High-Level UN officials travel to Libya to support aid and stabilization [EN/AR]

What: Joint mission to Libya and Tunisia with closing press conference

Who:

  • Mr. Mourad Wahba, UNDP Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States and UN Assistant-Secretary General
  • Ms. Asako Okai, Director for the UNDP Crisis Bureau and UN Assistant-Secretary General
  • Ms. Ursula Mueller, UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and UN Assistant-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs

When: 10-14 December

Where: Tripoli and other locations in Libya, Tunis in Tunisia

Tunis, 10 December 2018 - UNDP Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States, Mourad Wahba, the Director for the UNDP Crisis Bureau, Asako Okai, and the UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ursula Mueller, will travel together to Libya and Tunisia to reiterate the support of the United Nations to the national and regional efforts towards a peaceful transition in Libya as well as bolster urgent assistance and stabilization actions.

During the joint visit, the three UN Assistant Secretaries-General will meet with high-level government officials and representatives of the humanitarian, development and donor communities both in Libya and in Tunisia to promote synergies across humanitarian, development and stabilizations projects. They will advocate for people’s access to humanitarian and protection assistance, while supporting resilience, rights, and equal and inclusive development.

A press briefing will be held on Friday, 14 December, at 9.00, at the UNDP Tunisia Office in Tunis.

For more information, or media interviews please contact:

  • Eve Sabbagh, OCHA Libya, Tunisia: (+216) 23683009; Libya (+218) 91003 0554, sabbaghe@un.org
  • Hilaria Espin, UNDP Libya, Tunisia: (+216) 53733600; Libya: (+218) 0926780642, hilaria.espin@undp.org
  • Russell Geekie, OCHA HQ, +1 917 331 0393, geekie@un.org
  • Theodore Murphy, UNDP HQ, +1 718 915 2097, theodore.murphy@undp.org

Background information:

Seven years into conflict, Libya faces a complex and protracted humanitarian and protection crisis, as the result of armed conflict, the breakdown of public service provision and governance and economic challenges. Today, an estimated 823,000 people, including around 241,000 children, are in need of humanitarian assistance in Libya. Many health care facilities are no longer operational, and the United Nations is concerned that Libya’s water and sanitation system is on the verge of collapse in key areas serving water to major parts of the country. Libya also faces severe development challenges and requires multi-faceted, sustained development support.

Humanitarian and development partners are linking up efforts in Libya to provide immediate support to affected communities in Libya, to help prevent new humanitarian needs, and to address structural and economic impacts across the country. The UN Strategic Framework 2019-2020 provides the overarching strategic chapeau for international collective efforts in support of all people across Libya. This Framework adopts an integrated approach responding to development priorities and building on complementary activities with relief assistance. In the meantime, the humanitarian response to the Libya crisis remains severely underfunded, with only 25 percent of the US$313 million required for the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan received so far.