6 March 2017 – The crisis in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin is of global concern and action is needed “right now,” the United Nations Security Council today said, wrapping up its four-country tour with the promise of long-term support for the Governments and the people in their fight against Boko Haram.

“Neither the military fight against terrorism nor the immediate humanitarian response will solve these protracted crises,” Ambassador Matthew Rycroft of the United Kingdom, who is leading the Council visit as President of the 15-nation body for the month of March, told journalists in Abuja.

He spoke alongside Edward Kallon, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, as well as Fodé Seck, Representative of Senegal to the United Nations, and Michele Sison, Deputy Representative of the United States to the United Nations.

“What is needed in the end is long-term development,” Mr. Rycroft said, noting the need for jobs, education, human rights, services for displaced people and refugees, and solutions for coping with drought and other environmental challenges.

“Those are multifaceted, complex set of problems and require a holistic set of solutions, and we are here to support the Government of Nigeria in finding those solutions,” he vowed.

Yesterday, the Council members met with internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the Teacher Village in Maiduguri, in hard-hit Borno state in the north-eastern part of the country. About half of the displaced persons living in the camp are children, with 379 of them infants.

The Council members joined a circle of survivors, many of whom were women whose husbands and children were killed by Boko Haram, and who are struggling to feed themselves and the remnants of families that they have left.

Members of the UN Security Council mission on a visit to the Lake Chad Basin visited the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) and discussed challenges that the region is facing. Photo: Japan/UN Mission

“Their accounts of a life in crisis were beyond sobering,” Mr. Rycroft said.

The displaced camp is in Maiduguri, which is known as the epicentre of the years long Boko Haram crisis, according to Governor Kashim Shettima, who spoke with the Council members.

Some 14 million people are affected by Boko Haram, with 8.5 million people in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

While in Nigeria, the Council also met with women’s groups from across the country who called for a greater role in finding solutions to the Lake Chad Basin crisis.

“We can pass information faster than the men,” one woman told the Council.

The Council members also spoke with members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional group of 16 countries, with discussions focused on coordination of response and sharing of information.

The Council also met with Nigeria’s acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, and other senior political leaders.

After visiting Nigeria, and previously being in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, the Council emphasized that “barely enough is being done” to aid the crisis in the Lake Chad Basin.

“The scale we have seen is of a growing crisis. Famine is being averted at the moment because of the generosity of donors and the effectiveness of the national responses – but only just,” Mr. Rycroft said, adding: “We urge the international community as a whole to continue to step up before it is too late. And that means right now.”

Labour’s
Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Emily Thornberry
MP, responding
to the US administration’s updated travel ban said:

“Despite
some cosmetic changes, this remains a retrograde step for the United States.

“By
abdicating its responsibilities under international law, the administration
continues to send a terrible message to the rest of the world on the refugee
crisis. While it remains to be seen whether or not this new executive order
will stand up in court, nothing in today’s announcement changes the fact that
these measures are unnecessary, divisive and wrong.”

6 March 2017 – The head of the United Nations atomic energy agency today expressed serious concern about the nuclear programme of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as he also provided an update on the agency’s verification and monitoring activities in Iran.

“It is deeply regrettable that the DPRK has shown no indication that it is willing to comply with the UN Security Council resolutions adopted in response to its two nuclear tests last year,” said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano in his opening statement to a regular meeting of the agency’s Board of Governors.

“I again call upon the DPRK to comply fully with its obligations under Security Council resolutions, to cooperate promptly with the Agency, and to resolve all outstanding issues, including those that have arisen during the absence of Agency inspectors from the country,” he said.

According to news reports, it fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan’s northwest on Monday.

On Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action since January 2016, Mr. Amano said the IAEA is continuing evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in that country.

Wide view of delegates attending the 1453rd Board of Governors Meeting. IAEA, Vienna, Austria, 6 March 2017. Photo: IAEA/Dean Calma

The Board, a policymaking body, meets five times a year at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

On nuclear safety and security, Mr. Amano emphasised the importance of building on the A HREF=”https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/nuclear-safety-action-plan”>Action Plan for Nuclear Safety that was adopted following the accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi that occurred when an earthquake and tsunami struck in 2011.

“We will consider ways of further strengthening our work in nuclear, radiation, transport and waste safety,” he said, adding that the IAEA will continue to focus on regulatory effectiveness, safety culture and capacity-building.

In that regard, he stressed the importance of a peer review process under the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS), drawing attention to the seventh review meeting of contracting parties to CNS that will take place in Vienna from 27 March to 7 April while encouraging all countries that have not yet done so to join the CNS.

On nuclear energy, Mr. Amano underscored the significant contribution of nuclear power to meeting the goal set under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of holding the increase in global temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

6 March 2017 – More than 1,000 delegates from across the Americas will meet this week at a United Nations-backed conference in the Canadian city of Montreal to agree a Regional Action Plan designed to reduce the loss of life due to disasters, both natural and man-made.

Officially known as the Fifth Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the Americas, the three-day event which opens Tuesday 7 March, is the first major conference in the region following up on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, adopted in 2015 in the Japanese city of the same name.

Hosted by the Government of Canada in cooperation with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), the Regional Platform will mark the first opportunity for governments and stakeholders of the Americas to discuss and agree on a Regional Action Plan to support the implementation of the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 (Sendai Framework).

Sendai is a development framework, agreed by more than 180 countries, setting global but non-binding targets, to increase disaster preparedness, effective early warning systems and international cooperation, while at the same time reducing the impact of disasters on people, the economy, and the environment.

The platform in Montreal, which concludes on 9 March, will be the first opportunity for countries of the Americas to come together and discuss how they are going to put Sendai into practice.

“In Montreal, countries will adopt this Regional Action Plan [and] it will also provide the forum where countries will be able to discuss for the first time, how they are doing” said the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas, Ricardo Mena, in an interview with UN News.

Chief of UNISDR, Regional Office for The Americas, Ricardo Mena. Photo: UNISDR

The 2015 Sendai Framework was the first big intergovernmental agreement underpinning the UN-led 2030 development programme, along with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development agreed by 193 countries later that year; the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on development finance; and the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Mr. Mena said there was a clear link between Sendai and the other pillars of the 2030 Agenda, citing the example of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically Goal, on ending extreme poverty. “Disasters usually bring more people into poverty; therefore you can see disasters as a driver of potential conflicts down the road and that’s why it becomes so important, so crucial, in having investments in reducing risks.”

Montreal Platform will be a ‘big tent’ gathering for diverse stakeholders

A High-Level intergovernmental meeting on implementing the Sendai Framework across the Americas took place in Paraguay last June, but Montreal will “be a bigger tent,” said Mr. Mena.

“It’s a meeting where all the stakeholders – private sector, academia, science and technology, local authorities and civil society – are going to be participating in full force,” he said.

Noting that there are already “some quite positive signs” that implementation is well underway across the region, he cited the fact that UNISDR’s Americas office is already working with 10 countries “on the alignment of national DRR strategies and plans to the Sendai Framework spirit.”

“In some cases it’s revising existing strategies and plans, and aligning them to the Sendai Framework, in other cases it’s starting from scratch,” he added.

Mr. Mena said that getting national treasuries – and increasingly private sector investors – to think long-term about disaster risk, was the main challenge.

“Whatever is put into DRR is going to save money down the road. We know of the positive impact that DRR investments have.

“There is much more funding being put for disaster response activities, than for DRR activities […] The issue is how to integrate the DRR lens into every investment that you are about to do,” he added.

Minister in charge of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Ralph Goodale, said Canada is “looking forward to working with our partners across all sectors of the emergency management community both domestically and among our hemispheric partners to develop an interactive and action-oriented agenda.”

Montreal’s mayor, Denis Coderre, said the city is looking forward to playing its part, and welcoming delegates from all parts of the continent. “Montreal is also one of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities and actively integrates the principles of urban resilience in order to better prepare for the challenges of the 21st Century,” he said.

Introduction

Good morning and thank you Dylan for the introduction, I’m delighted to be welcoming you all here this morning.

This event has been in the making since my very first conversation with Liam Fox, the Secretary of State for International Trade, back in the summer of last year.

It was in the aftermath of the referendum, and the reality that the nation had just voted to leave the EU.

We recognised that this would provide some challenges for all Welsh businesses and as mentioned to me by the chairman of CBI, businesses thrive on change and have shown great resilience.

However, we also recognise that this is a time of great opportunity, for the UK, Welsh businesses and the economy.

As part of the United Kingdom, Wales benefits from the economic security and international influence that comes from pooling our resources and sharing our successes with Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.

We need to make sure businesses in Wales have every tool in the box available to them, to take advantage of the opportunities presented.

Liam and I, and the Welsh Government share the same vision for a global and outward looking United Kingdom, and support a desire to ensure his department helps businesses right across the UK to reach their full potential by looking to global markets.

As the Prime Minister said in January ‘the result of the referendum was not a decision to turn inward and retreat from the world’. She set up the UK Government Department of International Trade to focus on supporting you and other businesses in your trade ambitions and for that reason we must all be ambitious for Wales, and I want to see us taking advantage of every opportunity.

In December, Liam Fox and I met with a number of Welsh businesses.

Today, this summit builds on that engagement by bringing together more businesses from across Wales to hear about exporting.

In a few minutes, you will hear from my good friend and colleague, Mark Garnier, the Minister for Trade. He and I met last week to discuss how we can work together promoting trade and investment in Wales – We are already planning for the outcomes of today’s summit.

I fully intend to ensure Welsh businesses are central to trade missions, I will be attending number of trade missions to offer my support to help land you that deal and I hope some of you will be able to join me.

Exports

Wales is already an exporting nation, the value of Welsh exports was £11.6 billion in 2015.

With technological advances removing the barriers of time and distance we have a golden opportunity to forge a new role for ourselves in the world, one which puts British people first.

Much of the advance technology powering our mobile phones and other devices is being pioneered right here in Wales.

Over half of the world’s commercial aircraft are now flying using wings made by Airbus in Broughton and every two seconds, a GE powered airplane is taking off somewhere in the world.

But it’s not just big business that can export, in fact, big business will only take us so far in our ambition.

In 2015, 4,000 Welsh companies took their first steps into exporting – my ambition is to see more Welsh businesses following in their footsteps.

Last week I was at the South Wales Chambers of Commerce Wales Business Awards where I had the privilege to meet with a number of different businesses that already export.

I’d like to extend my congratulations to winners of the success through overseas trade award, Welsh Hills Bakery, and all the nominees, some of whom I know are in this room today.

Small businesses across Wales, who are also supported by FSB and others, are exporting for the first time, with the support of both UK and Welsh Government.

Welsh lamb, Penderyn Whiskey and Anglesey Sea Salt to name just a few.

Halen Môn has been exporting since 2001 and has grown to the point where it now sells salt in 17 different countries across the world.

Government support

The exporting success of companies like Halen Môn is down to the entrepreneurship of those involved in the company. But Government also has apart to play in helping and supporting.

For Halen Môn, that included, setting up meetings with buyers in markets ranging from Hong Kong to Singapore, China, Russia and Japan.

Helping them navigate the necessary paperwork

And supporting their application for Protected Designation of Origin status in 2014.

Additionally, UK Government can support business by bringing together inspiring GREAT British companies in complimentary areas on Trade Missions and at other events.

The UK Government has 1,200 dedicated staff in 109 countries worldwide – a world class resource for businesses in Wales continue to tap in to and that is exactly what I want to see happening.

The Department for International Trade is a department for the whole of the UK, and I want to see businesses in Wales taking advantage of the support they can offer. Whether you are a business in Swansea or Swindon, you are entitled to the same support.

This financial year the activity calendar has included 791 trade missions and events available to UK companies.

It also includes more than 80 DIT created inward and outward missions to and from the UK with our key trading partners globally.

In Wales, the DiT has helped more than 600 companies this year with export service deliveries – including support from our posts overseas, help attending international trade shows and market research.

20 Welsh Companies have told us that our support has helped them win export deals worth more than £200 million in the last nine months.

Working with the Welsh Government

The support offered by the Welsh Government complements the support offered by UK Government. We are not in competition. We both want Welsh businesses to export and secure export deals.

Together, we are supporting businesses of all sizes and in all sectors with every step of their exporting journey.

I know the economic Minister, Ken Skates is disappointed not to be able to attend today, but later on this morning, Mick McGuire, Director for Sectors at the Welsh Government, will be joining us, alongside representatives from UK Government, for a session on the exporting support available to businesses in Wales.

I believe this demonstrates just how closely the UK Government and Welsh Government are working on this shared agenda.

After that, we will hear from Jon Rennie of Cloth Cat Animation, Tim Lowe from Dawnus, and Andrew Evans of SPTS, three successful Welsh exporters on their experiences of exporting and how Government has supported them in their endeavours. I would also like to hear where the UK Government could have gone further.

Conclusion

I hope that you will leave here today inspired to look to global markets.

I also hope that you leave here knowing how to access the tools that will help you make that vision a reality.

There are millions of people across the world looking for your skills, expertise, goods and services and I urge you to have a look.

My job as Secretary of State for Wales is to stand up for Welsh businesses and do everything I can to help companies like yours to prosper. My door is always open to you.

I want to emphasise that at a UK level, through my department at the Wales Office, through the Department for International Trade, and through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, we can help you take this vital work even further, forging new relationships around the world.

We are determined to do anything and everything we can to grow your business and secure export deals. I would now like to welcome the Minister for International Trade, Mark Garnier, who will talk more about the benefits of trading, and about the support that is available through his department.