During the summit, more than 50 nations and organisations made tangible, concrete commitments in increasing contributions to humanitarian organisations and UN appeals this year by some $4.5 billion, which included a $1 billion increase from the United States this year.
“This will translate concretely into lifesaving food, medicine, and clothing, and shelter,” US President Barack Obama said during the summit.
He said the US would at least allocate $50 million to help middle-income countries and do more to help low-income countries so that refugees and their host communities can flourish and grow stronger together.
“The refugees in places like Ecuador or Kenya don’t always get as much attention as some of the recent migrations, but they need help too. And that’s part of our goal here,” Obama acknowledged.
During the interview with Kenyan journalists in New York, DP Ruto also spoke of the strides made in the areas of climate change and security across the globe.
“The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced we had surpassed the two thirds of nations needed to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change,” DP Ruto noted.
The Paris Agreement deals with climate change, carbon emissions, managing oceans and forests.
“We all must read from the same script and make sure our world is a lot safer; that we don’t jeopardise the opportunity to produce food for our people in this world because of the adverse effects of mismanagement of our environment.”
On security, DP Ruto said Kenya had made huge contributions to AMISOM to stabilise Somalia, and had borne the brunt of terrorism.
“Kenya used this opportunity to get the international community to do their part. While other countries are cutting back on their expenditure on AMISOM including the European Union, every security analysis indicates we should be increasing our budgets to better secure Somalia, to eliminate threats that go beyond birders.
About The Author
