Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator a.i., Ramesh Rajasingham, Remarks to the Security Council on the implementation of resolution 2565, New York, 13 December 2021

Mr. President,

Thank you for the opportunity to brief the Council on this issue.

The world’s failure to bring this pandemic under control in fragile and conflict-affected countries continues to represent a threat to international peace and security and is likely to result in increased humanitarian need in the future.

COVID-19 cases and deaths have been significantly worse in 2021 compared to 2020.
Since I last briefed the Council on this issue, almost half of the countries with an inter-agency humanitarian appeal have recorded their highest number of cases or deaths.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Somalia and Syria, a lack of access to oxygen and insufficient funding hampered partner’s ability to respond to surges in September.

In Ukraine, almost twice as many people have died from COVID-19 in the past three months, than all of 2020.

A lack of vaccines, variants of concern, and more social mixing continue to drive these surges.

Mr. President,

2022 could get worse.

It is too early to assess the impact of the newly designated variant of concern, Omicron, in countries with humanitarian emergencies.

But we do know the poorest and countries affected by conflict are most vulnerable to variants like Omicron due to their lack of vaccines and weak health systems.

Omicron also comes at a time when low-income economies are still struggling to recover from the shock of the pandemic in 2020. And when humanitarian needs are already at their highest point due to conflict, climate change, and the ongoing secondary impacts of the pandemic.

In 2022, the global humanitarian system will seek to address 183 million people in 63 countries.

Unless the international community takes urgent action now to mitigate the potential risks posed by Omicron, we fear that number could grow.

Mr. President,

Despite the calls of this Council in resolution 2565, less than 4 per cent of the 8 billion dosesthat have been administered globally are in the arms of people caught up in humanitarian emergencies.

The good news is that since I last briefed you in July, doses have steadily increased to countries with an inter-agency humanitarian appeal.

Approximately 480 million doses have now been delivered, a 300 per cent increase since July.

Almost 40 per cent of those doses have come from the COVAX Facility.

Based on current forecasts, we expect supply to continue to increase in these countries in 2022.

But we are also seeing a concerning trend. There is a growing divergence between countries that have the means to procure doses independently and get them into people’s arms – and those who do not.

Over 70 per cent of doses delivered to countries with an inter-agency humanitarian appeal have gone to just six countries.

The poorest and conflict-affected countries are being left behind. They are not receiving nearly enough doses. And those that they have received, they are struggling to administer to their people.

The World Health Organization set a target to vaccinate 40 per cent of each country’s population by the end of this year.

We estimate that half of the countries with humanitarian emergencies will enter 2022 with less than 10 per cent of their population vaccinated.

All of these countries are on this Council’s agenda.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Yemen and South Sudan only have enough COVID-19 vaccines for less than 2 per cent of their population.

Mr. President,

In 2021, the challenge of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines has mainly been one of supply due to manufacturing constraints and the hoarding of vaccines by high-income countries.

As we enter 2022, the problem is quickly becoming one of turning vaccines into vaccinations.

Getting vaccines into vulnerable people’s arms in fragile and conflict-affected countries has proven a huge challenge.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country of more than 89 million people, approximately 200,000 doses have been administered to date. Less than a tenth of doses delivered.

South Sudan and Haiti have only administered just over half of the 500,000 doses they have received.

In Haiti, half of their doses had to be returned before they expired.

The growing supply of vaccines to fragile and conflict-affected countries could be turned away or expire in fridges without a scaled-up global effort to get them into people’s arms.

This requires financial and technical support, since it has been estimated that the cost of fully vaccinating 70 per cent of the population is more than double total government health expenditure.

The World Bank and Gavi, through their Country Delivery Support mechanism, have provided over US$2.7 billion to countries with an inter-agency humanitarian appeal to support procurement of vaccines and vaccine delivery.

But these resources must now be rapidly deployed and targeted appropriately.

Health workers need to be recruited and trained.

Complex logistics and security arrangements must be put in place to reach remote communities.

Community engagement must be prioritized to address misinformation and vaccine hesitancy to ensure there is demand, and that communities are receiving other life-saving assistance alongside COVID vaccines.

We welcome WHO, UNICEF and Gavi’s initiative to appoint a Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Country Readiness and Delivery. This will help to give the necessary focus to the countries at highest risk of missing COVID-19 vaccination targets.

The COVAX Facility’s Humanitarian Buffer is also an important tool to ensure COVID-19 vaccines reach the most vulnerable at-risk groups in the world who are not covered by national vaccination campaigns, and we are pleased that the first allocations from the Buffer were delivered last month to vaccinate displaced refugees from Afghanistan in Iran.

Mr. President,

Getting vaccines into people’s arms is critical to saving lives. But it is also essential to addressing the devastating secondary impacts of this pandemic on the most vulnerable.

The poorest economies have not recovered from the health and economic shock of 2020. The latest IMF forecast suggests an even slower economic recovery for many countries with humanitarian crises.

As global recovery slows down in 2022, countries with inter-agency humanitarian appeals will be further impacted. Most have heavy debt burdensthat will increase in size next year and are especially vulnerable to high energy and food prices.

This means many countries – already facing a lost decade of development – are highly vulnerable to future economic shocks unless they receive support.

Unemployment is colliding with food prices at their highest levels in the past decade. Today, 45 million people in 43 countries are on the edge of famine

Women and children continue to be hardest hit.

Schools are opening but not all children are returning. Unable to pay for school fees, children continue to be at risk of early marriage, forced child labour and armed recruitment.

According to UN Women, half of women surveyed reported being directly or indirectly exposed to violence since the pandemic. This number is likely larger.

Mr. President,

Let me conclude by highlighting four areas where we need the Council’s help.

First, we need funding to respond to growing humanitarian needs.

This month, OCHA launched the 2022 Global Humanitarian Overview.

Humanitarian organizations are collectively appealing for $41 billion to assist 183 million people across 63 countries. This represents a doubling of requirements in just four years, largely driven by the pandemic, conflict and climatic disasters.

Donors must fund the appeal to ensure the most vulnerable people can continue to receive lifesaving support and access to basic services to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Second, we must commit to scaling up medical and financial support to vulnerable countries that will continue to experience COVID-19 surges in 2022 – especially if our worst fears of Omicron come to pass.

Almost two years into the pandemic, testing is woefully insufficient in low-income countries.

We must prioritize increasing tests, personal protective equipment and therapeutics including oxygen in countries with humanitarian emergencies.

Third, we need to ensure vaccines can get into the arms of people in the poorest, conflict-affected and hardest-to-reach locations.

Vaccines remain the best defence against COVID-19 and its variants. They will also support economic recovery.

As supply increases into 2022, we must strengthen vaccine delivery systems and tackle misinformation and hesitancy.

We must commit to vaccines reaching the most vulnerable people, including those in areas controlled by non-State armed groups and ensure people have unhindered access to vaccines and to other life-saving humanitarian assistance.

And we must ensure the safety and security of all health and humanitarian workers.

Finally, we must remember that for the poorest countries, the secondary impact of the pandemic can be more dangerous than the virus itself.

The pandemic has already pushed many countries into a deep hole. We must ensure the possible economic impact of Omicron does not send them to the bottom of that hole.

Extending the Debt Service Suspension Initiative beyond this year will lower the need for debt repayments in the immediate term and provide fiscal space for almost half of countries with an inter-agency humanitarian plan.

Reallocating special drawing rights to the poorest and most vulnerable countries will equip them with the resources they need to recover from the pandemic.

Mr. President,

We are on a dangerous path, but the international community can make different choices to support the most vulnerable people on the planet to recover from the devastation wrought by COVID-19.

If it fails to do so, not only will this pandemic be prolonged, but our world will become more violent in the coming years.

Thank you.