{"id":267506,"date":"2021-11-16T15:43:30","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T20:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=267506"},"modified":"2021-11-18T10:04:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T15:04:18","slug":"praise-for-palestine-relief-agency-not-matched-by-contributions-secretary-general-tells-donor-conference-warning-life-saving-work-must-be-supported-in-message-to-the-conference-on-unrwa","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/praise-for-palestine-relief-agency-not-matched-by-contributions-secretary-general-tells-donor-conference-warning-life-saving-work-must-be-supported-in-message-to-the-conference-on-unrwa\/","title":{"rendered":"Praise for Palestine Relief Agency Not Matched by Contributions, Secretary-General Tells Donor Conference, Warning Life-Saving Work Must Be Supported in Message to the Conference on Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SG\/SM\/21025<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
16 NOVEMBER 2021<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

Video<\/a><\/p>\n

Following is the text of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u2019 video message to the conference on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA), in Brussels today:<\/p>\n

I am pleased to join you in this critical conference in support of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA.\u00a0 My thanks to the Governments of Jordan and Sweden for organizing this event and to all of you for being here.<\/p>\n

You understand the essential role that Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA plays in the lives of generations of Palestine refugees.<\/p>\n

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA today is providing more than half a million children with high-quality education; investing in human development; ensuring that Palestine refugees \u2014children, youth, the elderly and persons with disabilities \u2014 have lifelines of hope and opportunity; managing the impact of shocks on the most vulnerable; and empowering millions, despite the many obstacles and difficult conditions in which they live.<\/p>\n

Through all of these efforts and more, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is also enabling many of them to make extraordinary contributions to their communities and to the world at large.\u00a0 And Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is playing a pivotal role in promoting regional stability.<\/p>\n

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Member States have agreed on Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA\u2019s comprehensive mandate for decades.\u00a0 And yet Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA continues to face an existential crisis.<\/p>\n

We need to protect Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA from being used as a political pawn and focus on its ability to carry out its General Assembly mandate and its unrelenting commitment to humanitarian principles and shared United Nations values.<\/p>\n

Despite widely recognized achievements, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is prevented from assisting Palestine refugees in a predictable way.\u00a0 Overwhelming support for Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is not adequately matched by sufficient funding for its operations.<\/p>\n

These recurring funding crises have led Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA to introduce austerity measures. \u00a0But these have reached their limits.\u00a0 What Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA really needs is adequate resources, including human resources.<\/p>\n

I have put forward a proposal to the General Assembly for additional posts from the United Nations regular budget as a step to increase the core capacity of the Agency.<\/p>\n

Today, I have two specific requests:<\/p>\n

First, we need urgent and decisive support to maintain Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA\u2019s ability to operate this year.\u00a0 We must bridge the immediate funding gap.\u00a0 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA\u2019s essential health, education and services must not be interrupted.<\/p>\n

A disruption of services and salaries would have a crippling impact \u2014 especially in a region already struggling with the consequences of the pandemic.\u00a0 These repeated funding crises affect the quality of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA\u2019s services and impose immense stress on Palestine refugees.<\/p>\n

Second, I urge Member States to step up longer-term commitments and solidarity and match the generosity of the countries that host Palestine refugees.<\/p>\n

We need to collectively find a path towards more predictable, sufficient and sustainable funding for the Agency, including through multi-year commitments.\u00a0 I ask for your support.<\/p>\n

Finally, I know you join me in expressing deep admiration for Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA\u2019s work \u2014 day in, day out.\u00a0 The teachers, the doctors and nurses, the sanitation workers, the engineers and so many others \u2014 all are working under extreme duress to provide Palestine refugees with access to basic services that all of us take for granted.<\/p>\n

I am grateful to all Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA staff for their tireless efforts to deliver, protect the rights of Palestine refugees and support their human development.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s help them help Palestine refugees.\u00a0 An investment in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is an investment in peace and hope.<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SG\/SM\/21025 16 NOVEMBER 2021 Video Following is the text of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u2019 video message to the conference on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA), in Brussels today: I am pleased to join you in this critical conference in support of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA.\u00a0 My thanks to […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[909,1029],"document-category":[2621,2805,4389],"document-source":[5352,1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,2033,2441,2533,2153,1745],"entity":[1985,1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-267506","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-jordan","country-norway","document-category-message","document-category-video","document-category-webcast","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-children","document-subject-education-and-culture","document-subject-health","document-subject-refugee-camps","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-state","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/267506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/267506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=267506"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=267506"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=267506"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=267506"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=267506"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=267506"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=267506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}