YouSaid · the spoken record

Banbury

lines on the record: 38
first: 2014-10-14
most recent: 2014-11-21
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Those responsible for that, especially the Governments and communities, as well as the non-governmental organization community, should take great pride in their achievements. But we are deep in the midst ofthis Ebola crisis - a very dangerous crisis that poses today, and will pose tomorrow, a very serious threat to the people, societies, communities and countries that are now affected, as well as other countries throughout the world. As long as Ebola is present and spreading in one country, we know that it is a danger to all countries. This is a unique challenge. The attention of the Security Council is deeply welcomed. Right now we must work hard, we must work fast, we must work smart and we must work until the disease is finished.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“One of the great challenges we face is the increased geographic dispersion of the disease, which has significantly expanded the requirements of having resources on the ground. Therefore, in order for us to get ahead of the disease - not react to it, but to be able to defeat it where it is - we need not only greater geographic dispersal of capabilities, but more mobility and a rapid response capability that includes the contact tracers, health experts, laboratory capabilities, social mobilization and the burial teams and the accompanying infrastructure. It is highly challenging, but will be absolutely necessary. In conclusion, I believe we should be very heartened, as Mr. Nabarro said in his remarks, by the progress achieved.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“It is working to varying degrees, but it is in place in each country. We also need to ensure that there is a coherent, coordinated international response. Again, I think that is getting better on a daily basis in each of the three countries, thanks in part to the role that UNMEER has been playing. However, it is clear that much more must be done to bring this crisis under control. Bending the curve was hard, and getting to a declining case-load was very hard. Getting it down to zero is going to be much harder. The amount of effort, resources, contact tracers, mobility and hard work in the most remote areas required to bring it down to zero is going to be very significant. There is a long battle ahead of us.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Nabarro spoke of, which we all share - the goal of zero transmission, where we see the last case under treatment - is going to require a tremendous increase in the resources on the ground in a dispersed geographical area. We are not going to be able to succeed based only on work in the capitals, much less in Accra. I would also like to highlight that we know not only the strategy that works, but also some of the underlying factors for success. In addition to the plan to which I referred earlier, it is essential to have strong Government leadership and a crisis management structure in place. I am happy to say that in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia the Governments have taken a leadership role, and there is strong support from UNMEER and other partners for the crisis management structure.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“That has been absolutely essential, and the United Nations takes absolutely no credit for the work and actions of the communities. However, it must be said that another reason that we have seen important progress has been the response by Governments, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations system. I believe that we have been able to prove that the strategy we have adopted works when we apply it. It succeeds. That is very heartening, but it also presents especially large challenges, because the necessary operational response is very complex. It requires a lot of moving pieces. It is operationally complex and resource-intensive. It takes a lot of people, infrastructure and assets to do all that is required in an area facing an Ebola outbreak. That means that the goal that Mr.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Even though the numbers in both those countries are higher, the complexity of the response in Guinea, for a variety of reasons related to geographic dispersal, aspects of some of the communities, security concerns, as well as resources from the international community, make the challenges in bringing the crisis in Guinea under control particularly severe. As a result, UNMEER is enhancing its attention to the situation in Guinea and is trying to focus additional resources there, even as we try to do everything we can to support the efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. I would like to underline one of the important reasons for success in the areas where progress has been achieved, as pointed out by Special Envoy Nabarro: communities themselves are taking action and changing their behaviour to protect themselves.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Those are very significant achievements compared to where we were when the Council last met on this subject (see S/PV.7279). However, we are far from ending the crisis. First of all, those numbers look better than they are, because they refer to case isolations and safe burials of known cases. The real number of cases is much higher, so the achievement percentages are going to be much lower. And even while we see important progress in some areas, we see dramatic declines in others with rapid acceleration in cases. Guinea in particular is facing some difficulty. It has not received the attention and resources from the international community that Liberia and Sierra Leone have.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“In that regard, I would like to pay tribute to Me'decins Sans Frontieres, with whom I have met on all my trips and from whose advice I have benefitted greatly. They have done outstanding work in dealing with the Ebola crisis from its outset in March. As the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General noted, we are starting to see significant improvements in the crisis response. We have received some very encouraging news. We know that the worst-case scenarios of exponential growth have not materialized. The new cases every week are declining or are at least stabilizing. In terms of response, the latest World Health Organization figures show that, for known cases, we are achieving 55 per cent of our target in terms of case isolation, and 87 percent in the case of case burials.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Our work in the operational area - those outcomes to which I just referred, including case identification, safe burials, case treatment and so on - are supported by five underlying enabling activities: logistics; information management, which is absolutely essential to accomplishing our operational objectives; human resource mobilization, not only with respect to UNMEER but in terms of contact tracers; social mobilization; and the payment of workers. UNMEER will not itself undertake all of those activities. We will work on some of them, but most are being carried out by others, including United Nations agency partners working within the UNMEER framework, as well as the non-governmental organizations that are playing such an important role in bringing the crisis under control.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“That means that the Mission is organized and structured around the outcomes that it must achieve, as opposed to the inputs it has been offered. We have put in place a comprehensive 30-, 60- and 90-day plan, along with an operational plan based on the objectives embedded in the 30-, 60- and 90-day plan. The operational plan is an absolutely necessary precondition for success. We need a plan that is achievable and that will, if achieved, accomplish the identified objectives. That is an essential element of good crisis management and one of the values that UNMEER can bring to the table.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“The Secretary-General is drawing on important lessons from the current crisis and is determined that the United Nations system take rapid and decisive action at an early stage on the crisis in Mali before it has the kind of devastating impact that some of Mali's neighbours are experiencing. UNMEER is a unique mission, tailored in many ways to deal with a unique and unprecedented crisis. It is unique in many ways. It is the first emergency health mission and the first United Nations system-wide mission. At its heart, it is a crisis-management mission, with the singular objective of stopping Ebola. That is the Mission's only objective. It is also unique because of the way in which it is structured and focused on the things that it must achieve, including safe burials, case treatment and contact identification and tracing.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“We are additionally deploying more and more staff not just to the three most affected countries but to remote locations in those countries, where the disease is increasingly spreading and where, in the end, we will have to fight it. I should pause here for a minute to talk about today's developments concerning Mali. While I said that the Mission was operational in three countries and had established a presence in four, today, following consultations with President Keita of Mali, the Secretary-General directed us to immediately establish a presence in Mali to support that country's national efforts to stop the disease before it spreads.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“In UNMEER's first 30 days of its existence, we were very focused on deploying the necessary capability on the ground. What we were trying to achieve in 30 days in terms of information collection, analysis, planning, deployment and the establishment of operational capability is something that would normally be done sequentially for a United Nations mission over period of several months, and we tried to do it all simultaneously and combine it in essentially a 30-day period. I believe that, to a very large extent, we were successful at that. We established a presence in four countries; we are operational in the three most affected ones. We have the leadership teams and the necessary operational capability in place to carry UNMEER operations.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“In addition, the Governments and countries most affected do not have well-developed systems, be they health-care systems, surveillance infrastructure, road and transport infrastructure or communications infrastructure; nor do the United Nations or non-governmental organization partners have the kind of infrastructure and geographic presence throughout those countries that are now necessary in order to effectively combat this disease. In part because of all these reasons, the Secretary- General decided to establish UNMEER following the unanimous adoption of resolution 2177 (2014) and General Assembly resolution 69/1. The attention that the Security Council has paid to the Ebola crisis has, I believe, been extremely important in mobilizing the international political will and resources necessary to effectively combat the disease.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“One of the impacts of all this is that, as the virus spreads in countries, the needs of their Governments to respond - including the financial needs - are increasing significantly, but Government revenues are decreasing. The gap between available means and needs is therefore getting larger on a virtually daily basis. There are many significant operational challenges posed by the Ebola crisis. One of the most difficult is the unknown nature of it. The world has never faced a crisis like this before. Those countries have not; their health-care systems have not; their societies have not; nor have the United Nations health experts. We are therefore obliged to fight this invisible enemy with tools that we are forging at the same time that we are putting them into use.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“There are many statistics that can demonstrate the impact of Ebola beyond the health impact. The Liberian Minister of Finance recently reported that, while the Liberian economy had been projected to grow at 5.9 per cent, it is now projected to shrink by 0.4 per cent. UNICEF has reported more than 3,300 Ebola orphans. In the three most affected countries, 10,000 schools are closed and more than 2 million children who should be in school are now not able to go to school. The World Bank has reported that, in Liberia, 46 per cent of the workforce at the time of the outbreak of the Ebola crisis is now unemployed - almost half the members of the workforce have lost their jobs since the outbreak began.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Those are the total reported cases, but we know that the real number is no doubt significantly higher and that many more people are still going to die - people who have not yet become infected, who will become infected and are going to die from this virus. But beyond the human toll, Ebola is taking a devastating toll on the social and economic livelihoods ofthe most affected countries. This is a message I heard repeatedly and quite strongly from the Heads of State of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as from Government officials at all levels, down to the pre'fet or district level. Even when Ebola was no longer a very prevalent disease in their communities, its aftereffects were widespread in the economies and livelihoods of these communities.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“The countries of the subregion that are at highest risk, according to the World Health Organization, in many cases do not have the capabilities or the systems to respond quickly and effectively in the case of the exportation of an Ebola case to one of those countries. Even now, while the worst-case scenarios did not materialize, their remain parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea where we see increasing case-loads and indeed, in some cases, rapidly increasing case-loads that are posing both big risks and big challenges. Ebola is also a very complex emergency, and it is very difficult to combat. While more than 5,400 people are known to have died, it is certainly the case that many more than that have actually died.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Mr. Banbury: It is a pleasure to appear before the Security Council to share the latest developments on the Ebola crisis and response by the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). When the Security Council met in September and adopted resolution 2177 (2014), almost 5,000 people contracted the Ebola virus that month. There was a rapid acceleration in cases and some very frightening worst-case-scenario projections about what might happen. While those worst-case scenarios have not arisen, it is still the case that Ebola is a very serious crisis threatening the entire region and that it poses a global threat. A total of eight countries have had Ebola cases within their borders, and many more are threatened today.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“The penalty for failure is inconceivable and unacceptable. We must act now. We must act together. We must defeat Ebola, and we must do it fast.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“But UNMEER cannot do it alone. The affected countries cannot do it alone. Even the combination of all the actors now on the ground - national and international, United Nations, bilateral and NGOs - cannot stop Ebola by themselves. We need more NGOs to send trained Ebola treatment and unit managers and health workers. We need more Governments to build and operate Ebola treatment units and diagnostic laboratories. We need more foreign medical teams. We need logistics and transport support. And we need money to pay for the rapid acceleration of the operational response. We especially need - and we owe it to the personnel working on the front line - reliable, high quality medical care for any person engaged in Ebola response, including medical evacuation where appropriate. We need all of that urgently. The penalty for delay is enormous.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“I pay tribute to the dedication and commitment of the members of the United Nations country teams and UNMIL who have been working on the front lines of the fight against this disease from the beginning. I am deeply grateful to the United Nations personnel who are literally flocking to UNMEER to join this fight. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the national and international personnel on whose bravery and skills we now collectively depend. We also owe it to the national personnel that they get paid a decent wage for the work they are doing and that they get paid on time. The world must not punish its own first responders by stigmatization based on hysteria and a misunderstanding of the facts of Ebola. There is much bad news about Ebola. The good news is that we know how to stop it. We know what needs to be done, and we can do it.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“We will also put in place a rapid response capability with reserve stocks of equipment and materiel and pre-identified medical personnel and transportation assets to move quickly to the site of an outbreak if so requested by national authorities. But those efforts must be bolstered by bilateral assistance. Today the United Nations lost a member of our family when a United Nations volunteer working in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) died of Ebola. He is the second United Nations staff member to have died from the disease. I am very grateful to the medical team in Germany that worked so valiantly to try to save his life. We all mourn his passing and the passing of his colleague.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“The very best way to protect the people of non-infected countries is by helping the people of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to stop Ebola now where it is. As recent events have shown, however, Ebola represents a risk today to people in non-affected countries. It is urgent and essential that all countries, especially those identified by the WHO as highest priority and high priority, take immediate steps to prevent the spread of Ebola to their countries and steps to prepare themselves to act quickly in the event of a local case to prevent further spread. UNMEER will support the WHO and national efforts at prevention and preparedness where appropriate.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“Community care centres are just one issue that needs such detailed planning and commitment by partners. For each major line of activity within an Ebola response plan, there are an equal number ofvital actions that need to be properly addressed. The operational response is especially challenging, because we need to put all elements of the response together correctly everywhere. The contact identification and tracing, case management, safe burials and community engagement all need to be done properly wherever Ebola is. Ebola is spread across a very broad geographical area. If we fail in any one area, then the microscopic virus will find that chink in our armour and continue to spread. As long as there is a single case of Ebola anywhere in any of the three countries, then the deadly virus is a threat to all countries and all peoples.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“For example, something seemingly so simple as community care centres needs detailed planning. I mentioned earlier that we needed to build about 300 of them. Who will speak to the community about Ebola and about putting a care centre in the community? Who will build the centre? Who will staff it and who will train the staff? Who will pay the staff and how will they be paid? Where will the money come from? What supplies will the centre require? How often will they need to be resupplied? Who will deliver the supplies and how? How will the hazardous waste be disposed of and who will do that? What will be the source of the clean water that is necessary for washing? Who will test the patients in the centre for Ebola? How far away will the testing laboratories be? How will the samples be transported. Et cetera.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“UNMEER is working with partners to put in place such a plan, one that sets clear objectives, identifies all the lines of activity necessary to achieve those objectives, assigns responsibility for each activity and puts in place metrics and reporting systems to measure performance. The operational plan will ensure that no gaps are left unfilled and that scarce resources are officially allocated to the highest priority requirements. The plan will be in support of national efforts and will show national authorities what support they can expect from the United Nations and when. National Governments will always retain ownership of the Ebola response in their countries. This planning process is operationally and organizationally complex due to the multiplicity of actors.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“We have been empowered by the Secretary-General with special authority to hire staff quickly, transfer assets, purchase materials and take action in the best interests of the Organization and in furtherance of our commitment to bring the Ebola crisis to a conclusion. More broadly, UNMEER is playing the critical role of crisis manager. Much good and great work has been done by national Governments, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society actors and others these past few months. But responding to a complex crisis, especially one that cuts across multiple national boundaries and is as difficult and fraught with risk as this one, requires an overall perspective, and it requires a comprehensive operational plan.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“We have deployed 69 vehicles, and 140 more are coming soon. We have put in place robust telecommunication and Internet links. We have done all of that in record time. Never before have I seen the United Nations, so many ofits parts, move so fast in such a unified manner. The Secretary-General has given clear instructions: Move. Move fast. Do not let discussion and red tape slow us down. I am grateful to the heads of United Nations departments and agencies who have embraced this approach. The United Nations system is throwing all its might and capability into the fight against Ebola.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“We have deployed a total of 84 international staff, including personnel from the WHO, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme, the Department of Field Support, the Department of Political Affairs, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Department of Public Information, the Department of Safety and Security, the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, the Regional Service Centre in Entebbe, eight field missions and the United States Centers for Disease Control. Soon we will also have an expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. We also have liaison officers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. We have deployed a plane and five helicopters.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“Time passing means a more robust supply chain. It means more transportation assets. It means more United Nations international and national staff. It means more medical support to the staff and security arrangements for them. It means more partners on the ground. It means more generators and laptops and bandwidth. It especially means more money, and many more things. It means more complex crisis management. Time is our biggest enemy. We must use every moment of every day to our advantage, and that is what UNMEER is doing. Since its establishment by the Secretary-General 25 days ago , UNMEER has set up a headquarters in Accra and deployed an operational presence to the three most-affected countries.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“The same expansion of activity to achieve the same intended effect is true for all the other interventions that are necessary to turn the epidemic around. For example, we estimate that we need approximately 15 more diagnostic laboratories capable of processing 100 samples per day each. We also need to go from about 50 burial teams to about 500, and we need to equip those teams with about 1,000 vehicles. The workers and the burial teams need to be given protective suits and chlorine Sprayers, and they need to be trained and paid. We need to do all of that before 1 December. With every day that passes the number of sick people increases, creating the need for this greater response. As time passes, we need to do more contact tracing, and that means more trained staff with more motorcycles and more cell phones.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“However, many of those beds have no staff to operate them under current plans. To make up for the gap in beds, we must build about 2,700 beds in community care centres, or about 300 such centres. We will also need staffto manage the facilities and care for the people in the beds. Those staffneed to be trained so they themselves do not fall sick, and they need to be paid and properly equipped. Those projected numbers also assume that all the facilities and beds will be used to maximum efficiency, with no beds left unfilled, regardless of the geographical location of the facility. The disease is spreading most rapidly in urban concentrations. Over half of the new cases will be in one urban centre alone. We will need to provide tailored special assistance to urban settings.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“But if we do not get ahead of the crisis, if we do not reach our targets and the number of people with Ebola rises dramatically, as some have predicted, the plan we have is not scalable to the size of such a new crisis. We either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan. To illustrate that challenge we can look at the expected number of new Ebola infections per week at the 60-day mark, namely, 1 December. My colleague Dr. Bruce Aylward, of the WHO and UNMEER, stated today that we can expect a new caseload of approximately 10,000 people per week by 1 December. That means that we need 7,000 beds for treatment. Under current planning and projections, we expect to have approximately 4,300 beds in Ebola-treatment centres by that date.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“The excruciating challenge is that, with each passing day, as more people are infected and the number of people infected grows exponentially, the absolute value of those targets grows rapidly and thye become more distant and more difficult to achieve. If we do not reach the targets within 60 days and the numbers spike, many more people will die. This is what we are fighting for now: we are fighting to prevent unavoidable deaths. We are fighting for people who are alive and healthy today, but who will become infected by Ebola and die if we do not put in place the necessary emergency response. That is the entire focus of everyone in UNMEER. Our plan to stop the crisis. To do the four things I mentioned that the WHO says we must do is the right plan for the current crisis.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“We cannot let that happen. The World Health Organization (WHO) advises that the four things we collectively must do to stop the Ebola virus are to identify and trace contacts, manage cases, ensure safe burials and provide people with information they can use to protect themselves. Each of those things is critical, and each involves complex operations on the ground. If we fail at any of them, we fail entirely. The WHO also advises that within 60 days we must ensure that 70 per cent of infected people are in a care facility and that 70 per cent of burials are carried out without causing further infection. We need to do that within 60 days from 1 October. If we reach those targets, then we can turn this epidemic around.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“I am inspired by the leadership of President Alpha Conde' of Guinea, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia. I am humbled by the hard work and dedication of national and international personnel fighting Ebola on the front lines as health-care workers, members of burial teams, contact tracers, logisticians and many other functions. I am grateful for the commitments by Member States of their civilian and military personnel, material and money. But I am deeply worried that all of that combined is not nearly enough to stop Ebola, which got a head start on us. It is far ahead of us, it is running faster than us and it is winning the race. We cannot let Ebola win, for if it wins, we the people of the United Nations will lose so very much. We will lose things that we cannot lose.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source
“Mr. Banbury: I thank members of the Council for this opportunity to provide the Council with an overview of operational developments related to the Ebola crisis and of the establishment of the first-ever United Nations system-wide mission and the first-ever emergency health mission - the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). This is a unique mission designed to confront an unprecedented, deadly and growing crisis. Since the Secretary-General announced the creation of the Global Ebola Response Coalition on 1 September, a number of important steps have been taken to accelerate the response to the Ebola crisis and to galvanize the international community, among them the establishment of UNMEER on 19 September.”
2014-10-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7279 (2014) · source