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Thank you Mr. President, and good afternoon colleagues.
Each year, we meet here to reflect on the global humanitarian picture and look ahead to how we can respond to future challenges.
However, we are faced with a grim picture.
In 2023, 339 million people will need humanitarian assistance – a 25% increase from this year.
These are not just numbers.
They represent personal life.
People suffering the effects of new and protracted conflicts.
Due to climate change, people are hit by drought and floods simultaneously.
People who are most vulnerable to the global energy and food crisis due to Russia’s choice to illegally invade Ukraine in what should be a year of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
To tackle the magnitude of global challenges, we need a shared vision and the collective political will to deliver it.
Mr President, the UK’s International Development Strategy, which was launched in May this year, is a commitment to the world’s most vulnerable people. It sets out how we will ensure a more effective international response to humanitarian crises.
We will deliver it in three areas.
First, we will push the system to effectively prioritize limited resources, including the one million people living in drought or famine-like conditions in Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
We will do this by ensuring that humanitarian responses are accountable, data-driven and cost-effective. And we will continue to drive the scale-up of digital cash transfers as an effective and dignified way of delivering aid.
Second, we will continue to use our voices to protect the most vulnerable and to support international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law.
We will use our position on the UN Security Council to enable unimpeded access to people in need, including the 4.1 million people in north-west Syria this winter. And we will use all the tools at our disposal to ensure accountability for those who violate humanitarian principles and the UN Charter in Ukraine.
We will also deliver on our commitments to end sexual violence at last week’s Conflict Conference, bolstering our support for local, women-led organizations. This is critical to the humanitarian response and to ensuring that women and girls are free from violence and able to meet their full potential.
Finally, we will use our expertise to prevent today’s problems from turning into tomorrow’s crises.
We will leverage UK networks in the private sector, climate science and academia to deepen early warning skills, foster innovation and strengthen systems to prevent and anticipate shocks.
And we will use our position on the boards of international financial institutions to unlock finance for these efforts, such as doubling the World Bank’s initial response financing to $1 billion, which we helped secure this year.
Building on continued advocacy at COP 26 and COP 27, we will continue to push for increased access to climate finance in climate vulnerable countries with the highest levels of humanitarian needs. This will help communities embrace new challenges with dignity and agency.
Mr President, with needs growing every year, the UK’s humanitarian vision is not an ideal, but a necessity. Today we ask all of you to join us in delivering it.
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