YouSaid · the spoken record

Ibrahim Mayaki

lines on the record

9

first

2020-11-03

most recent

2020-11-03

sittings or episodes

1

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

1. “It is therefore imperative that such data be at the heart of our work if we are serious about reversing the downward spiral, meeting the immense needs of the populations we all serve and bringing peace to the Sahel and West Africa.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

2. “To do that end, we must first and foremost work together to address the underlying causes of the crisis. The pace and magnitude of relentless crises, on the one hand, and the rapidity and intensity of new aspects compounding them, on the other, make it incumbent upon us to develop a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics under way. We must ensure that obtaining data and their analysis become the bedrock of formulating the appropriate public policies and international strategies. Let me emphasize this last point. Data, their analysis and the consensus built around them provide us with the essential tools for the formulation of holistic, coherent and sustainable policies and methods of intervention. They enable improved cooperation on and effective adaptation to the realities on the ground.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

3. “Similarly, we can have an influence on environmental uncertainties and the situation created by the global pandemic. Here are some of the measures within our reach: providing structural responses to eradicate chronic food vulnerability; considering the informal sector of the agri-food economy as a priority driver of development; fostering regional cooperation dynamics and using border strategies as policy levers; strengthening the links connecting the humanitarian sphere, development and peace in an integrated triple-pronged approach; supporting climate change adaptation initiatives and the development of warning systems; taking into account the realities on the ground, that is, to contextualize all measures aimed at preserving employment and livelihoods during and after the COVID-19 crisis; and ramping up support for women, while including gender-sensitive responses in all recovery policies to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

4. “Such preventive health measures have in fact affected the livelihoods of informal workers. Two thirds of West African women work in the food sector, where they represent 51 per cent of the workforce. They often work the most precarious jobs and have little or no social protection. In addition, women are front and centre in the fight against the pandemic within the hospital systems. At the community level, they often provide unpaid health-care services and tend to illnesses within families. They are therefore especially exposed to the possibility of infection. All those factors are interdependent. They are the catalysts of an ever-changing and multiscale crisis. Fortunately, solutions exist to mitigate the socioeconomic fragility and financial poverty of States.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

5. “The recent torrential rains S/2020/1090 and their destruction are a striking example. In the Niger, the floods have affected half a million people. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is plunging millions more people into food and nutrition insecurity, owing to the severe disruption of the supply chains in the region. The disruptions are leading to a decline in purchasing power and difficulties in accessing food, now pushing an additional 6 million people into extreme poverty in the Central Sahel. In West Africa, the food sector accounted for 40 per cent of gross domestic product in 2015. The Sahel and West Africa Club estimates that more than 82 million jobs could be directly affected by restrictions on movement related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

6. “While they are already highly integrated economically and united by long-standing social solidarity, the areas are also particularly affected by insecurity. Forty per cent of violent acts take place within 50 kilometres of any one of the borders. As the recent ministerial round table held on 20 October brought to the fore, more than 13 million people are now in need of humanitarian aid, more than half of whom are children. The most vulnerable among them live in ill-adapted camps, creating a strain on the host populations. The structural obstacles to development and the challenging security situation are compounded by new risk factors exacerbating an already fragile situation. Since the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, the Sahel has experienced warming, as well as an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

7. “In recent years, security issues have been added to those structural causes. Peace, security and development are inextricably interlinked. We are seeing this today in stark terms in the Sahel with a spike in insecurity. The complex security crisis prevailing throughout the region is markedly affecting civilian populations. In conflict-affected areas, armed violence has made the food and nutritional situation a cause of great concern. The number of people displaced by armed violence has crossed the 1 million threshold in Burkina Faso, which represents 5 per cent of the country’s population. Cross-border areas, such as Liptako-Gourma and the Lake Chad basin, are home to a large segment of the population of West Africa.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

8. “In West Africa, the number of people in a state of food crisis or worse status — in keeping with the terminology of the early-warning tool Cadre Harmonisé — increases every year during the lean season, owing to deep structural causes, such as poverty and the lack of basic social services. One third of West Africans who require continued food and nutritional assistance are located in the three countries of the Central Sahel. Given high natural population growth, those States and their Governments’ capacity to provide public services and administer their territory will remain glaringly inadequate. With six State employees per 1,000 inhabitants, a country like Mali struggles to provide the minimum of public services. There is one doctor per 10,000 inhabitants and one hospital per 500,000.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source

9. “I entreat everyone to focus on the critical situation in West Africa in general, and in the Sahel in particular. The region is the locus of challenges that must be clearly defined so that they can be properly resolved. I should like to recall several facts. Over the past 20 years, West Africa’s population has increased by 72 per cent. It is expected to double again by 2050. Cities will take on approximately two thirds of the increase in population. Small and medium-size cities will grow faster than capitals and other large cities. Some villages are even already transforming into urban clusters, owing to population growth. In the Niger, for example, the number of towns with populations ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants increased from 40 in 2010 to 84 today.”

   2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source