REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for and Representatives of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.

Climate Change and Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Floods in Asia

Brigitte Leoni of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said a press release was available at the back of the room on the ISDR urging governments to speed up their implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action to reduce climate-related risks.

Reid Basher of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said that over the last few weeks, there had been a number of very serious climatic events. Hundreds of people had lost their lives and 30 million persons had been affected in South Asia. The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction was urging governments to speed up their implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. The Hyogo Framework, which 168 countries agreed to in 2005, was the policy document to help reduce current risks and to prepare for the worsening future under a changed climate. There was a problem of climate change, and the focus today was on cutting green house gas emissions, which was very important, but this would take hundreds of years, and in the meantime, the world had to face up to the risk of increasing hazard events that would affect people, particularly poor people around the world. There had been very significant impacts this year of floods, heat waves and storms and countries had to put in place strategies that were known, things like building stronger houses, putting in warning systems and educating the public. With climate change, it was expected that there would be more of these events.

Mr. Basher said the Hyogo Framework was based on a decade of experience and evidence where people had looked at disasters and had studied their impact and the response to them. Better legislation was needed, structures had to be built strong, cities and villages had to be built where they were not prone to flooding, and there had to be cooperation between countries, especially in warning systems. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change had reported on this problem earlier this year and the results were unequivocal: the climate was changing, and clearly, the world had to start preparing and acting, and the Hyogo Framework was the blue print on how to move forward on this issue. Modest investments in early warning systems, evacuation systems, public education, and better building standards paid off.

Vanessa Huguenin of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that a meeting was taking place today at the Palais des Nations on follow-up to the UN Appeal for floods in Pakistan launched on 18 July for $ 38 million. Only 20 per cent of the money had been pledged, so this meeting was a good opportunity for OCHA to explain what had been done with the money so far, and to stress the importance of more funds to continue this work.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the floods in South Asia was going to affect the return to school of millions of children. In Bangladesh, more than 8,000 primary schools had been affected by the floods and 7,780 were currently closed because they were either damaged or hosting displaced families. Louis George Arsenault, UNICEF’s Representative in Bangladesh, told her that reconstruction, especially of schools, and psychological support should be offered to help millions of children who were traumatized by the violence and the floods. This was of fundamental importance. In India, the floods had affected an estimated 31 million people. The worst affected states were Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Assam in north east India. Several million children in Bihar were not able to go to school as many had been flooded out and others were being used as shelters. Job Zachariah, UNICEF’s Representative in Bihar, said resuming education was the best psychological counselling for children after such a disaster. In Nepal, flood waters had receded in most districts and people were returning to their homes to try to salvage their livelihoods. Further details were available in the media releases at the back of the room. UNICEF had prepositioned supplies in the affected countries as reconstruction would be a key issue in coming weeks.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said hundreds of thousands of persons were at risk of diseases in the aftermath of the floods in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. These diseases included diarrhoea, conjunctivitis and skin and respiratory infections. WHO stressed the importance of monitoring for the possible spread of epidemics. WHO was monitoring the health situation in the three countries, along with the national Health Ministries and other partners. Before the start of the monsoon season, WHO had prepositioned emergency health kits in the area.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said long-term relief and recovery efforts would be needed for many of the estimated 25 million persons affected by the floods. After the flood waters receded, there would be millions of poor families which would remain devastated from the loss of crops, live stock and family members. WFP stood ready to assist with food and logistical support and urged donors to already set up funding for early recovery programmes. Food for work programmes could help rehabilitate destroyed houses and roads, while school meals were essential to get children back to school. In Nepal, WFP would now help 330,000 people in 33 districts in the south and west of the country. In Bangladesh, WFP would be distributing some 99 tons of high-energy biscuits. For the time being, Nepal was still the only country that had asked for official assistance from the international community.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was this morning concluding its review of the report of the Republic of Korea. This was the last country report that the Committee would be considering this session, and its final observations and recommendations on all the reports reviewed would be issued towards the end of the session on Friday, 17 August.

Other

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF welcomed Jordan’s offer of education to Iraqi children, even those who did not hold residency permits. UNICEF had been supporting education of Iraqi children in Iraq and around the region, and in July it launched a joint $ 129 million appeal with the High Commissioner for Refugees to support host governments in providing schooling for 155,000 Iraqi children.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said four new cases of polio had been confirmed in Angola, bringing the total number of polio cases in the country in 2007 to 10. WHO along with the national authorities were planning a national immunization day for the end of the month.

Jennifer Pagonis of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that the pace of repatriation to Afghanistan from Pakistan was rapidly outstripping UNHCR’s ability to identify additional resources to support returning Afghans. With the generous support of donors, UNHCR had been able to assist more than 300,000 Afghans to return to their homeland this year. But funds would soon be exhausted and UNHCR was making an urgent request for an additional $ 10 million over the additional $ 15 million requested in April 2007. This would enable UNHCR to support the return and reintegration of a revised total of 400,000 Afghans this year. The new revised budget for the entire Afghanistan Operation was $ 108,373,526.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said a group of 47 child victims of trafficking had been returned by IOM and the Pan American Development Foundation to their homes in the impoverished district of Grand Anse in south-west Haiti, where IOM would provide follow-on care and assistance. In Pakistan, four IOM response teams had been deployed to districts in the country devastated by flash floods in order to assess people’s ongoing needs and to monitor and report on the provision of services and to assist in the distribution of relief items. They had targeted at least 7,500 vulnerable families for help.

Ms. Pandya said as part of efforts to combat significant levels of irregular migration from Niger, and following a similar initiative in Senegal recently, the Government of Niger and IOM had launched an information campaign aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of irregular migration in order to better prevent it. And in Switzerland, Mauritanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mohamed Saleck Ould Mohamed Lemine, and IOM Director General, Brunson McKinley, had signed an agreement for the opening of an IOM office in Nouakchott.

Ms. Taveau also introduced Michael Klaus, the new head of UNICEF’s information unit in Geneva.