What's In Blue
Latest post: Wed 18 May 2022Insights on the work of the UN Security Council
Conflict and Food Security: Ministerial-Level Open Debate
On Thursday (19 May), the Security Council will hold a ministerial-level open debate on conflict and food security under the agenda item “Maintenance of international peace and security”. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will chair the meeting. Secretary-General António Guterres, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu, and Sara Menker, founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence, are expected to brief. This is a signature event of the US Council presidency this month, which follows the open debate that it organised on conflict and hunger under the same agenda in March 2021.
Rising levels of conflict-driven food insecurity prompted the Security Council to adopt resolution 2417 in May 2018. This resolution recognises how conflict contributes to hunger—through the direct effects of war, such as displacement from farming or grazing land and the destruction of agricultural assets, or indirectly by disrupting markets and increasing food prices, among other things. The annual Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), released earlier this month, shows that global hunger, primarily driven by conflict, continues to worsen. During 2021, close to 193 million people faced crisis levels of hunger or worse across 53 countries and territories due to conflict and insecurity, economic shocks and weather extremes. Conflict was the primary driver of this hunger for 139 million people in 24 countries and territories. This was a marked increase from 2020, when conflict was the main driver of hunger for 99 million of the 155 million people then experiencing acute hunger.
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Tomorrow (18 May), the Security Council will hold its biannual briefing and closed consultations on the counter-terrorism Group of Five for the Sahel Joint Force (FC-G5S), formed in 2017 by Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger (G5 Sahel). Assistant...
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Tomorrow (17 May), the Security Council will convene for a briefing on the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). Special Representative and head of UNAMI Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is expected to brief on recent developments in Iraq and on the Secretary-General’s...
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Tomorrow (17 May), following the closed consultations on Yemen, Security Council members will discuss the situation in Haiti under “any other business”. The meeting—which was requested by Mexico and the US, the co-penholders on Haiti—is expected to focus on the...
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This afternoon (12 May), Security Council members will convene for closed consultations on Afghanistan. Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Deborah Lyons is expected to brief. The meeting was requested by Norway to address...
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Tomorrow (12 May) morning, the Security Council will hold a briefing on humanitarian developments in Ukraine under the agenda item “Maintenance of Peace and Security of Ukraine”. The meeting, which was requested by France and Mexico, will focus on the...
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Tomorrow (12 May), the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) until 15 November. (Abyei is the disputed area along the Sudan-South Sudan border.) The...
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Tomorrow (11 May), the Security Council will hold its semi-annual debate on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). High Representative for BiH Christian Schmidt is scheduled to brief on the latest report of the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which covers...
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Tomorrow (6 May), Russia will organise an Arria-formula meeting titled “Systematic and mass grave violations of the international humanitarian law as well as other war crimes committed by the Ukrainian military personnel and militia and discovered in the course of...
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Tomorrow (5 May), the Security Council will convene for an open briefing on the situation in Ukraine. The expected briefers are Secretary-General António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, OCHA’s Acting Operations Director Ghada Eltahir Mudawi and a...
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The US is the president of the Security Council in May. The Council adopted its provisional programme of work for the month earlier today (3 May). The US will organise an open debate on conflict and food security as one...
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This morning (29 April), the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) for a period of three months, until 31 July. The draft text in blue maintains UNSMIL’s...
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This morning (29 April) the Security Council is expected to hold an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on the Syria chemical weapons track. The meeting is the regular monthly meeting on the implementation of resolution 2118, which was adopted unanimously...
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Tomorrow (27 April) at 3 pm EST in the ECOSOC chamber, Albania and France will convene an Arria-formula meeting on “Ensuring accountability for atrocities committed in Ukraine”. The meeting is being co-sponsored by Council members Ireland, Norway, the UK and...
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Tomorrow (27 April), following the open briefing and closed consultations on the Great Lakes region, Security Council members will discuss the situation in Sudan under “any other business”. The meeting was requested by the UK (the penholder on Sudan), together...
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Tomorrow (27 April), the Security Council will hold a briefing and consultations on the Great Lakes region. Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region Huang Xia will brief on the Secretary-General’s latest report on the implementation of the...