UN Budget, Ethiopia & other topics - Daily Briefing (29 June 2021)

The United Nations of Earth reporting on this issue: "UN Budget, Ethiopia & other topics - Daily Briefing (29 June 2021)"
The topics: Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. Highlights: - Secretary-General’s Travel - Budget - Ethiopia - Myanmar - Mali - Democratic Republic Of The Congo - Security Council - Darfur - Hybrid Briefing/Guest Tomorrow SECRETARY-GENERAL’S TRAVEL This evening, the Secretary-General is traveling to Paris, where he will take part in the opening segment of the Generation Equality Forum convened by UN Women and co-chaired by France and Mexico. The Secretary-General will underscore the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on women and girls and how it has accentuated the great imbalances of power and the failures of the social order that end up harming women. While in Paris, he is also expected to meet with President Emmanuel Macron. He will from there go on to Valencia, where he will visit the UN logistics base to mark its 10th anniversary. While in Valencia, he will also meet with university students. On Friday, he will be in Madrid, where he will meet with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and have an audience with His Majesty King Felipe VI. He will also meet with the Vice-President for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, and take part in a roundtable with climate entrepreneurs. BUDGET We have been advised that the Fifth Committee has reached an agreement on the peacekeeping budgets late last night. The Committee is expected to formally approve the resolutions shortly, if it has not already done so, and that will then go on to the General Assembly for formal adoption. Based on this scenario, we will have the necessary spending authority from 1 July without any operational shutdowns, which is good news. Curtailment of operations, as you know, will have limited the ability of the Missions to implement their mandates, including, for example, supporting host countries in COVID response, protection of civilians, and other critical activities. ETHIOPIA On Ethiopia’s Tigray, the consequences and impact of the declaration of an immediate ceasefire remain unclear. Our humanitarian colleagues tell us there has been a breakdown of telecommunications and Internet services in Tigray as of today, so the impact of the current situation on the humanitarian operations remain unknown at this moment. Humanitarian operations have been constrained in the past few days due to the ongoing fighting. We are ready to resume full operations, pending security and access assessment as to the new current conditions on the ground. We, along with our partners, are looking at options to scale up the humanitarian relief operations in light of what we find following the assessment. We are also looking into the supply routes into Tigray in consultations with our security colleagues and logistics experts. We are staying and delivering for the people of Tigray, but we will need access to vital supplies that are currently not available. Staffing levels at the moment remain the same, as the airport in Mekelle is closed and routes are not open. As for the cessation of hostilities, the Secretary-General spoke to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed yesterday. He expressed his hope for a cessation of hostilities. At this point, the Secretary-General wants to make sure that all actors and everyone involved commit to peace and a real cessation of hostilities. This will obviously we hope help improve humanitarian access and the assistance we are able to deliver. It is very important for steps to be taken for unity through political dialogue and of course we continue to offer the full support of the United Nations in this regard. Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=29%20June%202021


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