REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration and the International Trade Centre.

Decade for Deserts and Fight against Desertification

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the United Nations yesterday launched the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (2010-2020), an 11-year-long effort to raise awareness and action to improve the protection and management of the world’s drylands, home to a third of the world’s population and which face serious economic and environmental threats. “Continued land degradation — whether from climate change, unsustainable agriculture or poor management of water resources — is a threat to food security, leading to starvation among the most acutely affected communities and robbing the world of productive land,” said United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement announcing the launch. “As we begin the Decade on Deserts and the Fight against Desertification, let us pledge to intensify our efforts to nurture the land we need for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and guaranteeing human well-being,” he added. On a global scale, desertification — land degradation in drylands — affects 3.6 billion hectares, which accounts for 25 per cent of the Earth’s terrestrial land mass. It threatens the livelihoods of more than 1 billion people in some 100 countries. Against this backdrop, Member States of the United Nations addressed growing desertification and land degradation by adopting a resolution to dedicate the next decade to combating desertification and improving the protection and management of the world’s drylands in 2007. The global launch took place in Fortaleza, Brazil, in the State of Ceara, Brazil’s semi-arid region, during the Second International Conference: Climate, Sustainability and Development in Semi-arid Regions. While concerns about desertification are growing, it is not all doom and gloom. Efforts have been made to address land degradation and, while there have been positive outcomes, more action is needed to arrest and reverse land degradation and creeping desertification worldwide. The Decade is designed to heighten public awareness about the threat desertification, land degradation and drought pose to sustainable development and ways leading to their alleviation.

The UN has created a net website with more details on the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification http://unddd.unccd.int.

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was continuing its session at the Palais Wilson. This morning, the Committee would be concluding its review of the report of Morocco, and this afternoon, it would be starting consideration of the report of Denmark. The Committee would also review the reports of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Estonia this week. It would conclude its work on 27 August after releasing its concluding observations and recommendations on the country reports which it has reviewed this session.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference on Disarmament was right now meeting in public plenary. There were three speakers on the speakers’ list: Poland, India and the Russian Federation.




World Humanitarian Day

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Thursday, 19 August 2010 would be the second World Humanitarian Day. Established by the General Assembly in December 2008, the Day was intended to increase public understanding of humanitarian assistance activities worldwide. The Day also aimed to honour humanitarian workers who had lost their lives or been injured in the course of their work. The Information Service had sent journalists a number of documents concerning the World Humanitarian Day yesterday, including the Secretary-General’s message in all the UN languages, and this morning it had sent a media advisory with more details. The World Humanitarian Day would be commemorated in Geneva in a ceremony starting at 6 p.m. in the Bastillion Park on 19 August. As soon as the final programme was available, it would be sent to journalists.

Pakistan

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had returned yesterday from a day-long visit to Pakistan, where he saw for himself the human suffering and damage caused by the current floods. Speaking to reporters after seeing the flood-affected areas on Sunday, the Secretary-General said, “This has been a heart-wrenching day, and I will never forget the destruction and suffering that I have witnessed.” He said that he has visited the scenes of many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like what he saw in Pakistan, with so many people, in so many places, in so much need. Nearly one out of ten Pakistanis had been directly or indirectly affected, he said -- possibly 20 million people. During his visit, the Secretary-General announced a further contribution of $10 million through the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, in addition to $16.3 million already contributed through that Fund.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said concerning the financing of the Pakistan Emergency Response Plan, the appeal was now funded by 35 per cent,
meaning that they now had $ 161 million out of the $ 459 million requested. There were also pledges of $ 43 million. In terms of general financing, meaning funding through the United Nations as well as bilateral aid or aid through the International Committee of the Red Cross or others, that figure had reached $ 229 million, with $ 142 million in pledges. The international community was mobilizing to provide aid for this catastrophe which the Secretary-General had called unprecedented. The area of land affected by the floods – 160,000 square kilometers - was as big as the territory of Switzerland, Belgium and Austria. The latest situation report was available at the back of the room, with the latest figures: 15.4 million persons affected and 893,999 houses damaged or destroyed. Flood waters continued to swell in Sindh and Balochistan. This would likely result in additional needs for assistance in both provinces.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that as of today, WFP had distributed one month rations to more than 840,000 persons, and it expected that by the end of the day, one million persons would have been reached with a one month food ration. Today WFP started an airlift of food into Jacobabad district in Sindh province with the help of helicopters. WFP would also be bringing in three additional heavy-lift helicopters to Pakistan to assist with the emergency effort. That would bring the total number of helicopters to 13 at the moment, working in various areas. WFP was concerned that it would have to increase the caseload, and it expected that food assistance needs would increase across Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. WFP was prepositioning available stocks into al provinces to support the distributions for the rest of August. It had enough food rations for six million persons for one month. But food stocks for September were under significant pressure. WFP had about one third of its needs for the current emergency covered, and it urgently appealed to donors to come forward quickly with additional funds.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said the latest available surveillance date concerning the health situation in Pakistan showed that the leading cause of illness in the affected communities were skin diseases, acute watery diarrhea and respiratory tract infections. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest of the country alone, acute diarrhea accounted for 70 per cent of all illness. Also in Punjab and Sindh, acute watery diarrhea accounted for large numbers of cases, up to 8 per cent in Punjab, but in those two provinces, there was also the worry of increasing cases of malaria. In terms of response, central drugs and medicines had been distributed by WHO to the Ministry of Health and to health partners to cover the needs of 1.8 million people. This included medicine to treat people against infections, wounds, those suffering from diarrhea, to treat people who had been bitten by poisonous snakes, and to purify water and make it safe to drink. There were major gaps and constraints, particularly including the damage or destruction of more than 200 health facilities, and there was an urgent need to scale up measures to respond to the communicable disease situation in the country. One such measure started yesterday: a three-day vaccination campaign targeting 480,000 people, mainly children and women, against polio and measles and to provide vitamin A supplements for children. The health sector was also poorly funded at the moment, with just 13 per cent of the $56 million requested in the Emergency Response Plan.

Marco Jimenez of the United Nations Children’s Fund said out of the more than 15 million people affected by the floods, about 50 per cent were children. These children were in extreme need of urgent humanitarian assistance in terms of water and sanitation. UNICEF had managed to bring
in clean water for 1.3 million people daily, but UNICEF was very concerned about the lack of funds. Lack of funds would translate into a delay in the supply of assistance, and this would translate into an increased risk of a new wave of deaths caused by water borne diseases. Out of the $ 47.3 million requested for UNICEF to continue the emergency assistance, up to $ 20 million had been received, and UNICEF hoped that the flow of funds would continue in the next few days so that it could continue working, otherwise the risk became very high for children, especially those under the age of five years. UNICEF continued to work in the areas which were accessible, in particular in terms of vaccination against polio and measles in cooperation with the Government and WHO. Another important activity that UNICEF was carrying out was the distribution of oral rehydration salts, a home-based treatment against diarrhea.

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said Pakistan’s emergency continued to worsen as bloated rivers headed southwards, flooding new areas and triggering massive further displacement. Urgent needs continued to overwhelm the capacity of agencies and authorities to respond. Overall, UNHCR saw a risk that the full scale of the emergency was still not being grasped by the world community. In Balochistan, where UNHCR was coordinating aid efforts, the number of flood victims had doubled over the past weekend. Balochistan was one of Pakistan’s remotest and poorest provinces and was now struggling to cope with more than half a million displaced persons. Today, UNHCR was airlifting a further 32 tonnes of aid to Quetta in Balochistan aboard two Pakistan Government C130 Hercules planes. Yesterday, UNHCR had airlifted 64 tonnes of tents, plastic sheeting and other aid from its warehouse in Peshawar. The supplies were aimed to help meet the needs of the soaring numbers of flood victims in the province, currently camping on the roadside and seeking shelter in schools, stadiums and other public facilities. UNHCR continued to face logistical challenges in getting aid in fast enough to meet the still unfolding crisis. In Balochistan for instance, people still needed everything: shelter, food, clean drinking water and health and hygiene systems. UNHCR’s supplies were dwindling and it needed more airlifts and massive amounts of funding to meet the still unfolding crisis. Elsewhere, flood waters had receded in parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkwa province, revealing the magnitude of devastation but also giving UNCHR better access to communities to provide relief and assess their immediate and longer term needs. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said as flood waters continued to pour into Pakistan's heartland of Punjab and Sindh, the emergency shelter cluster continued to deliver shelter aid to victims, but the number of displaced far exceeded the combined capacity of the Government and aid agencies to provide immediate relief. The emergency shelter cluster had delivered 98,000 tents to date and 72,000 plastic sheets, providing shelter for 1134,000 families. The emergency shelter cluster had ordered another 77,000 tents and 280,000 plastic sheets, which were expected to arrive in coming days and weeks to provide shelter for an additional 218,000 families. According to the National Disaster Management Authority at least 891,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed. This meant that another 488,000 homeless families may need additional help - either from the Government or from international donors. The greatest current need was in Punjab, where 484,000 families were still waiting for shelter aid, and in Sindh, where 176,000 homeless families had not yet received tents or plastic sheets to shield them from the ongoing rain and occasional blazing sun. Apart from the shelter aid, IOM Pakistan was ramping up its capacity to handle incoming donations in kind, warehousing, onward transportation and distribution of goods from incoming relief flights. There were more details in the briefing notes.

At the end of the briefing, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, would hold a press conference at 11:30 today in Room III.

Other

Micaela Daniel of the International Trade Centre said there were media advisories available at the back of the room which talked about ITC’s regular flagship event: the World Export Development Forum 2010, which would be occurring this year from 9 to 12 September in Chongqing, China. This was the first time it would be held in China. The theme for this event was post-crisis world trade patterns. There were region specific media advisories as well as the main media advisory.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said she would like to draw attention to a press release from her colleagues in Iraq, who had assessed a pilot programme which they had started earlier this year – a cash for work project in Diyala which was now being expanded both in Diyala and in Baghdad governorates. This project was aimed at the very most vulnerable people including internally displaced persons and returnees who were particularly food insecure. A recent food security assessment found that almost one million people were food insecure in Iraq, while another 6.4 million were at risk of food insecurity, without the food assistance they were receiving nationally. There were details in the press release.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency said UNCHR continued to follow the developing situation of 490 Sri Lankan nationals of Tamil origin, former passengers of the cargo ship MV Sun Sea which docked at Vancouver Island in British Colombia Friday. According to UNHCR staff in British Colombia, all 490 passengers had claimed asylum. Based on what they had seen thus far, UNHCR commended the exemplary work of the Canadian Border Services Agency in coordinating the arrival and reception of the passengers. UNHCR supported the important work of law enforcement agencies in combating human smuggling, an issue that had received much attention in relation to the case. Nonetheless, it was important to recognize that while refugees and migrants might use the same means of transportation, sometimes illegal, refugees were a distinct group with critical protection needs. It was not a crime to seek asylum. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said IOM’s Regional Office for Southern Africa, in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced the geographic and thematic expansion of the Partnership on HIV and Mobility in Southern Africa Programme, to include East Africa. There were more details in the briefing notes.