of the humanitarian crisis in lebanon, calls for immediate and sustained action. okay, foundations loving an emergency response subs as a vital lifeline for many in desperate need. your donations can play a crucial role in alleviating suffering. promote in community wellbeing and contributing to the recovery. join ok, foundation and its mission to support 11 and during this critical time. full now or visit. okay. the tools only the the world is on fire. that's how complex you you ends. new top humanitarian official describes age for displacement time in. more than 400000000 children living in or fling from complex items and many worry humanitarian. 8 the last lifeline for millions is collapsing

under the way to political games, funding cuts and growing in tennessee. the us as lots of the shut down it's phone, a president, donald trump has frozen funding for global relief efforts. that means less food, less medicine, invest, protection for the world's most vulnerable to you and agencies are running out of cash and rough, which support $6000000.00 palestinian refugees is on the brink of collapse. meanwhile, the conflict ensued. done, which is close. the world's west humanitarian crisis. now badly makes the news, despite millions being at risk of famine. and the cost was those paid well cause of being killed cause a scene, it's was to you if you can monitor and workers involved in history for that just as it's time for recess. attorney fix the system that's increasingly over stretched. i'm the funded and under attack, the you ends, humanitarian affairs, and emergency relief coordinator. tom fletcher talks to out as

the tom fletcher, i'm the secretary general and emergency relief coordinator of the united nations. thank you for talking to out to 0. let's start with that job. you coordinate only 8 assets of the un around the world. you've set the world is on fire, explaining to me how bad it is for the most vulnerable people on the planet. it's very bad, it's very bad, it's getting worse. so over 300000000 people right now are in dire need. and if this perfect storm between the climate crisis, between growing poverty and equality, and then these conflicts which are going on for longer, which move versus move in times that are driving those numbers. up to some of the figures, i mean, the staggering fingers improving children of this was on your website. 400000000 living all fling from complex sides right now. it's extraordinary because we

thought was it turning off was as the world we used to be better at doing that the piece building that would actually end these was and allow us to get the humanitarian support in. and as a result, we, you know, where the ambulance that goes towards these crises to find support. there's 400000000 kids. but we're also increasingly being off to put out the fire as well. but this is at a time when there's not much water in the tank and it's less than most water in the tank because we're also on the funded where i have a stretched. i'm a literally a few minutes arians under attack. you know, these numbers that you cited, they just so huge that they, they're almost overwhelming for people. they can't quite take the main. whereas if you saw someone dying on the, on the next to st. eat respond. but when you hear about 400000000 kids needing with needing support, it's just too big a number to compute. but it's, it's my job and my team's job to try and get that message through and ultimately to try and get the support that we need. you to is about your job. another of your

titles. you share something called the into agency standing committee, v i a s c. the u. n. loves its acronyms. that's all that you an agent seasonal. the, all the humanitarian partners around the world, and you off to you a recent meeting, right? this, the post will international system faces the greatest test, since it's creation, the humanitarian community confronts a massive funding barrel and legitimacy crisis. how much of that is trump? it's a much bigger challenge, the one election. this is about us having lost the argument with many populations for international solidarity for the need that the international system is the place to respond to these crises that you and i have have described. but a large part of it is the us selection in the us government because the us government was the largest, a donor in the world, accounting for more than 40 percent of all the, to monetary an aide that was tracked by the us last year. and now it seems all of

that's on hold, the awesome wave was, but they don't seem to be able to actually put those into practice. how difficult is that? well, let's be clear if, if those costs do go through, it's a devastating blow to the work that we do. but it's a, it's not a problem for the, the, about the you. and it's a problem about the people that we serve, the communities that we weren't reach, you know, things to us funding in the us as being this development humanitarian superpower. i've a decades. we've reached hundreds of millions of people. and it's the last of that what that, that worries me. so this isn't about defending the un or defending institutions. it's about defending the people that were trying to help. but this has been going on now for a month when it 1st was announced, a spokesman for the 2nd generals that you and your boss said, we're currently mapping out what the decision means and what impact it would have. it's been a month now. what impact is it? half having a, there were people who was and the children were going to die is result is that is

that's happening. so fun funding is being taught. as you say, we don't know what will get way of us when we're talking about programs which have supported tens of millions every year. so it's a massive chunk of what we've been able to do is almost half of the global humanitarian effort. so of course it will have an impact, it will as costs go through, but i think is also with nursing secondary rebate. rubio has been very clear that they don't want to stop life saving work for they. all right, now it's not happening. is it a new just because of the way they've done this? nobody's going to anyone. is it? so at the moment there are a number of programs us bank programs which have paused, but we're waiting to see whether we get more wave is wave as have been prompted or ready for a lot of that life stating work and his out job to make the case as strongly as we can, that we need that money because it does save lives and then we, we deliver essentially the case that those wave is i need to actually be action right now because that doesn't seem to be, even though there's a wave that doesn't seem to the mechanism to actually pay out the money because

there's no one in us idea tool. but we haven't, we're having those conversations with the us administration. trying to make that case wasted by wave a project by project. our engineer partners international and yours national interest, local partners, having those same conversations to and we are getting responses we, we all having that dialogue about the projects which we've got most essential. so it's our job to make the case. but let's be clear, you know, i think governments are right to question us about how we spend the tech space and money. i think we should be held to account to deliver as effectively and efficiently as possible. i couldn't find the figures for last year, so these are 2022. but then out to the 18100000000 funding provided by the us. well, the 60 percent went to 3 agencies of the us, the world food program. you and hcr, which deals with refugees and unicef, which is the children's agency. so united nations, are you words,

some agencies all going to be particularly hit. and i mentioned you and i see all that is a particular issue for the trump administration. people coming across the board in the united states, they don't like the word migrants. they don't like the word refugees. well, let's wait and see what gets supported and what gets pause those agencies, you mentioned absolute power, houses of humanitarian development work. the absolutely essential to what we do and they do extraordinary work. i've seen it myself in the field like being in dial 4 i've been in damascus. i've been in garza, i've been in cookie, ends on the front lines of ukraine, russell and, and all those places. i've seen those agencies, you know, they're members of stuff going out towards the sound of gunfire in order to try and protect those who are afflicting it. so my hope is that work will be present. let's wait and see. of course, the look of international

a given by governments has not just given for any old reasons as a soft power, a reason for it, but the words of the executive order that came from the us on january the 20th. it's the policy of the united states that no further us for an assistance she'll be dispersed in amount of, it's not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the president of the united states. does that? what are you countries and people who are in some ways don't friendly with us, they won't get any help whatsoever. so again, let's wait and see. i'm not here to be a spokesperson for the, for the us government, but i, the impact is your job. the impact is my job. and obviously for us, the more a isn't tied to political and security objectives. the more we can focus it on. humanitarian action on finding the people who most need help, wherever they are and without politics getting in the way. but the us is not the only government to be saying. we want to see all age spent in a way that aligns with the national objectives. it's my job to show that life

stating what does do that, that if you don't put out the sponsor, that they'll come towards use that actually if the will becomes less safe, it becomes less safe for everyone. and that you show leadership by engaging with that, well, the not by which we think from it, the trouble is these people are only listening to that media in their own country. then not probably hearing you on this america. first argument is an argument is going on, is you say in of a countries we have our own pool, we have our own needy, the old phrase child. she begins at home, which is why we go to get out there and make that case for international solidarity to make the case that actually, if you do not deal with these challenges that you face. problems like can secuity more terrorism, both poverty, risk of pandemic, small risk of economic pressures. this perfect storm doesn't stop at a border. it doesn't stop because you build a wall, you've got to find those global solutions. and ultimately the wind isn't perfect.

and i'm not here to make the case that the you and doesn't have its flaws. but it's the best idea we've yet has the global coexistence. and we've got to make it work. the other argument you here in the law must because be meeting making this argument about usa id, but you here is in other countries as well. is that foreign aid funds corruption. how do you counter that? so one of my jobs is to review the corruption and the cases that do come to us. and every week i will see those cases and we take incredibly robust action to stop them occurring. but these are a tiny, tiny drop in the ocean compared to the billions that a spend every year feeding the hungry, the healing the sick, and getting shelter to those who are currently out there. and there's wintery conditions with nothing at all. and you know, part of my job and it's a big responsibility is that i'm out there in the for damascus. i'm garza and cookie ants. and so i hear those stories and i can see the impact that aid is

having. and i can tell you is getting through. another thing you said in the statement of to your, you'll meeting of the i a s c. that's getting a lot of a lot dimensions on this program that you mentioned that the thing is an important statement. you say that you now want to try and fill the gap with money coming from the private sector. well, if it was so easy, why have the you and not try it that in the fall, but we have, we have somebody in the private sector was one of the biggest done essentially to the humanitarian effort. absolutely vital. i was in dallas just a 2 or 3 weeks ago talking to many of these companies, including big tech companies about where they can help us, i think is about we frame the argument. so it's not just saying we have a plan, give us some money. it's actually saying, how do we fix these problems together? how, how do we marshal the creativity of ingenuity and that problem solving, super power that the private sector has, but also more widely. how do we build

a movement? this cannot be about the un, or it cannot be just about the humanitarian 2nd to the n g o is the institutions that have that have run so much, not tearing work in the last few decades. i believe is a movement out that of billions of people who haven't lost that ability to capture those who are in doris need across the planet. we're just gonna find you an out about the 100 day mock in, in this job. and you've been traveling for lots of that time in february. you went to, gosh, now you are very experienced. well, traveled, an a diploma search for your country before you took this job. you've seen the damage and poverty and suffering before. have you ever seen anything like you saw and gone so no of this and you try to prepare yourself for a visit like that. you told people the pain, but nothing can prepare you for that. i fear the worst, and it was much less the night anticipated. you know, a crust. i've been in southern his writing to nero's one of the kibbutz that was

attacked on october, the 7th, a quarter of people that were taken hostage or killed. and then i drove across the border from southern his route into northern garza, through the air. it's checkpoint. and it's just wasteland for miles and miles and miles. and the people are talking about the resumption of the conflict. there's nothing left to them that might start if you stayed all the way through. this conflict had to use gps to find where the homes will, because they were in their landmarks to navigate by you see people pulling bodies from the rubble. you see animals going through the rubble looking for corpses. it's a hardship to complete harsh. i, as you get into the south of gaza, you see life coming back a bit more, but certainly the north of gauze, it's up to alter devastation. and yet everyone i met said we determined to stay, give us a time, give us some few rebuild our lives. president trump, of course, has his plan where he says he wants to remove the people of gauze with us being

very clear that doesn't also agree with that. this extra general said it would amount to estimate can cleansing, but does trump have a point with regard to the conditions in gaza? he says it's a little livable, it's not possible for people to stay there. what's your view in that? come people stay in place while garza is rebuilt or well, i mean the conditions are absolutely devastating. and you know, it's hard to imagine how people are managing to survive that. but i think we should also posted ins as i did. and the people have cars that are finding ways to survive based of 5 months and months of his devastating, devastating conflict. and now the surviving and the conditions they're in. and what they're saying to us is give us the tents and the going back to the rubble of the house is the clearing away. the unexploded ordnance that clearing out the corpses and putting the tents back on the rims of the houses and trying to lift the so the present jump is right. so the conditions of her risk, the risk for human life,

but admit that admits that despair people are trying to rebuild their life. and there's the head, the issue, and you had to you monetary operations, coordinating, or you think it is possible to rebuild it with the people in place. yes, absolutely. now it will be difficult. it will take years. just clearing the rubble alone will take years. but, you know, we can't be a society that can understand how to devastate a country and that way, and kinda understand how to rebuild it. i cannot believe it is beyond the ingenuity and the power of humanity to rebuild gaza for the citizens of casa. and i think we'll see, she's generosity across the world in response to that effort with we're hearing it from much of the region already. i've been in meetings in doha about very practical ways that the government here are keeping that ceasefire running. but a russo on the front line and providing that to monetary and support. so the

generosity is out there and the determination of the people have caused it to rebuild is as clear as of now in what's happening. goals are, in the last 16 months, almost 50000 people that we know that the death toll is probably the true desktops, much higher than that. among those moles and $332.00 amount of tearing workers. many of them working for the united nation. so i come back to this document to get where you made your position very clear, very recently. we will defend our work more robust lee. we need to cool time on the era of impunity and the tax on siblings and aid workers and hold perpetrators. 2 accounts, so how are you going to hold the perpetrators who killed those 300? and so if you're more than 330 humanitarian workers to an account, there's already an investigation by the international criminal court. they already have an arrest warrant against a prime minister benjamin netanyahu. would you appeal to the prosecutor of the

court to start investigating those tests? so the prosecute is i, you know, those are questions now that rest with the, with the law as an ultimately little service with historians. so you were one of the most important officials of the un that employed these people has a duty of task for them. and the family is i'm gonna feel the employer and someone is being killed. do you not know costs then the prosecute to to get involved and, and get to the bottom of it. oh no, no, no, i'm not saying that you, you do bring a rest florence, but you investigate. so the it is for the heads of those agencies have lost colleagues to take those decisions. and i think they will be taking those decisions in a very robust way. my job is the chief military is to keep the trucks lying to keep the moving through. of course, i have very difficult conversations internally as i did before, going into casa, and we have difficult conversations every day about what is going on that i'm including. and i've said this in public many, many times. the number of humanitarian who is being killed. humanitarians should

never be a target, i would have to be protected. and yet, this was the deadliest year in living memory in recorded history, the big amount, it's area, and you're quite right, but the vast majority of them out there, and that's where in casa, and it's, we don't know much about most of those cases of the one we know most about is one of the things quite telling itself that in both international aid workers of those from the world central kitchen. so 7 of them died in april last year when they were attacked by trevon is repeatedly when it's very clear, isn't it that that was a deliberate attack and a reckless attack by these ready ministry? that's now question. so the noise to do, to the side, as i say, ultimately for historians to take a judgment on, i'll just be good show and i'll carry andre short is not the history just this is not something to be loved. the history then it was both actually, i think it would be nice if the lawyers can not find a way to reach conclusions on this than i think historians will reach those conclusions. let's see. my job is to be completely independent, completely neutral,

completely principled and focus just on saving the lives of as many survivors as possible. i'm not to do anything or say anything that gets in the way of that, and these are part of that, that you want to keep communications open with these riley government because they would speak to your boss antonio guitar as the secretary general they've, they've said they don't want to have anything to do with it. i've been, and i've been in very good meetings between these varies, i'm just extra in general. uh, we have very constructive open dialogue. it's a robust dialogue. he's not allowed to go to his rather see, i don't know whether he's trying to go to his or recently i, i was welcomed on his behalf just a few weeks ago. i have meetings, i spoke to the president, i had meetings with national security council with these really ministry with these really phone on foreign ministry. i have to continue that dialogue to try and ensure that we get as much aid and as possible. the one pos, if the,

you and the one agency that's part of the un, is there a way to deal with the total is the one that's most likely in this case that's under uh the united nations relief and works agency, the one that delivers for palestinians the one that operates on the ground in garza, i'm the westberg. it's been found by israel from operating. i'm. how's that gonna affect its opperation is particularly in the west bank where it's running in gauze is unable to run schools and clinics, but it still was running. those in the west bank cannot go well. what did you say? most of the schools and clinics and guns have been destroyed. so that work is already incredibly difficult, if not impossible. but there are thousands of under employees across the occupied past the entire tree and across the region, doing a central essential work. and under is irreplaceable. we don't have human agencies that can operate at that sort of scale in those territories. and so that what remains as vital as ever. but equally and my and my colleagues agree with this,

we should not let the politics around the, under a conversation, getting the way of saving lives. and we're insuring that there's chromeboys keep moving, and the people get the food, the water, the mates, and the shelter that they need to survive under. i have a very big compound in east jerusalem where they can't offer us any more. would it be time for the u. n. to bring in other agencies to that comp time? because we know what's likely to happen is likely to get seized by these, right. these become yes, another settlement project otherwise. well, let's see what happens as far as i'm concerned that some under a comp time, but i don't think any of the rest of us putting on hands up to take it on. my hope is that under what can continue to use it and deliver the life saving work that they do and the preparations that they're putting in place for pilots in the instate. now once the policy and state is that then under what needs to exist anymore, but it exists in order to prepare for that moment. and we will have to keep that

hope alive of a 2 state solution because there was a better idea. there's no other way to give is res. i'm pulse in in security justice an opportunity then to have those 2 states living alongside each other in peace. let's move north to syria and you was a at the end of last year, you visited the new transitional government. how serious still is the humanitarian situation in syria? i'm can you actually solve it until actually, all the sections are listed as many sites should happen. now, mostly a few minutes here in the 10s of millions of people the need, and i drove from the lebanese border all the way up to the touch board. and so i went through homes and ed live and i level a level and damascus. i saw myself the scale of, of what's required. of course, you've also got hundreds of thousands of people in neighboring countries and beyond as well, to most of whom want to return as soon as they can. there's some big immediate tear and objectives. clearing the unexpected ordinance,

many people i spoke to said they couldn't go home until those bombs have been played from the land. feeding many of those on the move again, shelter, med and, but there's also a huge reconstruction project ahead of us. and that was a big part of my conversation with the can take out of thirty's, including with the can take a lead upshaw in damascus. he's very, very focused on getting the power plants moving, getting electricity, finding ways to help people rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. one of the problems with the things we're talking about now, which is so important, is that they are overshadowing other things that are below the radar. yes, we cover the situation and so done in the democratic republic of congo here on out to 0, but i'm not sure how many people in the world are paying attention. sit down, for example. i know that is an issue that concerns you. a 150000 people, at least killed and about 11000000 displaced from the homes either within the

country or across the borders. it's devastating. so i made the point of going to stacy down and my 1st week and the job. 25000000 people in dire need of support. and we have to negotiate check point by check point crossing by crossing to get that age through a welcome to find the general pull on is just amounts extension of the opening of the agile 8 crossing, which is one of our most crucial channels for that support but our campaigns, i've just launched this is campaign a wirelessly wirelessly, on the funded i looked at last year. and more than half of the money came from the united states. you're not going to get that this year from the trump administration . well, i hope we can make the case to the trump administration and the sector re rubio, that that is life saving support. it's hard to imagine. anyway, with that support is move i close more and, and see done. right now we will deliver and we will go wherever we need to go and talk to whoever we need to talk to, to get that paid through. but we do need the wealth to respond. we can't have the

situation where people are too distracted. to swept up in their own lives, not to care for a crisis which is happening on our screens. and another one happening on our screens now to 0, but maybe not on the screens. everywhere around the world as a size, the eastern democratic republic of congo, which has been a conflict zone for decades. m 23. now marching through the region, taking the 2 big cities. how difficult is it for you to operate that? because go, as i understand it was the humanitarian hub and it became the place that fell. so i mean, it's way you were delivering everything from. it's very, very difficult. uh and of course, you know, we're trying to get that airport and come open again because so much about supply depends on that on that routine. and so my appeal would be to the un security council to the will power as to those with influence on the policies to try to get some sort of peace deal to try and stop this conflict. yeah, it's a full on hop,

but in the meantime, we will continue to deliver. the aid has to get in all the while the story is a quite a risk. someone i've had the privilege to interview on how to 0 it in depth and the past adult. dennis mccork a who won the nobel peace prize and runs a hospital in d. c said, i'm a congolese doctor for 30 years. i've repaired the bodies of women, brutalized by this war. today i'm treating the grandchildren of my, of the patients. i mean, it's, it's a shocking and diamond isn't that of, of the state of the world. and over our collective failure to respond to these crises, over generations. i think many of these communities would be right to ask us, where are we to? i've covered the u. n. very closely in the field and then i was based full bold in the decade at un headquarters. and it's pretty clear to many people that you the you and the last it's political clown, security council is deadlocked on so many issues. many people have been say, no,

but the good thing about the u. n. is the humanitarian side. well you and can achieve that. but now, but the trump administration, is that still going to be possible? absolutely. i haven't given up on this mission tool the, the mission is still the right one. the may just allow that they've not gone away just because of, of one election on a few elections. actually we've got to get better with delivery. and we go to find new allies, we go to find new sources of funding. but there are, there's a whole world out there. and as i say, billions of people who i think i'm ready to respond at a human level to these crises that are on that screens around. i'll just say era every day. and it's our job to reach them. and to make that argument, i'm going to get out there and save as many lives as we can and that doesn't depend on one government. however, based on the 2nd general tom, such

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limits to have a dream container. stuff in your own adventure. now. counter adding, the 2 kinds president to lensky arrives at the white house to make president trump and to sign a rear some minerals deal with the us. you have a lot of oil and we have a lot of gas. we have a lot, but we don't have or so this, this has just about every component of the earth that we need the

until mccrae, this is l g 0 live from tao ha. also coming up cautious. com, and casa is the next phase of c's 5.