Women’s Day, Middle East, & Other Topics - Daily Press Briefing (8 March 2024)

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
-Briefing Monday
-International Women’s Day
-Occupied Palestinian territory
-Middle East
-Yemen
-Haiti
-Democratic Republic of the Congo
-Mozambique
-Food prices
-Financial contributions

BRIEFING MONDAY
On Monday at 1 p.m., there will be a briefing here chaired by Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Global Communications (DGC). This is to brief you on the conference that DGC will host, together with civil society, which is the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference in Support of the Summit of the Future, under the theme “Shaping a Future of Global and Sustainable Progress.”
It will take place on 9 and 10 May 2024 at the United Nations Office at Nairobi. It will provide an opportunity for multi-stakeholder engagement ahead of the Summit of the Future and a venue for civil society to participate in the preparations process.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Happy International Women’s Day. You will have seen the event this morning to mark the Day, the Secretary-General spoke in the ECOSOC Chamber. He said that in communities across the globe, millions of women and girls are working to demand change, combat stereotypes, and make their voices heard. “We stand with them today. We thank them. And we applaud all they have achieved,” he said. However, he also noted that progress towards equality has been far too slow. He underscored that the global crises we face are hitting women and girls the hardest – from poverty and hunger to climate disasters, war and terror.
He also reiterated that gender equality is the foundation of the entire 2030 Agenda – from ending poverty to securing peace. He called on countries to drastically up the pace of change.
For their part, our colleagues at UN Women are calling on “Investing in Women to Accelerate Progress” as the best way to accelerate economic growth and build more prosperous and equitable societies. This is particularly urgent when war and crisis are eroding the achievements of decades of investments in gender equality. With 1 in every 10 women in the world living in extreme poverty and double the number of women and girls living in conflict areas compared to 2017, the need to invest on women’s empowerment is more urgent than ever.
And there are lots of other statement from all across the UN System on International Women’s Day a lot of activities at a local level as well.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
I want to update you on Gaza and the broader Middle East as well as Haiti. So starting with Gaza I can tell you that today, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that they made it to northern Gaza. There was a mission that involved OCHA, UNFPA, UNRWA, WFP, our security colleagues and the International Committee for the Red Cross. Among other work, they delivered maternity medicine and anesthetics to Al Ahli and As Sabha hospitals. They also assessed the condition of the coastal road north of the Israeli checkpoint, which was observed to be in an extremely deteriorated condition.
And yesterday afternoon, you saw that Sigrid Kaag, our Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, briefed the Council and then she briefed you on the work she’s been doing since she last spoke to both you and the Council.
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, warned that as hostilities in Gaza enter a sixth month, more than half a million people are on the brink of famine, and children are dying of hunger.
In a social media post, Mr. Griffiths said the humanitarian community knows what to do to save lives in Gaza, but we need the right conditions and guarantees. These include a ceasefire and full adherence to the rules of war; additional entry points, supply routes and storage capacity in Gaza; better protection for aid convoys; the free and safe movement of humanitarian supplies through checkpoints; road repairs and clearance of unexploded ordnance; and a bigger role for the commercial sector.
He also said that the fact that the remaining hostages have yet to be released should keep us all awake at night.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said he is profoundly saddened that on International Women’s Day, women in Gaza continue to endure the consequences of this brutal war. They are giving birth without basic medical assistance, they lack menstrual hygiene products, and they are living without privacy in exceptionally unsanitary conditions. UNRWA teams are working tirelessly to support women’s committees in overcrowded shelters and to provide psychosocial support and create safe spaces for women and girls.

Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/ossg/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=08%20March%202024