Pandemic Agreement, Sudan & other topics - Daily Press Briefing | United Nations

Noon briefing by Stephanie Tremblay, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
Deputy Secretary-General
Security Council
Pandemic Agreement
Sudan
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Iraq
Global Economy
Briefings tomorrow
Financial Contribution

**Deputy Secretary-General
The Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed is in Hanoi, Viet Nam today, to participate in the Partnership for Growth Summit and to chair the annual retreat of UN Resident Coordinators from Asia and the Pacific.
In her remarks at the opening session of the Summit, Ms. Mohammed underlined the need to strengthen partnerships and to scale up investments in climate solutions as a key entry point to advance countries’ Sustainable Development Goals transitions.
Ms. Mohammed also met with the Minister of Agriculture and Environment Mr. Đỗ Đức Duy. They discussed Viet Nam’s transition to a low-carbon energy system and progress on its food system pathways.
On the margins of the Summit, she also met with Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
And at the Green One UN House in Hanoi, Ms. Mohammed met the UN Country Team to discuss how to further strengthen the UN’s impact in Viet Nam and to sustain momentum on the SDGs. She also met with youth.

** Security Council
This morning, the Security Council members met for a briefing on South Sudan. The Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Nicholas Haysom, told the Council members that the Revitalized Peace Agreement remains the only viable framework to break the cycle of violence in South Sudan.
He added that UNMISS is engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts to broker a peaceful solution to the current crisis alongside many stakeholders, including the African Union and the Security Council itself.
For her part, the Director of Operations and Advocacy at OCHA, Edem Wosornu, focused on the rapidly escalating violence and its impact on men, women and children. She added that this year, 9.3 million South Sudanese – that’s three-quarters of the population – require some form of humanitarian assistance, adding that children make up half of this total.
For South Sudan, this year’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan requires $1.7 billion to support close to 5.4 million people. Their full remarks were shared with you.
The Security Council will reconvene at 3:00 pm this afternoon for a session on the Great Lakes region. The Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, Huang Xia, as well as UNICEF's Executive Director, Catherine Russell, are scheduled to brief. We will share their remarks as soon as we get them.

**Pandemic Agreement
And we wanted to welcome the consensus on a draft pandemic agreement reached in Geneva after more than three years of intensive negotiations. Member States of the World Health Organization took a major step forward in efforts to make the world safer from pandemics, by forging the draft agreement for consideration at the upcoming World Health Assembly in May. The proposal aims to strengthen global collaboration on prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemic threats.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon...