REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had arrived in Beijing, China, where he would meet today with the President, the Premier and the Foreign Minister, among other senior Chinese officials. He would also speak at an event encouraging the use of energy-efficient light bulbs. He would stress that, although light bulbs were not always the first thing that sprang to mind when talking about revolutionary technology, energy-efficient light bulbs were a revolutionary innovation that could change the world.

Available in the press room was the Secretary-General statement on the second round of presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. In it the Secretary-General said that he would be closely watching the elections as an important measure of national commitment to democracy and reconciliation.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General’s latest report on Somalia had been made public yesterday and was available on the website. In the report, the Secretary-General said that he was deeply concerned about recent repeated attempts to overthrow the Somali Government by force. He appealed to the international community not to waver in its support for the Government. While the security situation remained fluid, the Secretary-General said that the Transitional Federal Government maintained an inclusive approach to solving political differences with the opposition, in the spirit of the Djibouti Agreement.

Economic and Social Council

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Economic and Social Council was holding this morning a general debate on the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010. It would also review the reports of coordination bodies and the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2010-2011, as well as the calendar of conferences and meetings in the economic, social and related fields.

This afternoon, the Council would hold a general debate on coordination and on the issues of: international cooperation in the field of informatics; science and technology for development; and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Nature Reserve Certificate awarded to UNOG

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) had been awarded the prestigious "Nature Reserve Certificate" by the Swiss non-profit organization "Fondation Nature & Economie". This well-known environmental quality label was awarded to entities that protected nature and contributed to biological diversity by managing at least 30 per cent of the green areas around buildings in a natural manner.

The award of the Certificate constituted an acknowledgement of UNOG’s firm commitment to climate neutrality and enabled the Office to show an important example in line with the Secretary-General’s priorities. UNOG’s many initiatives to qualify for the Certificate included, among others, avoiding pesticides, utilizing compost and making use of sheep instead of lawnmowers, said Ms. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

As a result of these concerted efforts over several years, visitors could enjoy the rich biodiversity of the 46-hectare park, with trees over 100 years old, more than 68,000 m2 of lush grassland and a large variety of flowers, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

For UNOG, this award was not the end of the process but the demonstration of a past and future will to highlight the biodiversity of its magnificent park, the tremendous richness of which was appreciated, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Greening the UN in Geneva

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier further noted that on the occasion of the launch of the “Genève – Lac – Nations” project there would be an event on 29 July 2009 at 1 p.m. at the Passerelle between the old and new building. At this occasion, an exhibit on greening the United Nations in Geneva would also be opened. Participating at the event would be the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the State Councillor of the Republic and canton of Geneva, Robert Cramer and a representative of the Services industriels de Genève.

H1N1 Update

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization, answering to several questions by journalists, said that there were currently five reported cases of anti-viral resistance. These cases were isolated and not connected. The spread of the virus continued and the number of deaths was around 800 now, with 160 countries and territories that had reported laboratory-confirmed cases.

Still unknown was how the virus would change over the next weeks. No changes had been seen in the behaviour of the virus for the moment. There was still a geographical expansion of the virus across and within countries. The more cases there would be, the more deaths one would see, but this would not mean that the virus had changed. Mr. Hartl said that the activity of the virus was expected to increase with the coming winter, as influenza viruses circulated better in colder weather. It was however impossible to give an exact percentage of expected deaths.

The highest percentage of deaths was still being reported in adolescents and young adults. This was probably linked to the fact that it was easier for a virus to spread in schools and institutions. Concerning vaccines, Mr. Hartl said that each vaccine manufacturers was working to its own timetable and WHO could not predict when each individual manufacturer would have its vaccine ready. WHO expected the first doses to be available for human use in early autumn of the northern hemisphere.

In terms of checks at airports and restriction of travelling, Mr. Hartl said that it was not the most efficient way to use public health resources because many people could spread the virus even though they were not symptomatic, while on the other hand people who were coughing or had fever could have theses symptoms for a number of different reasons not linked to H1N1. It was better to concentrate public health resources in identifying and treating severe cases that needed medical attention.

On the distribution of vaccines, Mr. Hartl said that they had been given promises of 150 million doses from two manufacturers and that WHO was working with different partners to secure more vaccines for developing countries. The vaccines WHO would get would be mainly sent to Least Developed Countries, with the main priority being healthcare workers in these countries, as they were the most exposed and because if they fell sick the whole health system would break down. It was still unknown for the moment whether an individual would need one or two shots of vaccine. Clinical trials had only recently started and they had to wait one or two weeks after the first injections to see the reaction of people’s antibodies.

Situation in Democratic Republic of Congo

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that thousands of Congolese had been uprooted in the latest escalation of fighting in the South Kivu province of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). UNHCR’s initial estimates showed that at least 35,000 people had been displaced in the Ruzizi River plain, where the DRC borders Rwanda and Burundi. These people had reportedly fled in the wake of the latest government military campaign code-named Kimia II, which had begun on 12 July in area around Uvira in South Kivu. The campaign was aimed at the forceful disarmament of the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and their local militia allies.

The latest displacement brought the total number of civilians to have been displaced in South Kivu since January 2009 as a result of clashes between government forces and Rwandan rebels and reprisal attacks on civilians to about 536,000 people. The total number of people displaced by violence and fighting in the eastern DRC was over 1.8 million, said Mr. Redmond.

Many of the residents of Lemera and Mulenge, the two major towns in the region north of Uvira, were reported to have fled and an estimated 19,000 people were said to be hiding in the forests and villages near Lemera. The majority of the internally displaced persons were seeking protection with host families in areas where it was still safe, while others had sheltered in schools, churches and other public buildings. Mr. Redmond said that internally displaced persons in the conflict areas in the mountains of the Moyens Plateaux remained almost completely inaccessible.

There were widespread reports from the internally displaced persons of atrocities including accusations of murder, rape and torture, on the part of FDLR rebels, said Mr. Redmond. Fleeing populations also reported arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, extortion and forced taxation by FDLR and various armed groups backing the Rwandan Hutu rebels.

Due to lack of access and insecurity it was extremely difficult to assess the scope of the latest displacement. So far, UNHCR had tentatively pre-registered some 20,000 people along the Burundi border where most of the new internally displaced persons had gathered. UNHCR’s office in Bukavu reported that families continued to be on the run throughout the week and that fighting was continuing, Mr. Redmond said. Preliminary evaluations conducted in coordination with other humanitarian partners showed that these people need food, water, medical supplies and basic aid items such as blankets, mattresses and cooking utensils.

Mr. Redmond said that UNHCR was also monitoring the situation of those most vulnerable among them, and would also evaluate the need for shelter assistance in order to minimize the pressure on the host families and local community.

UNHCR was very concerned that the renewed fighting in South Kivu would have a negative impact on UNHCR-organized voluntary repatriation of Congolese refugees from Tanzania, the majority of whom where from this province, said Mr. Redmond.

Angelina Jolie visits Baghdad

Mr. Redmond said that photos, videos and other information on UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie's visit to Baghdad yesterday was now available on UNHCR’s website (http://www.unhcr.org).

Situation of children in Gaza

Véronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that on 28 July there would be a teleconference from Gaza with UNICEF’s Regional Director for Middle East, who was currently on mission there, to speak about the situation of children in Gaza. More and more of them had to work because of the financial situation of their families.

WFP Information Network Upgrade

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that this week, WFP had launched a major upgrade of its Information Network Global System. This new system, called WINGS II, was an innovative application that linked WFP’s offices in 80 countries and supported the work of the organization’s 12,000 employees. It allowed real-time management of programmes, budgets, logistics and human resources.

By improving its ability to measure performance in all areas of its work, WFP was better able to report results to its stakeholders and it would be able to widen its reach and improve response time, with more efficient and timely use of project resources, said Ms. Casella. With the launch of this system, WFP had become the first UN agency to fully integrate International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) into its entire information management system. This made WFP even more efficient, accountable and transparent in its operation.

Ms. Casella said that this was significant in the UN system, because with this new system, WFP could track contributions through their entire life cycle, from receipt of the funds to procurement of food, delivery, distribution and end results in the field. This way, government donors would be able to monitor the impact of their contributions at any step of the process. WFP would also be able to track in real-time the value of all its commodities on ships, trucks and warehouses, anywhere in the world. Lastly, WFP would also be able to administer its global workforce with a full-integrated human resources and payroll system.

The WINGS II system was already being used as a model by other UN bodies in the process of becoming IPSAS compliant, said Ms. Casella. The new system was a key in WFP’s ability to function as a fully decentralized agency, across six regions and 80 countries.