in Haiti, then subsequently saw the flooding and there was now the cholera outbreak there. Whilst they were continuing to give the people of Haiti ongoing humanitarian support, they were also working very closely with the Government of Haiti and with other UN organizations and with non-governmental organizations to try to stem the flow in terms of the cholera outbreak. It was extremely important that the cholera did not spread and she was pleased to report that they had been able to get water purification tablets through the UN and other organizations to those in the area of Haiti where the outbreak first started.

Ms. Amos said that in her first week as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, she had gone to Pakistan, which was one of the biggest disasters that they had had to deal with. Some 20 million people had been affected by the floods and 14 million of those were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The flooding had spread through a number of provinces, and whilst the water had started to recede in a number of areas, in the Sindh, the water was still very high and they were still dealing with ongoing humanitarian needs. In other places, where the water was starting to recede, they had a situation where the people were going back to their homes, and they were seeking to make sure that these people had shelter as winter was coming and also had the ability to plant so that next year they would not be in need of food assistance. There would be a meeting looking at the longer term reconstruction needs for Pakistan in Islamabad later this month. She wanted to ensure that the people of the world did not forget that the people of Pakistan were still in urgent need of humanitarian assistance now.

In the last couple of weeks, Ms. Amos said they had seen the impact of climate change, particularly in Asia. In all of these instances, the United Nations and OCHA had been prepared to respond. She was pleased to report that in Indonesia and the Philippines, the disaster preparedness that those countries had put in place had meant that they had not had to seek international assistance, but had managed those crises in-country.

Ms. Amos said she had visited Niger two weeks ago. She had wanted to draw attention to the slow onset food crises with respect to food insecurity that they were seeing in West Africa at the moment. They had managed to avoid an urgent humanitarian crisis in Niger as a result of the response of the international community and their donors. What they must not forget was that this was a part of the world that was extremely vulnerable, where the development indicators were extremely poor, high levels of illiteracy in Niger and very high population growth. Attention had to be given to agricultural development as well as infrastructure support. Niger was a country with very high levels of malnutrition. The solution for Niger rested in a longer term development strategy, led by the Government and supported by the UN development agencies and others. Without this longer term development strategy, they would continue to see crises occur with respect to food insecurity on an ongoing basis.

Ms. Amos said she would be heading for Sudan on 4 November. Sudan was the biggest operation for OCHA. Sudan had huge humanitarian needs, issues with respect to security and access, and where there would be in January a referendum, the result of which could mean that the south of Sudan could become an independent State. OCHA’s role was not to second guess the outcome of the referendum, but to support the people of Sudan and the authorities in the south and in the north and in Darfur with respect to meting the humanitarian needs that currently existed.

In response to a question on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Iraq and Somalia, and when she planned to visit these areas, Ms. Amos said hoped to visit the occupied Palestinian territories in the first quarter of next year, but she did not yet have plans to visit Iraq and Somalia. The situation in Gaza remained extremely grave. OCHA remained extremely concerned about the lack of access. Although there had been some opening up of access, the situation was still only about 40 per cent of what it was in 2007. Of particular concern was the need to ensure that there was access to construction material and this had been particularly difficult to arrange. In Somalia, it was particularly difficult with respect to the security situation. OCHA had a few people based in the country, but the majority of the people, because of the security situation, were not based in Somalia but came in on a regular basis. The activities of organizations like Al Shabab made it extremely difficult to access certain parts of the country. Part of her role was to continue to make the case for impartial and independent access for humanitarian actors so that they were able to help the people of Somalia. In Iraq, there were continuing pockets of humanitarian needs which they were keeping a very close eye on. Iraq would now move on to a development footing rather than a humanitarian one.

A journalist said that US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton recently said that the rich landowners in Pakistan should come to the rescue of the Pakistanis affected by the floods, but these landowners were ignoring the crisis and the Government was buying state of the art weapons. Ms. Amos said when OCHA responded to humanitarian crises, it was important that there was a partnership between the Government, UN organizations, national and international non-governmental organizations and the international community. That was what was important in Pakistan. They each had a role to play. Of course, the Government was the one that took the lead in responding to any disaster, but their role was to support that response. When there was a situation where millions of people did not have access to food and had lost their homes, the world had a responsibility to take notice and to support these people.

Responding to a question on whether Member States had given any indication on whether they were likely to reduce contributions to OCHA given the fiscal austerity measures that were now in fashion worldwide, Ms. Amos said in the last 12 months, they had seen a huge increase in the number of crises around the world and had certainly had to launch more humanitarian appeals that at any other point. On the overall number for the 2011 appeal, she would not expect it to be any less that the past year, but she could not put a figure as to the overall number OCHA would be asking for. Just thinking of what had happened in Haiti and Pakistan, they were looking at mega crises around the world, as well as an increasing number of other crises which were particularly climate related. They all knew that a number of their traditional donors, Member States that had supported humanitarian action, were going through difficult financial times. She had been encouraged by the response of a number of Member States with respect to either keeping their support at the same level or increasing it. At the same time, they had to be realistic about what was going to happen. They had to look at other ways of raising money to meet the urgent needs which existed.

In response to a question, Ms. Amos said that there were three areas that she would focus on with respect to her role. One was improving and making sure that they had more effective delivery of their mandate, particularly coordination on the ground and reviewing their performance in the mega crises and looking at how to be more efficient. Also, looking at developing capacity on the ground and looking at how countries could prepare for disaster. There were also a set of issues related to her role as Emergency Relief Coordinator and the role of OCHA as an organization in terms of advocacy, arguing to the importance of principled humanitarian action that was independent and impartial and was not related to a broader political agenda but focused on meeting the needs of individuals. The third was looking at the management and leadership of OCHA itself, strengthening their performance management, making sure that they could demonstrate to their donors that they were effective and efficient.