Security Council Mission

It is a great honour to have you here with us.

The UN family in Nairobi is very happy to once again welcome the Security Council members to this complex.This is one of the UN system’s most crucial duty stations. UNON is the only UN Headquarters in Africa, and indeed in the entire global South.

Many critical humanitarian operations and peace efforts have been carried out from this compound over the years, to assist conflict-affected people - in South Sudan, Somalia and the Great Lakes Region, among other areas.

The more than 3,500 staff members who work on this compound have a special and unique opportunity to advance the goals and values of the Organisation, because of our proximity to the most vulnerable people the UN is meant to serve.

In addition to the global headquarters of UNEP and UN-Habitat, UNON hosts a large and unique mix of UN entities including a dynamic Country Team for Kenya, about a dozen Regional Offices of the UN’s agencies, funds and programmes, as well as peace support operations mandated by the Security Council, such as the UN Support Office for Somalia (UNSOS) and the Office of the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region.

UNON is also a very important venue for high-level meetings and conferences on vital issues across the UN’s agenda. The campus has been the venue for Regional Heads of State Summits, as well as meetings on a wide range of topics – from Palestinian rights, to security sector reform, to South-South cooperation, to name a few. In 2004, this was also the venue for one of the rare formal meetings of the Security Council held outside of the New York Headquarters.

Last year, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, co-hosted by President Kenyatta and President Obama, took place here at UNON. We were also honoured to receive Pope Francis during his historic visit to Kenya in last November.

And next week, the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly of UNEP will take place here. UNEA represents the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment. The recent establishment of UNEA, with universal membership, further underscores the growing importance of this UN Headquarters, as we collectively strive to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

With those few words, I would like to give the floor to the Deputy SRSG and Humanitarian  Coordinator for Somalia, Mr. Peter de Clercq.

Thank you for your kind attention.