New York, 21 June 2023. Today in Geneva the three-day High-level ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS) kicks off. It is one of the most important appointments for UN debate on humanitarian aid. Chairing the work this year is Permanent Representative, Ambassador Maurizio Massari, current Vice- President of ECOSOC (the UN Economic and Social Council and one of the UN’s three main bodies).
The Geneva session will mark the culmination of Italy’s intense coordinating efforts at the UN since January 2023, which saw our Country at the helm of negotiations for the ECOSOC humanitarian resolution, set for adoption this Friday.
“We are leveraging our role to be able to bring to bear on issues, such as food insecurity and the humanitarian repercussions of conflict and climate change. Famine, poverty and political instability are among the main causes of the record number of displaced persons throughout the world in recent years, with millions of people forced to flee their lands of origin in search of better living conditions or, in graver cases, to survive. Here is where the work of UN humanitarian and emergency agencies is key, as they are able to reach them with their life-saving assistance. The purpose of the resolution we are adopting on Friday is to make this action more widespread and incisive”, highlighted Amb. Massari.
According to the United Nations, the year 2023 marks a new record in the number of persons globally needing humanitarian assistance: 339 million people, rising by 4% since 2022. Of these, 43.4 million are in the Horn of Africa; 28.3 million in Afghanistan; 24.7 million in Sudan; and 18 million in Ukraine. At the negotiating table in Geneva, particular focus will be dedicated to the alarming downward spike of global food security. The UN estimated that 2.3 billion people (a third of the world population) were moderately to severely at risk of food insecurity in 2021, while 148 million children under five years of age were affected by a stunt in growth last year.
In 2021 and 2022, Italy was, for the first time, among the top ten annual donors to the UN emergency fund (CERF – Central Emergency Response Fund), operating in more than 40 countries world-wide with life-saving aid for millions of people needing assistance.
Beyond Italy’s chairmanship of ECOSOC’s Humanitarian Affairs Segment, it is also in 2023 coordinating the UN Humanitarian Liaison Working Group, which is a platform for informal discussion among the 50 Member States most committed to this field, UN humanitarian agencies and civil society.
