Attachments
Opening Remarks (CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)
H.E. Ambassador Miia Rainne, Chargée d’Affaires a.i. of Finland to the United Nations & Vice-President of ECOSOC responsible for the Operational Affairs for Development Segment 2022 United Nations Economic and Social Council
Meeting on the Transition from Relief to Development Roundtable 2 - Recurrent crises and sustainable solutions: building resilience and addressing rising displacement
Monday 20 June 2022, 15:00 – 18:00 (New York time)
ECOSOC Chamber, United Nations Headquarters, New York
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
I am delighted to be welcoming you along with my fellow Vice President H.E.
Ambassador Diego Pary Rodríguez to the second roundtable of today’s ECOSOC Meeting on the transition from relief to development. We should take inspiration from the dignity and fortitude of the millions displaced, as we mark World Refugee Day today.
We all know the concerning trend of rising displacement. We are currently facing numbers of refugees and internally displaced people not seen since the beginning of the United Nations. [Globally, there are now 100 million refugees. Up from 26.6 million a year ago.] At the start of 2022, more than 53.2 million people were living in internal displacement because of conflict and violence. Since then, at least another 7 million people were displaced inside of Ukraine. An additional 6 million people remain displaced due to disasters, including extreme weather and climate-related events.
At the time, the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Internal Displacement characterized the growing number of internally displaced people as a “global crisis”. Of particular concern, displacement is increasingly long-term due to the protractedness of conflicts. Millions of IDPs around the world have been displaced for a decade or longer, with often little progress towards self-sufficiency and durable solutions.
Many of these refugees and internally displaced people are receiving humanitarian assistance and protection year after year. The growing human toll and economic costs of longterm displacement, along with the need to alleviate an increasingly overstretched humanitarian system, places a premium on significantly stepped-up action on for solutions.
I look forward to the discussion today to hear concrete and innovative ideas of how the United Nations can support addressing the challenges of displacement - as well what humanitarian, development, and peace actors are already doing to operationalize their collaboration and effectiveness on the ground and tackle underlying drivers of need. This includes best practices and factors that facilitate success at the national and regional levels, in particular on strengthening durable solutions.
I’m also keen to hear how this cross-system work is empowering women and ensuring that they are at the table for the design, decision-making and delivery of collective outcomes across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus. And to hear ideas of how we can mobilize actions, financing, and investments.
With that, I will hand over to my colleague and fellow Vice President H.E. Ambassador Diego Pary Rodríguez of Bolivia.
Thank you.
Closing Remarks (CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)
H.E. Ambassador Miia Rainne, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of Finland to the United Nations & Vice-President of ECOSOC responsible for the Operational Affairs for Development Segment 2022 United Nations Economic and Social Council
Meeting on the Transition from Relief to Development
Roundtable 2 - Recurrent crises and sustainable solutions: building resilience and addressing rising displacement
Monday 20 June 2022, 15:00 – 18:00 (New York time)
ECOSOC Chamber, United Nations Headquarters, New York
Thank you, Ambassador Rodríguez.
In the roundtable this afternoon, we were able to explore in detail the challenges and opportunities in addressing the global displacement crisis through sustainable solutions and through building resilience.
Of course, the global displacement crisis has to be understood in the context of global shocks, such as conflict, climate change, COVID-19 or economic inequality.
Nonetheless, each displacement impacts an individual person differently and profoundly.
In this regard, it was important to hear examples from different regions and to hear some similar challenges but also solutions needed in each context that will be key – from South Sudan and Haiti – in line with General Assembly Resolution 75/290 A.
I am deeply troubled that women and girls suffer the most in this global displacement crisis.
We need to do better for them and to promote their empowerment and agency. And we need to do better to support displaced people, states and host communities to find sustainable solutions which can also contribute to building resilience.
That is why a better join-up of humanitarian, development and peacebuilding is needed and strong commitment to follow through across the board.
We will encapsulate the discussion and main recommendations and action points in a jointly prepared Co-Chairs’ outcome summary to be shared with you after this Meeting to help inform future action and make sure we keep driving forward.
Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We have come to the end of an important and thought-provoking discussion of this year’s ECOSOC Meeting on Transition from Relief to Development. As my colleague, the Vice President of ECOSOC responsible for the Humanitarian Affairs Segment said, I think this was a successful use of the new format.
I want to thank our distinguished keynote speakers and panelists for their highly informative and thought-provoking contributions today. I also want to thank our two skillful moderators of each of the round tables.
Thank you.