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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.

MIDDLE EAST
Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East ̽����ѡ Process, said today that five months have passed since the acts of terror committed by Hamas in Israel, including the kidnapping of over 250 people, and the onset of hostilities in Gaza. He said too many lives have been lost, too many families have been left in agony.
We need to end this misery now, Mr. Wennesland said - one that will lead to the immediate release of all remaining Israeli hostages and a ceasefire that will enable a scale-up of critical humanitarian assistance to reach all Palestinians in desperate need in Gaza.
Also today I want to flag that today Volker Türk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights deplored Israel’s latest actions regarding the occupied West Bank.
He said that the drastic acceleration in settlement building is worsening long-standing patterns of oppression, violence and discrimination against Palestinians.
Reports, he said, this week that Israel plans to build a further 3,476 settler homes in Maale Adumim, Efrat and Kedar fly in the face of international law.

YEMEN
Before moving on, just on Yemen. The Secretary-General condemns the attack on 6 March of the  motor vessel True Confidence, the attack was claimed by the Houthis, which reportedly killed three crew members and injured four others. 
The Secretary-General reiterates that attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea area are not acceptable and must cease. These attacks endanger the safety and security of seafarers, freedom of navigation and the stability of global supply chains and have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen and beyond.
The Secretary-General underscores that UN Security Council Resolution 2722 (2024) must be fully respected in its entirety.

HAITI
I have quite a lengthy humanitarian update for you on Haiti. We remain deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security situation amid ongoing gang violence and sporadic confrontations between heavily armed gangs and police forces in some parts of the capital Port-au-Prince.
Our colleagues on the ground tell us that the Haitian National Police have been able to push back coordinated gang attacks on key infrastructures, including the airport. We are, however, very worried about reports of gangs having breached and looted Port-au-Prince’s seaport. Port operations have been suspended for some days now.
The Secretary-General reiterates his calls on the Government and all national stakeholders to agree on immediate steps to advance the political process that will lead to elections.
He also reiterates the need for urgent international action, including immediate financial support for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which is desperately needed to tackle insecurity in Haiti.
I can confirm also that the United Nations have been invited to attend the meeting organized by  CARICOM that will take place on Monday, and that meeting will take place at CARICOM Headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica. The Chef de Cabinet, Courtenay Rattray, will attend the meeting along with several international partners, to foster support towards the restoration of democratic institutions in Haiti in the shortest possible amount of time.
On the humanitarian front, we and our partners continue to support civilians despite the ongoing violence and limited access.
In a statement issued by this morning in Port-au-Prince, the UN team said that gender-based violence protection and services have been reduced or suspended for security and access reasons. They say that if violence continues in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, about 3,000 pregnant women could be denied access to essential healthcare. 
Yesterday, the World Food Programme and its partners managed to deliver food to over 7,000 people. 
Earlier this month, food rations were also provided to 9,000 people in Cité Soleil, including pregnant women and orphans, through local faith-based organizations. More aid distributions are planned in the coming days.
But I want to provide more granularity to some of the operational details I shared with you yesterday.  
WFP had suspended its maritime transport service on 23 February – and not yesterday, as I spoke in error – that is of course due to increasing insecurity. 
While WFP has other means outside of Port-au-Prince to bring in or to purchase food, the suspension of the maritime road service presents a challenge for humanitarian and development organizations to deliver food and medical supplies from the capital to the Great North and Great South areas of Haiti.
For example, in Gonaives and Jérémie, the World Food Programme used mobile money to send cash to 14,000 vulnerable people in the first week of March. 
The humanitarian community reiterates the call to all parties to allow for safe, unhindered access to all people in need, in line with humanitarian principles and norms and, frankly, basic decency.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO 
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is concerned about the resurgence of violence in Djugu Territory, Ituri province, in the east of the country.
On 6 March, according to humanitarian partners on the ground, armed groups attacked Drodro Hospital, in Djugu Territory, resulting in the death of an 80-year-old woman who was receiving medical treatment at the time.
The attackers ransacked the healthcare facilities and looted vital equipment and medications, forcing the nursing staff and patients to leave the hospital.
The increased insecurity in the Drodro region has led 10 humanitarian organizations to temporarily halt their operations, maintaining only a minimal presence in the area to carry out essential life-saving action.
The suspension of humanitarian operations has directly impacted the provision of assistance to more than 80,000 people within the Drodro region.
As of 29 February, the Ituri province has 1.8 million displaced. Over half of them from Djugu territory.

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In Mozambique. The International Organization for Migration today warned that more than 110,000 people have been displaced since the end of last year by the resurgence of attacks by non-state armed groups in a distressing escalation of the situation in the Cabo Delgado Province. IOM has been providing essential aid to more than 22,000 recently displaced individuals, but warns that only 5.5 per cent of the required $413.4 million under the Humanitarian Response Plan 2024 is secured, and the looming risk of unmet needs could worsen an already critical situation.  
Also today, following a joint visit by the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and Robert Pirper who is the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement, called for a renewed international commitment to finding solutions for displaced people in Mozambique.

FOOD PRICES
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today reports that the benchmark for world food commodity prices declined for the seventh consecutive month in February. 
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 117.3 points in February, down 0.7 per cent from January and 10.5 per cent from the same month a year ago.
Also, FAO published a new report that says that conflicts in Near East Asia and in West and East Africa are driving alarmingly high levels of the most severe phase of acute food insecurity, with very high concerns for the situation of the population in Gaza. Widespread dry weather conditions are expected to aggravate food insecurity in Southern Africa, according to FAO.

FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Two countries who paid in full. The first check came from a Caribbean nation. It’s not an island nation because it shares its island with another country. Dominican Republic. We thank our friends in Santo Domingo. The second, while not an island, gets its name from an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". It is in South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Brazil to the south and southwest, Venezuela to the west, and Suriname to the east. It’s Guyana. We also thank our friends in Georgetown.