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DSG / SM / 1404
The following is a transcript of the press conference by UN Under-Secretary-General Amina Mohammed on the launch of the “Rise for All” initiative, held today in New York:
Thank you very much Stéphane. Thank you all for joining us today, and I am truly delighted to be joined by Achim Steiner, the Administrator of UNDP. [United Nations Development Programme].
As we all know, we are living in surreal times. The world as we know it has been hit by an unprecedented health, humanitarian and economic crisis. COVID-19 is a pandemic that touches every corner of the world, and we will need our solidarity to live up to the global response that is needed at a magnitude that we have never seen before.
All countries and communities will be affected and under the leadership of the Secretary-General, our job at the United Nations is to be ready to serve and support countries, governments, communities, businesses, in the fight against the pandemic, the suppression of the virus and ensuring that we support all leaders in socioeconomic recovery.
Today, I am pleased to launch two efforts in support of the global response to COVID-19 and recovery. First, the framework for the immediate socio-economic response and recovery of COVID-19, which implements the report of the Secretary General, “Shared responsibility, global solidarity”, which he published in March.
The second is “Women on the Rise for All,” which puts women leaders at the forefront, calling the world to action for the responses we will need on the health, economic and humanitarian front.
For the framework, this complements all the efforts of the UN, particularly in health, which is being led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Dr. Tedros. [Adhanom Ghebreyesus]. It is also leading in the humanitarian sector, in the Humanitarian Response Plan.
The Framework centers around five interconnected groups. In a nutshell, ensuring that our health services are protected, reinforced and that capacities are built to rebuild better. The second is to guarantee that people have access to social protection and basic services;
The third will be to protect jobs, SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises,] in supporting economic recovery.
The fourth, supporting elements of the macroeconomic framework of fiscal and financial stimulus, including the call for debt stagnation to allow a fiscal space to tackle the crisis.
And the last, but not least, is the community engagement that we will need to build the resilience of the most vulnerable.
This framework reiterates and commits to human rights, environmental sustainability, climate action, gender equality, which reflects the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement. COVID-19 may have put a pause button on the world, but it certainly has not stopped climate change, nor has it stopped vulnerabilities or inequalities around the world. And we must take advantage of the gains of this crisis to see the opportunities that we can tackle.
The framework guides action for the next 12 to 18 months, under the leadership of the resident coordinators and our teams in the country, and we will rely on the technical leadership of UNDP to ensure that we can operationalize this framework in the shortest possible time. It is the first time that we are seeing development with an emergency lens. We have looked at humanitarian and health issues, but now for development it is equally urgent that we pay attention to the crisis.
In line with the appeal, the Secretary General has launched the Recovery and Response Fund COVID-19. This will catalyze action at the country level to mobilize, in the first instance, $ 1 billion by the end of the year and $ 2 billion overall. This call has already been sent to 47 of our most vulnerable countries, and we have received all responses, in the hope that we will come out to take those calls in early May.
We will live up to this occasion with women at the forefront. We have heard over and over again how they bear the brunt of COVID-19’s burden, and the health, humanitarian and certainly socio-economic piece.
And for that, we have an incredible number of women coming out today to support us in that call to action.
I would like to welcome the leadership of President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia; Prime Minister [Erna] Solberg from Norway; our advocate for sustainable development and founder of the Education Above All initiative, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, and the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley; Melinda Gates, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and many more amazing leaders as we get up today to carry out our actions to ensure that we get out (we conquered COVID-19) and do better on the other side.
Now more than ever, we must unite to overcome this global threat that affects us all.
The United Nations is fully committed to supporting individuals and governments as we move forward in this fight together.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General: Good. Thank you. Now we will go to your questions. If I can get journalists to appear on screen, it would be helpful.
I think our first question is from Pam Falk on CBS News who asks how fundraising is going so far and how resource mobilization efforts are going. DSG?
Deputy Secretary General: Thank you very much for that question. Well, as with all things, fundraising has become a huge challenge as we hope to have received much more. What I would say is that the first steps have been really positive, that we have made four or five countries join the fund in the socio-economic field, but also that we thank those who have contributed money for the humanitarian response and the health response. These three go together, and we, so far, are seeing over a billion dollars in responding to the three emergencies.
Spokesman: Thank you. Achim [Steiner]Do you want to add something? Good.
Thank you. Abdelhamid, are you on the line? Let’s see if we can get a live question.
Correspondent: Yes I am.
Spokesman: Please, Abdelhamid … Go ahead. You are in.
Correspondent: Thank you. Thank you. And Madame Amina Mohammed, first, happy Ramadan for you and your family.
I want to ask you, madam, about the Middle East. There, oil prices have plummeted to record lows, many different wars and conflicts, and also the crown pandemic. How do you see recovery in the Middle East? What can the UN do to help areas affected by wars and conflicts and in addition to all these problems that we have talked about? Thank you.
Deputy Secretary General: Thank you very much, Abdelhamid. Ramadan Kareem for you and your family too.
Well this is, you know, really a … for us, a global answer doesn’t mean that we only have one size fits all. The solution in the Arab world also has a context that is very difficult, which is why we are working together with governments to see, first, how we can make sure to avoid the transmission, at first, of those supply chains to … particularly more vulnerable communities are open and governments are coping to make sure they are testing and when they can find positive cases they can track and isolate and then treat.
But from a socio-economic point of view, I think this is really important, where we see that stimulus packages are being put together, and there is this call, as they would have seen from the G20 [Group of 20], where we ask for the fiscal gaps to be supported.
In several countries, in Kuwait, we are working with them on special packages they have to ensure that social protection programs are there, cash transfers, and that we can, with small businesses, keep them active throughout the day. after COVID-19, when one would expect them to recover positively.
Spokesman: Thank you. Christiane, ARD, German Television.
Question: Thank you. Can you hear?
Spokesman: Yes.
Question: Thanks for answering the question. I was wondering, in case there is a drug or vaccine available, which is likely to happen through one of the big pharmaceutical companies, is there any idea or consideration of how this can be contributed worldwide also to countries that do not they are rich? Because I heard from the top scientists who are waiting for a protocol to be installed to do so.
Deputy Secretary General: Thank you. Important question. You would have known that we launched the vaccine initiative on Friday of last week, and that initiative was to focus, first of all, on developing the vaccine half the time, from 6 to 12 months, but also on making sure we can produce it and deliver it to everyone.
the [Secretary-General] It has called for this as a global public good, and that is what we are working for. The initiative commits to that, and the government is structured to make sure that all partners come to the table to make that happen. There will be an announcement on May 4 by the European Commission, where they are studying the financing mechanism for that.
So I think all hands are on the deck in the first place to see how we can develop this vaccine ASAP, but production and its access to everyone will be on everyone’s mind. And the commitment, as you will have seen on Friday, is towards that, and we will see it reinforced on May 4, with more leaders coming to the table on how we will finance this.
Question: Can I have a short follow-up? Have you had any resonance from the pharmaceutical companies? Is there someone out there who said, “Yes, we would commit”?
Deputy Secretary General: Yes, there are several pharmaceutical companies that are committing to this initiative in the call to action. You will see them listed there. And they enter into various alliances, but the pharmaceutical companies are on board.
The details of how this happens have yet to be resolved, but I can tell you that there is a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of understanding that solidarity and the global response to this are unprecedented. It has to be to solve the problem.
Spokesman: Thank you. Iftikhar Ali of the Associated Press of Pakistan has a question: First of all, happy Ramadan. Given the worldwide shutdown, how will the women leaders you named DSG help promote your cause?
Deputy Secretary General: Thank you. Ramadan Kareem to all those in Pakistan, too.
Well, as we said, by making people aware of the situation faced by women on the front lines as health workers, they will know that in recent years, there has been an increase in gender violence and many of these occur in our homes where we are locked up. So awareness is one of them and then the solutions and the connectivity to the resources you may have to solve them.
What is important today is that we are seeing women leaders at all levels take up the challenge of this health, humanitarian and socio-economic crisis. Many of our women are in the informal sector, and will be the most affected by this.
Many people talk about, in the developed world, a paycheck and stimulus packages that are going to solve the short-term answer to that. But in the developing world, it is a daily life, and most of that daily life is brought to the table by women. So for us, it’s really just highlighting some of those huge challenges, explaining why we need to have a debt stop to free up resources for a government to use for social protection programs, cash transfers, programs that perhaps they were a little slower before COVID-19, but now we see the emergence and exclusion of many, particularly women.
Spokesman: Thank you. We will return to our live questions. I have not received any more questions on my phone. Any other questions, Florence, from anyone?
Edie, Edie Lederer, AP.
Correspondent: Thank you. Sorry. I have something going on in the background.
Spokesman: If you could silence your computer, yes. Thank you. Go ahead, Edie.
Question: Good. Thank you. My question is, a billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, but for three separate appeals that have very large appeals, what percentage of that is represented? And I … I guess there’s still a long way to go. Can you tell us how much that is and, in this economic climate, how can you try to get donors to contribute that remaining significant amount?
Deputy Secretary General: Thanks Edie. It’s great to hear you, and I hope you are well and safe.
I think the important thing is that, for the first time, we are showing that this emergency goes beyond health. The health emergency is absolutely that, and we try to deal with it. But to bring the socioeconomic piece here is to call for other money. The money you see in the fund right now is to support the work of the UN, and while it’s got off to a slow start, I think it’s positive. And once people see the work unfolding in very difficult circumstances with the support of the UN, we will get much more. Today, we receive inquiries on how to present your promises on this.
I don’t think the over $ 6 billion asked for support is a large amount of money that cannot be made available. It is there in the financial system. We have seen it where countries have been able to reverse stimulus packages of more than 2 trillion, and this is actually telling us that if we deal with the most vulnerable COVID-19 anywhere, we certainly avoid everywhere let that come. again.
So I think we can use this initiative to take advantage of other funds. You will know that the UN is reusing more than 2 billion of its funds to focus on this, but we are also finding other bilateral and multilateral institutions that are also moving in this way, so we see quite large leverage.
The private sector has also indicated that it would like to partner with the UN at the country level in many of these initiatives, and I believe that, in the coming weeks and months, it will see, based on the proposals presented by country. teams in support of government priorities, leverage to increase funding.
We are all concerned that financing will not come as fast as it should, but we hope that we will expose the case of investment and the case of self-interest illustrated, because I believe this should be seen as a necessary solidarity to protect everyone everywhere.
I don’t know if Achim would like to add to this.
Spokesman: Yes Achim Steiner, go ahead and jump.
Mr steiner Thank you. I think, echoing what the Deputy Secretary-General has said, quite clearly, we can see that, for much of the developing world right now, there are, first of all, inadequate national financial resources available, at least developed countries but also means -Income countries that are considered developing or emerging economies are struggling with the extraordinary need to mobilize financing, first, nationally and then internationally.
I think that we must consider this problem also from three different perspectives. We have seen a first response from the IMF [International Monetary Fund] countries, although it should be noted that the vast majority of these funds are essentially lines of credit. So countries are borrowing to create a fiscal space for response in their countries.
The second phenomenon is clearly reprogramming in the field of financing development aid and in Humanitarian Response Plans as well, because our concern is, first of all, that existing humanitarian crises are not neglected and corrupted, because that it will simply create explosive situations.
We are trying to tap additional resources at UNDP and many of our agencies within the UN. We are talking to capital in the countries we work in, but also to donor capital to quickly reconfigure the funding available for a rapid COVID response.
However, the real challenge and I believe … and our hope is that, in the coming months, as countries, above all, look inward to face the crisis themselves, this was clearly the first response, we must recognize what the Secretary-General has requested. At the global level, the same logic applies. Somewhere above 10 percent of annual GDP is probably the volume of financing needed to create the kind of mechanisms and means by which to deal with this crisis.
And a previous question also referred to countries in crisis and conflict. I just want to remind the world of situations like Yemen, where resources are not adequate right now. Therefore, some of the humanitarian responses have to be reduced, but even in a country like Uganda, cuts and food rations were needed because insufficient funds are available.
We are facing a very serious situation, and I think that we must communicate with the countries of the developed world to sensitize them, as the Secretary-General has called it, in an enlightened sense of self-interest, because if they do not respond, these crises can easily get out of control. , not only in terms of humanitarian suffering, but also from a geopolitical point of view. And that is why it is so critical that the notion of solidarity is not only the one we apply within our own countries and communities, but really as a global family. And this is to a large extent also the meaning of the United Nations standing up to the world right now and asking it to be part of that responsiveness. Thank you.
Spokesman: Thank you. And I think this concludes our briefing. We hope to have the Secretary-General here with us later this week. Meanwhile, thanks to the Deputy Secretary-General. Thanks to Achim Thanks to all of you and thanks to your technical staff for achieving this. So take care, stay safe and see you soon.
Deputy Secretary General: Thank you. Take care.
For the media. It is not an official record.
