Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This is UN News Today with me, Daniel Johnson. The headlines.
It's been 50 days since Israel stopped all aid reaching Gaza. The head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees describes the impact. In Ethiopia, meanwhile, hunger stalks millions as the World Food Programme halts support due to funding cuts. And we report on a welcome boost to forest restoration and more, with a little help from the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
It's been 50 days since Israel cut off all aid and commercial supplies into Gaza, which is now a land of desperation. The head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said on Tuesday. In an appeal to lift the siege and resume a ceasefire, Philippe Lazzarini insisted that hunger is spreading and deepening.
The UNRWA Commissioner General condemned the fact that two million people continue to face collective punishment. The wounded, sick and elderly are deprived of medical supplies, even though humanitarian organisations have assistance waiting to get into Gaza. This includes nearly 3,000 trucks of life-saving aid, Mr Lazzarini insisted.
to Ethiopia, where funding and supply shortfalls will halt the UN's life-saving treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children at the end of the month.
We are at breaking point, the World Food Programme, or WFP, said on Tuesday. In total, 3.6 million most vulnerable people in Ethiopia stand to lose WFP food and nutrition assistance unless funding arrives urgently, warned Zlatan Milicic, the UN agency's country director. Over 10 million people in Ethiopia are acutely food insecure. This includes 3 million people displaced by conflict and extreme weather. Malnutrition rates...
More than 4 million pregnant women, breastfeeding women and young children need treatment for malnutrition in Ethiopia. In the regions of Somalia, Aromia, Afar and Tigray, child wasting has passed the 15% emergency threshold.
WFP had planned to reach 2 million mothers and children with life-saving nutrition assistance in 2025, but it has been forced to cut costs after receiving only half of last year's funding. Protecting and restoring fragile ecosystems is a key part of international efforts to stop global warming, and on Tuesday the UN announced a boost to this vital work, thanks to $9 million worth of support from the UK.
Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries have agreed to restore at least 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030. The problem is that most countries lack the tools and resources to track their progress in restoring degraded ecosystems and, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, a full 80% so they cannot collect the necessary data.
As a solution, the UN agency plans to provide countries with the technical expertise and resources to monitor their biodiversity restoration efforts accurately. It is already heavily involved in reforestation through its Aim for Forests programme, along with the restoration of farmland, wetlands, grasslands and marine ecosystems.
we can ensure that our collective efforts translate restoration commitments into real and lasting impacts for people and the planet, said FAO Director General Ku Dong-Yu. The one billion hectares of land that have been designated for restoration represent one-third of the climate mitigation efforts needed to keep global warming below the 2 degrees Celsius threshold by 2030. Daniel Johnson, UN News.