 Greetings, everyone. I was standing in a schoolyard in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the midst of chaos, conflict, and misogyny, this community schoolyard represents a new start, a haven, a clean slate. For hundreds of previous child soldiers, this place is remedy from a lost childhood. This place is protection. The mothers who initiated the project overcame tremendous challenges for years. Their success today is proven by the fact that many of their employees are ex-child soldiers who went through their program. That was beautiful to see. A work from A to Z, a work from slavery to freedom. This is protection, and this is why we're here today. Colleagues, friends, welcome to the closing session of the Global Protection Forum 2021. Allow me to start by dedicating this forum to the memory of Simon Russell, former Global Protection Cluster Coordinator who passed away earlier this year. Simon, this one is for you. Today's event should have happened last week for technical reasons that many of you are aware of, the platform that was hosting us totally collapsed. Warm thanks to all the good messages of support that we received, and especially to the frontline speakers and member-state speakers that accepted without an ounce of hesitation to rejoin us today. Thank you. Our event today is to wrap up a year that we shaped to be one of making our operations and coordination fit better the majority of our members. Frontline local responders liked the woman-led organization in the Congo. On one hand, this was a tough year. Protection risks gained new grounds and increased in stubbornness and complexity. On the other hand, this was a year where we have seen better recognition of and support for protection work on the frontlines in terms of resources, in terms of advocacy, and in terms of political efforts. So today's event will be no different than the year. Sanforia, the leader of a frontline organization, will give us an overall briefing on the global state of protection to start with. Then we will hear from advocates and change-makers who are doing groundbreaking work in Afghanistan, in Yemen, and the Congo. We will also hear pledges from our teams on the ground in several operations, and then we will hear from member-states who will outline their focus on protection for 2022, a full circle. And to do that, my colleague Marie, our head of advocacy and communication will moderate this dynamic event. So let's get started. To kick us off, our keynote address will be done by Nada, 14 years old, calling to tell us her story from Gaza. Gillian Triggs, our chief supporter and sponsor, the assistant high commissioner for refugees on protection will frame the discussion after Nada. So it's my pleasure to turn to you, Nada. Like all the children, like all frontline communities, Nada, you do not need to be given a voice. You have a voice. We just need to listen. The floor is yours. Welcome, everybody. I'm Nada, and I'm 14 years old. I'm the vice president of the Palestinian National Children's Council in the Gaza Strip. I'm so happy and pleased to participate with you in this important event. And I hope I would be able to deliver the voice of Gaza children to the whole world. Like all children, we are innocent, beautiful, pure, and full of hope. We are like the birds that love to fly in the sky freely. However, when the protection, love, safety, freedom, caring, good education, and a safe place to play like all children around the world, sadly, this is not the case for me and all Palestinian children. Our schools and homes are attacked in every round of violence. We experience the fear and get scared when we hear the sounds of explosions everywhere. I mean, children are killed and injured and we saw all of this on TV. We continue to suffer mentally from these experiences. I still see my emers most of the nights. My best friend lost her father in a recent conflict. She's one of the best students in our class, but after these tragic events, she's not the same anymore. We still suffer from the blockade on Gaza. Most families in Gaza can't govern the needs of their children, including food, clothing, and healthcare. This high level of poverty and unemployment restored in many children being exposed to neglect and domestic violence. We also hear about sad stories of children who are beaten, even called by a family member. If you visit a school in Gaza, you will immediately notice many students who come to school without school uniform and with torn shoes, especially in the winter. And how can a child study when there is no electricity? We want to live in peace without fear and nightmares. There's why I decided to become active and learn to speak up and raise the voice of a children. I participated in many initiatives, supporting children's rights, including several accountability sessions with decision makers. I spoke in many events and recorded videos that support human rights and advocate for children's issues. In the end, we want someone to protect and save our souls, smiles, and rights. There's why I called the international community to support, help, and protect us from everyday challenges we face. We ask you all to work together to fulfill respect to child rights and all kinds of violations against its children. We need to feel safe and protected. We need a proper education, we need to save places to play, and we need to live a decent life with a pride future. Thank you. Thank you, Nada, for your powerful words. You will resonate with us throughout the event. I would like to give the floor to you, Jillian, and ask you to maybe react directly to what you've heard from Nada and potentially also to help us frame a little bit this event and tell us why the GPC and UNHCR as a lead agency is celebrating today the role of national protection actors. Over to you, Janine. Well, thank you very much, and it's a great pleasure to be part of this event to review the global protection clusters work for the last year, but even more importantly, to think about what we're going to be doing in the future. Thank you so much, Nada. You do have a voice, as William has said. We've listened, I hope many more have listened, but I'm particularly interested to hear your voice because here at the UN Refugee Agency, we do tend to use a little bit of UN language. We talk about persons of concern and refugees and asylum seekers, but the truth is that at least 50% of the people we serve are children, and I think we need to use the language of children and to understand what they need. And I think Nada, you've explained that extremely well, even to the lack of electricity, what that means when you can't be warm to exposure to domestic violence, but more positively, your need for education and children understand that very well. So you speak well for them. So thank you very much for that introduction. Well, this has been an extraordinary year and a critical year and maybe we say that every year, the UN Refugee Agency, but this past year, we've seen a spiraling of violence and conflict. As you will all know, the primary reason for displacement around the world is actually conflict and violence. It may be that there are deeper root causes, inequality, poverty, climate change, but the reality is that the immediate cause for displacement is violence. And to give you some sense of the scale of violence in the last year, the United Nations Refugee Agency has declared 39 emergencies, 21 of them knew this year alone. We have never had that scale of recognition of emergencies for our work in the history of the UN Refugee Agency. And as many of you will know, this is the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Agency that we truly celebrate because it saved many millions of lives. But at the time the refugee convention was negotiated, we were talking about two million or so displaced people. Today, we are looking at 82.4 million people displaced globally, either internally within their own country or across national boundaries. And it's estimated that next year, 150 million people will have been displaced by conflict and persecution significantly more than in the previous years. So these are truly demanding times. And perhaps I could give you one example. William has talked about the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I've recently, last week in fact, got back from Niger, a country where thinking of Nader again, 75% of the population is under 18, a country of great potential, but one of the most poor countries in the world with huge complex crises. We have Nigerian refugees fleeing into Niger from violence, 4,000 last week and another 11,000 just a couple of weeks before. We have armed groups, including Boko Haram, taking over villages in Niger, threatening the sovereignty of the state, moving within 50 kilometers of the capital, Naomi. So we have hundreds of thousands of displaced people seeking peace in their own country away from the violence that is prompted by these armed groups. We have migrants and refugees being expelled from Algeria into the north of Niger, literally dumped in the desert until they can find some safety. And also we have the inspiring example of Niger as providing an emergency transit center to resettle refugees held in Libya. And we have wonderfully a competent and collaborative government, but one that is chronically underfunded, that is in that context of complexity that the protection cluster is so vital to the work that we do, because together the United Nations agencies with civil society, with the international financial institutions, with the commercial enterprises, together we can achieve a coherent and effective response, but alone we cannot. UNHCR is of course committed to listening and hearing the voices of all humanitarian leaders at the frontline. They stay and deliver. Their voices must be heard. They don't go away when the money runs out or the contract comes to an end, they continue. And again, referring back to my mission to Niger, I was very impressed to hear the stories of youth and of women leaders in the community building housing. The chief engineer was a Malian woman, a diminutive chief engineer, but running a massive housing project. And the bricks were being carried by young girls and young women all in 45 degrees heat, but a demonstration of the resilience of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced people and their determination to build their lives led, as I say, by some very young people. We, of course, in the context of COVID, this year, this past year and in the context of conflict, really do understand the importance of local and national protection organisations. They are at the forefront of protection activities. And we need to listen to them more than ever before because they are the change makers, they're the leaders, they're on the frontline. We talk a lot in the UN system and in UNHC particularly about the centrality of protection. It becomes a little bit of a slogan, a little bit of a cliche, but it actually is fundamental to our responsibility for refugees. What do we mean by protection? We mean people to be protected from gender-based violence as Nada has pointed out in her introduction. We mean protecting young girls from early marriage and early pregnancies that have spiked over this last year or 18 months. We even mean protection from slavery and from trafficking, but we also mean accountability of UNHCR and our responsibility to the people that we serve. Our inspiration is, of course, not only the refugee convention itself, but the global refugee forum and the compact. And that talks about equitable sharing of responsibility. And sadly, that protection responsibility is not yet being met. Most refugees, displaced people, stateless people are being protected by some of the poorest or developing countries in the world. That responsibility is a long way from being equal and we have a long way to go. We're not just talking about money, although that is critically important, but we're talking about humanitarian principles of people's rights, of the rule of law and international human rights law. And we really do want to emphasize that in our work. Well, what then is the role of the national protection clusters? And of course, as you know, the UN Refugee Agency leads that cluster with partners that vary from country to country and region to region. And I think that one of the benefits that the cluster offers is, as I've said earlier, working together, but also networking and developing a collaborative approach to ensuring equal partners and that we complement each other's work in mobilizing resources in advocacy and in technical support. And there's one interesting example I'd like to mention that applies in the context of the Sahel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that is what's called Project 21. And this is an effort amongst 30 United Nations agencies and the NGOs, national NGOs and civil society generally. And what they do is together as an interagency group, monitor protection capacity, they collect and share data and they achieve a common position, a common analysis that in turn can lead to common advocacy and common policymaking. So that kind of work stimulated through the protection cluster can be enormously important. So in conclusion, I very much look forward to the discussion. We want to hear the views of our national protection leaders of the change makers and in particular, of course, to hear more voices like Nada so that we are better able to serve those people faced with so many crises today. Thank you very much and back to you, William. Thank you very much, Jillian and for the opening message. And thanks for mentioning the complexity of protection crisis, the displacement crisis, particularly in Niger or in the Sahel. I also wanted to thank you for highlighting how UNHR and other global protection actors complements the efforts of national protection actors. You've also mentioned that we are here to learn from their work. We are here to hear their recommendations. So I would like to, if you allow me, just move on and dive directly into the core of the event, which is a dialogue. It's a dialogue with protection leaders from Congo, Afghanistan and Yemen. So I would like to start with St. Fourier. St. Fourier, we met four years ago in Goma and I remember that you were already a step ahead of all of us in terms of localization because you are heading the Center de Recherche Jury's Consul, which is an NGO providing institutional capacity and building to local NGOs in Congo. And you are joining us today as a representative of the Global Protection Cluster Strategic Advisory Group. And it is in this capacity that I would like to ask you to please take us through what has been the state of protection in 2021. I would be really grateful if you could present the main risks and challenges, but also what we have done collectively to address them. So over to you, Saffo Helm. Thank you, Mary, for the introduction. As you said, I'm here today on behalf of the Global Protection Cluster as a member and a representative of local actors in the Strategic Advisory Group. The protection cluster represents over 2,000 partners in 32 operations around the world. Today, I will share with you our understanding of the state of protection in our operations. Every year, the GPC reviews how well we are making sure that protection is essential to humanitarian response. To start, I would like to highlight the major risk we are facing and what we are doing about them. First, conflict and violation of human right to remain the main driver of protection issues today. This is increased by COVID pandemic and the climate change adding up to a global coping crisis. People are struggling to cope. Second, we are particularly worried about some overarching trends about behaviors during wars, about civilians and civilians infrastructures being deliberate of the targeted. And conflict today continues to be characterized by high levels of death, anger, targeted kinklings, psychological trauma, and a sexual violence. For this to change, we need to see more advocacy, more engagement with the armed group and more use of weight of member states in the Security Council and other political mechanism at regional and global levels. We need to speak up and to stand up for protection for humanitarian principle for people rights. Third, we are worried about the lack of protection access in 54% of our operations, where our clusters report limited or very limited access to populations with a severe protection risk. To tackle this, we want to see an increased focus on humanitarian access beyond goods. We need protection expert on the ground as close to the communities as possible to monitor and to practice this powerful concept of protection by prisons. Humanitarian coordinators and Ocha, who lead access or negotiations needed to do this, not only for international agencies, but also focus on the local actors. Now, what are we doing it about? This year to protect around 113 million people at risk and in need of protection, our national protection clatters have acted for $2.3 billion. We managed to mobilize almost $1 billion in contributions. This represent an increase of 47% of our citizens compared to last year, 2020. I'm glad to say that this is probably the highest year ever in terms of funding for protection. And for that, we would like to thank all our donors for their support. This is critical to build even farther on this momentum, however, as we are seeking significant increase between the funds we have available and the growing protection needs across responses. Leveraging the funds we have, we reached 23 million people. Each one of them received a multitude of protection services from negotiating with actors to secure safe access to school and clinics, to providing specialized support to survivors of gender-based violence, to ensuring access to needed documentation and land rights. Protection programs and advocacy have saved lives and strengthened rights. Today, we are also launching our annual review of the centrality of protection. We see that protection is more and more recognized as a center to humanitarian response. From Afghanistan to Ethiopia to Sudan, we see narrative, the programs, the political attentions and the wall-labeling of these prizes as fundamentally about protection. This reflects a collective push with important leadership from both humanitarian-country teams and the local actors who have been building this understanding and narrative through their prisons on the ground and their relentless advocacy. We also see the process conducive to centrality of protection, including the stronger protection analysis and a common strategy at a steady high for the last couple of years. We want to congratulate all classrooms for producing stronger protection analysis this year and consistently using it to drive programming and advocacy. Moving forward, our challenge is simple. Can we have more programs because the humanitarian sphere addressing the immediate risk and building the resilience of communities without causing harm? Can we continue to make a gant of tackling the chronic underinvestment in protection of work and scale up more concrete protection programs locally driven with an immediate impact on communities? Can we make the centrality of protection on all about increased programming and collective advocacy? These questions are the main reason of my presence today. I'm hopeful that I will get some answers during this event. Finally, as a representative of local actors, I want to congratulate donors and agencies who are dedicating increasing amount of funding to local actors. I urge you to continue and to push harder in this direction. I want to thank the clusters and her cities who recognize the leadership of local actors on the ground. And most of all, I want to saluate my colleagues on the ground. Some of whom we know. Some of whom we don't know. Some of whom can access funding. Some of whom don't because their work doesn't appear in global reports and event, but who all lead protection action every day. An event like this one truly led by local actors have a ripple effect in the field and send a strong message to all humanitarian leaders. I very much look forward to hearing from our colleagues from Afghanistan, Yemen, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, illustrating for us the positive impact of protection programming. Over to you, Mary. Our local actors must be at the center of humanitarian action, really sets the stage very well for our panel discussion. So I will go straight into it, and I would like to welcome our three panelists. Each one of them is leading very impactful protection efforts in complex crises, like Safarian just mentioned, Afghanistan, Congo, and Yemen. So I'm pleased to introduce Shahazad Akbar. Shahazad is the is the chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, mandated to protect and monitor human rights in Afghanistan. Jonas Abimana, the director and the founder of BeFerd, a national NGO working on child protection issues in the Congo, and also Tahani Yasha from the Yemen Women Union, a national NGO which runs over 160 women centers in Yemen. Tahani, you are one of the case manager providing psychosocial support, legal assistance, and other protection services. So I would like to thank you again for being with us today. And to start, I hope that you can share with us a bit more what is happening in your respective context, what approaches you are using, and what impact you're having. So Shahazad, let me start with you. The latest protection analysis update produced by the protection cluster in Afghanistan alerted us to serious protection risk and grave violation and human rights abuses. So I'd like to ask you if you could please tell us a little bit more about what is happening in Afghanistan right now, and what you and other human rights defenders are doing to respond. Over to you, Shahazad. Thank you, Mary, and I'm truly honored to be part of this important discussion, and I have learned so much from all the speakers so far. The context in Afghanistan is very difficult, and of course, it has been difficult for many, many years. The humanitarian situation has been troubling for many years. The conflict has crippled the country for the past 20 years, conflict and corruption. But in the past few months, we have seen a very quick, even further degradation of the situation, where the situation went from difficult to devastating for human rights and for humanitarian issues. On the human rights front, we unfortunately have an increase in targeted killings and extrajudicial killings, instance of torture by de facto authorities, the Taliban. We have cases of forced evictions, that is impacting particular communities, ethnic and religious minorities. We have a widespread lack of protection for female victims of violence. I'd like to hear later from Tahini. We in Afghanistan now have a situation where shelters cannot be operational, and the legal framework does not, well, we don't have a clear sense of what's the existing legal framework. There's a legal limbo, but female victims of violence have nowhere, and abuse have almost nowhere to go. There is a lack of rule of law and a functioning and responsive justice system. We are also seeing agenda report sites. We're seeing specific restrictions imposed on women, women's access to education, women's access to employment, women employees of different sectors, apart from education health, have been told to stay at home, with an uncertain future in the public sector. Women who work in the private sector are afraid and intimidated. Gender segregation rules have been imposed even on private institutions, as well as there's a pressure for induce to adapt these rules. And we have also, of course, a situation of increased poverty in a dire humanitarian situation. And the reason for the dire humanitarian situation is, part of the reason is, of course, the drought and the general poverty, but also a banking crisis that has been caused by the sanctions and by freezing of assets, but by a variety of decisions that are directly linked to tolerance, takeover of power and the international response to it. There is also specific threats to human rights defenders and media, and there's lack of protection because of the closure of civic space. And there is the imposition of rules that are very restrictive and repressive. So media, all forms of censorship imposed on media, and human rights defenders feel unsafe and they are tracked and they are being threatened and harassed. What are impactful protection approaches in this context? I mean, I am not an expert on humanitarian aid, the area that we work with in the human rights field. It has been very difficult, the past few months have been very difficult because we have had to continuously shift the way we think and operate. We have had to look at our assumptions very, very closely. We used to operate with an assumption that Afghan government, although incompetent and corrupt, can be influenced by some levels of pressure and advocacy. We used to operate with the assumption that organizing conferences, discussions, protests, publishing reports and monitoring the situation and speaking about it, writing to officials, meeting the officials, what have some concrete impact for protection of victims, for protection of the general population, for protection of ethnic minorities. We cannot continue to operate with that assumption, unfortunately, Taliban do not seem to be responding to that sort of advocacy. In fact, they have closed all space for that kind of advocacy inside Afghanistan. Women rights activists who started their protests on the street following August 15 now have to protest inside their homes. They have resorted to protests inside their homes and that is taking amazing courage from them to actually gather in their homes and speak about the situation and talk to media and raise their voice for their rights. So we are operating in a new context. We are operating with de facto authorities that don't share any common language really around issues of protection, about issues of human rights with us. And for the local actors, it has been very frustrating because many years of work that the local actors put into building relationships with communities and to delivering assistance and to delivering protection, it all seems undone. As while the context is difficult for everyone, it's much easier for you to operate and it's much easier for international organizations to operate, but local organizations do not have the same ease. They don't have the same security and protection. And so a lot of the work has had to shift to exile and of course that has its own limitations and people who stay to do work courageously on the ground, they do it in an environment of complete uncertainty. They could be arrested on false charges, they could be harassed, their houses could be raided, their property could be taken away and this has happened to defenders and people working in different sectors and protection champions. So it's a very heartbreaking and difficult context but has given me hopeless by this. All these challenges that is the Afghan human rights community and the Afghan humanitarian community has not given up. Those who are outside Afghanistan are trying to raise awareness or trying to push for humanitarian aid plus, meaning humanitarian aid, but also beyond ways of resolving the banking crisis, creative solutions for getting money into the country to prevent a famine, an all-out famine and starvation. And those who are inside the country are focusing on issues that have universal appeal, like education, that the fact that authorities have a problem with, like women's education, but trying to use those issues to connect and to continue to work and to also really delicately balance advocacy but also safety concerns for themselves and for their colleagues and for their families. And it's a new and uncharted territory for us, for Afghans who are doing this work. And I think what we really need is continued attention to Afghanistan but we also need solidarity and understanding from the international community including amazing international organizations who work on the ground. They should try to bring more and more Afghans to work with them and to lead their programming. They should particularly be listening to Afghan women on the ground and their concerns so that they're not completely marginalized as an extension of this agenda apartheid imposed by the de facto authorities and that they continue to build on the experience and insight that they have had working and sacrificing for many years inside the country. We are very lucky to have you today in this panel and you've been able to capture for us such a complex context. And I just wanted to thank you also for highlighting the courage but also the struggle of human rights activists in Afghanistan. I think you explained very well how human rights activists have to balance their willingness to do advocacy but also their own security concerns. So I'll come back to you in a second. I will go to Jonas from Congo just for also hearing from him. Jonas, I hope you can hear us. Congo is one of the toughest place in the world to be a child and we know that child recruitment and sexual violence is widespread. Could you tell us a bit more about the protection crisis in Congo because we have the feeling that Congo hasn't received sufficient international attention recently. Can you tell us a little bit more about the context and what BeFaird is doing in terms of response? I'm Mr. Jonas Yabimana from Democratic Republic of Congo and working for BeFaird organization as a national NGO. Today for me is a pleasure to take part on the global protection event. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a tirest country to be a child because the country is the first thing to many risks within armed conflict, disaster, and many kinds of violence affecting children. The UNICEF report demonstrates that during the pandemic of COVID-19, around 27 million of children have been affected by the school closure due to COVID-19 pandemic. But also in our country, we have venerable children within, in accompanying the children, associated the children to armed groups. We also have displaced the children and also we have many children who are affected by poverty. Please do understand with me that crisis and the disasters within violence are affecting disproportionately many children in my country. We are responding as a national NGO by doing a kind of activities within, supporting around 200 families by livelihood activities, but by increasing their income to see how they can be improving lives of children affected by different crises. As a member of IUNI and the Child Protection Alliance, we are also responding by promoting IUNI minimum standards and also Child Protection minimum standards in different contexts. For example, we do analyze situation, we do collecting information and humanitarian alert and we share this information with existing coordination mechanisms within the cluster. But also we are supporting education activities where we include child protection issues. Then I will turn to Tahani. Tahani, you are from Yemen. Yemen is also one of the world's most complex humanitarian crisis. Yet your organization is overcoming massive operational and security challenge to deliver life-saving assistance. And as I said in the introduction, you are a case manager with the Yemen Women Union. And I would like to ask you if you could please describe a little bit the work that you do on a daily basis and how are you managing the complexity of the context in Yemen. Over to you Tahani. Hello everyone. It's truly an honor to have the chance of speaking in such a great event. I'm Tahani Asha. I work for Yemen Women Union, an ungovernmental organization which has been established in 1960s and has 23 branches in different cities and governments. Since its establishment in Yemen, since its establishment in general and since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen in particular, Yemen Women Union in partnership with many local and UN agencies have dedicated itself to supporting vulnerable people through implementing many impactful programs. And the activities to which thousands of people have been benefited from. Well, in these few minutes, I'll try to focus my speech around two important ideas. The first one is the protection risks in my context. And the second part, I'll try to spotlight on some of the impactful programs and activities implemented in my country through Yemen Women Union and in partnership with the many local and UN agencies. Well, as I've already said, I'm living in Yemen, a country which is for the seventh year in a row is surrounded by many protection risks. Thousands of people have been displaced from their homes, living behind all their homes and properties, some of their dear persons. It's not all. And after the displacement, they started living in a series of risks. Women and children are the most affected categories, especially when many thousands, many, you know, people or many househeads are either lost in the conflict or became psychologically affected because of losing their property, losing some of their relatives or losing their sources of incomes or even their social status. Women and children talk the responsibility of their families and because they don't have any source of income, women cannot provide the basic needs of their children, such as food and medicine and children and, you know, such basic needs. Children themselves are exposed to many serious risks. They are either separated from their families because of displacement or became househeads, which means that those children are deprived from education, involved in child labor and therefore exposed to many risks of abuse and ex-application. Another protection risk is related to the IDPs' hosting sites which are very improper, as around 1 million IDPs live in 1,600 IDP hosting sites in very bad condition where it's very overcrowded, they have poor hygienic standards and they lack the basic, you know, services such as food and non-food items and also despite the huge number of people who have been supported with civil documentation, access to civil registration is still a big challenge. Another very important and very serious risk is the relationship between IDPs and host communities, which is both under strain as a result of displacement of flow to some hostable cities. Mental health problems, limited sources of incomes and lack of opportunities are also very seriously widespread problems. Well, on the other hand, and because of these so many risks and some others, Yemen Women Union in partnership with the many local and UN agencies made great efforts implementing many impactful programs and activities that targeted thousands of vulnerable people with many protection services that saved people's life and dignity. For example, in partnership with UNHCR, Yemen Women Union runs two community centers. These community centers are located in the cities that host the highest number of IDPs and through these community centers, thousands of people are supported with many protection services such as legal assistance, psychosocial support, cash-based interventions, case management and many other services. Also in partnership with the UNFPA, Yemen Women Union runs 18 safe spaces for women and girls in different cities and governments. And they support women and girls with many services. Most importantly, they involve these women in different training programs through which they learn the skills they can work and learn and earn their own living. Certain percentage of these women and unfortunately not all are economically empowered and have their own sustainable projects through which they can depend on themselves and live an independent, dignified life. Children, I mean, most of these safe spaces include within them children-friendly spaces where women can feel comfortable about their children. At the same time, children are supported with their services and they are in need of and involved in many activities. Also in partnership with UNHCR, Yemen Women Union, I mean with UNFPA, Yemen Women Union runs eight hosting houses that receive certain category of women and provide them not only with hosts, but also with many trainings, many rehabilitation programs which help them to recover with life and better reintegrate with the society at the same time, depend on themselves. Also it was, you know, Yemen Women Union with the biggest concern with UNHCR to create a kind of peaceful coexistence between the IDPs and the host community through implementing many quick impact projects represented by, for example, schools or routes, rehabilitation, establishing water networks and the, you know, similar projects. Okay, all those mentioned are great programs that decreased the misery of thousands of people yet covered only certain percentage of people's needs in a country, you know, suffering for years. That's all from my side and at the end, I just would like to thank you all. I'd like to thank every person and agencies to be for Yemen. Thank you on behalf of thousands of women and children and the vulnerable people. Thanks for your humanity and generous unconditional support. Thank you. Thank you very much Tahani and thanks for mentioning the great work that you are doing on a daily basis and how the community centers that you work in are seen as a safe space for people affected by crisis and conflict. I will try to go back again to Jonas to see if we have him on the line. Jonas, can you hear us? And if yes, can you please tell us a little bit more about the crisis in Congo and what BIFER is doing in terms of response to child protection issues? Seems that unfortunately, Jonas phone line is not working either. So no connection with GOMA today. But then I will just go back. Are you married? Yes. Jonas, please go ahead if you can hear us. Fortunately, since the connection is not working. I will move on. And we have the... Thank you very much for joining. Jonas, unfortunately, I think the connection is not good enough for us to hear you. So we have your written remarks and we will share that on our website. I can imagine... Can you hear me well, Marie? Jonas, I don't think the connection is good enough. Sorry. So I will go back to Shahzad and Tahani. I just have one more question. I wanted to thank you for the insights that you've just given and the explanation into the challenges but also the actions that you are leading on. I wanted to build on this and come back to each of you for a few seconds if you could give us very briefly what is your call to action for the global community, for partners, for the audience? What can we do collectively to further strengthen your protection efforts on the ground? And what can we do to make even more of a difference? Shahzad, I will go to you first and then Tahani for a very brief last remark from you two, please. Thank you. I think the first thing that needs to be done now is of course to meet the humanitarian pledge. We heard earlier that this year the protection needs, that there was a larger contribution than ever for protection needs but of course not fully meeting all the needs that exist. And I think on delivery of aid and discussions on how can we do it better? How can we make sure that it's locally led, it's more inclusive, it's reached those who are in need and ensure in the context of Afghanistan, particularly with the restrictions imposed by the Taliban, ensure women's inclusion. It's also very important that agencies working on protection can create the conditions where women are leading the dialogue from their end with the Taliban, particularly international organizations where they have this security, some form of security guarantees. I and many Afghans are continuously discouraged when we see these all male delegations meeting Taliban and discussing protection in the humanitarian situation. Women need to be leading and women need to be part of those conversations, women in the international community as well as Afghans women. Exploring ways and all possible mechanisms to ease the financial hardship that's causing the suffering of millions of Afghans and no political reason should allow us to disregard the suffering of millions of Afghans and if the situation continues, we will see even a worse situation. We should be asking for concrete steps from the Taliban. All girls going to school at all levels, women's employment, accountability for harassment of journalists and defenders, ability of independent organizations to visit place of detention. We really have to be specific in the demands because speaking generally about human rights and women's rights, they will find ways to get away. There has to be a conversation about specific issues as experienced by Afghans at the local level, violations that Afghans experience at the local level and concrete ways to measure how these violations are being tackled, how there is accountability and how there is progress. And it's also important to explore how can Afghanistan's international human rights commitments be utilized to put pressure on de facto's authorities in open space for human rights. Afghanistan is a signatory to SIDA to Convention Against Torture. It has many international human rights commitments as a state. And how do we utilize these international commitments to protect the lives of Afghans and dignities of Afghans and protect the rights of women? And it's very important to continue to support the activists on the grounds while being mindful of their priorities and their safeties, while really making sure that they are the ones who are determining what's the priority and they are the ones who are leading our efforts. Thank you. So much, Shahzad. And I think your call is extremely urgent and important for Afghanistan right now. And I think we've heard you about your willingness to have more accountability, more inclusion of women in dialogue and also ensuring local partners are really driving the response in Afghanistan. I will give the floor quickly to Tahani. Tahani, if you have a few more thoughts that you would like to share with the audience over to you. Okay. Actually, since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen, I decided to join the humanitarian field and participate in decreasing the suffering of people in my country. And now with my voice reached so far to be heard by the global community, my message to you all is to pursue your support to Yemen, to expand the livelihood and self-reliance activities for women through supporting them with opportunities of training in different life scales and then empowering them economically so that they can have their own sources of incomes through which they can live independent, dignified life, especially one huge number of these women are the breadwinners of their own family. And as you know, supporting a woman is not merely supporting an individual, it's supporting a family and also supporting the society as a whole. Addressing socioeconomic vulnerability through cash assistance is a key complement to protection services. And doubtedly, these cash assistance is represented by multiple-purpose cash or rental subsidized contribute basically to reducing protection risks. Also, enhancing loving conditions and coexistence between IDPs and the hosting communities through quick impact of projects is something very important, especially when in some cities, the number of the IDPs almost the same as the number of the host communities themselves. Also, I'd like just to raise a very important idea here, which is that the number of mentally affected people as a result of war and conflict is increasing day after the other. So, supporting those people with the medicines for free is something very important, especially when the majority of... Or almost all of these people are living under the line or under the line of poverty and they cannot afford to buy these medicines. They, you know, they don't suffer a lot. The family as a whole suffers a lot as a result. And supporting those people contributes not only to the well-being of individuals, it also contributes to the well-being and stability of the family and therefore the society as a whole. That's all in brief. Thanks once again and hope that the whole world loves in peace and happiness. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chahani. I think you've said it very well. You know how it works and you know what works. So we just need to support and to step up our efforts to national actors. I would like to hold on to these recommendations and shift now the focus on the year ahead. So we are now going to hear from our protection cluster and AOR coordinators and then from donors on how they will continue to prioritize protection in 2022. So first I would like to invite you to listen to our field coordinators first and watch a video that is capturing their commitment for the year ahead. The conflict in North East Nigeria is escalating and this is leading to mass displacement of civilians from their communities. Sixty percent of IBPs are children and this has led to the development of the community and this has led to the development of the community and the development of the community. So we are now going to hear from the community and the community and the community and this has led to huge child protection concerns. We need to build a system that responds to the needs of children at risk and to do this we commit as a child protection area of responsibility to strengthen the national capacities as part of our localization strategy building the government systems and the local partners to be at the forefront of planning, budgeting and advocacy for children in the North East. The humanitarian situation in the northern part of the country has not improved in 2021. In fact it continues to be a protection crisis with a large increase in the number of IDPs from 520,000 in November 2020 to almost 800,000 November this year. Therefore there's a urgent need to scale up protection services as well as the presence of protection actors in the northern part of the country. Activities such as the provision of civil documentation, case management for GBV survivors and identification and referral of unaccompanied minors are urgently needed. In Honduras 2.8 million people are in need of protection. People are struggling due to pre-existing protection challenges before Utah and Utah associated to inequality especially children and women. We need more support and as a cluster we commit in 2022 to raise awareness on humanitarian needs, increase solidarity and to engage with key stakeholders for the three humanitarian response plans. So we have just heard from our coordinators in the field who are committed by their presence in making protection central next year. I will now give the floor and the space to several of our donor governments who have been at the forefront of protection programming and advocacy this year. I will be a little bit strict with time and try to engage each of our protection champions to have 90 seconds to share with us one or two commitments on protection for the coming year. So I will ask our first donors to kick us off and I will go alphabetically. So I will first start with Canada followed by Echo and then Finland. Canada, if you are with us, the floor is yours. Thank you. I would like to thank the Global Protection Cluster for refocusing our attention to reflect on the past year and plan for the next. Canada believes in the importance of placing protection at the heart of humanitarian response. Over 2020-21, Canada provided over $1.1 billion in humanitarian assistance to help save lives, reduce suffering, and maintain the dignity of people affected by a crisis. This humanitarian programming includes assistance to agencies with protection mandates such as UNHCR, ICRC, UNFPA and UNICEF, and to essential activities such as service provision for survivors, family tracing and reunification, and protection monitoring and assessment. To help improve the delivery of protection outcomes, this year we are supporting the review of the IASC protection policy. The resulting recommendations will be important and actionable steps for the humanitarian system to further improve collective action on protection. Country-based pool funds are a critical tool for supporting local actors and have increased our support to over $90 million in 2021. Canada is co-chairing the Pooled Fund Working Group this year and is leading the revision of the Fund's global guidelines. This is an important opportunity to reinforce the role of country-based pool funds in promoting the centrality of protection as a priority and a local response, as well as mainstream protection in fund operations. As a member of the Call to Action Protection from Gender-Based Violence, Canada continues to champion the engagement of local and women-led organizations and the importance of flexible multi-year funding for gender-based violence mitigation, prevention, and response. And finally, thanks to the presenters and colleagues who share their voices and experiences today. This dialogue is important to maintain momentum and action to support protection efforts. Thank you. Thank you very much, Canada. Eko? Thank you as well for the opportunity of speaking today on behalf of Eko. And thank you very much for bringing to us the inspiring voice and thoughts of NADA and also of those who work on the front lines. So let me start by stating that humanitarian protection is firmly at the center of the EU's humanitarian action. It is consistently one of the main sectors that we support between 10% to 15% of our budget, although we are aware, as it was made also clear today, that unfortunately the needs remain all too high. We are also very committed to continue to mainstream protection principles in all EU assistance, including through the nexus, and to ensure that our assistance is gender, age, and disability sensitive. To support capacity building in 2022, we will roll out new trainings for our partners on protection, mainstreaming, and on disability inclusion. Regarding the specific needs of children, let me highlight that we adopted in March a new EU strategy on the rights of the child, and we are also increasing our focus on preventing and ending grave violations against children affected by conflict. Also, last year over 65% of our education emergencies actions also integrated child protection elements. Of course, as it was highlighted also today, conflict is a key driver of protection needs. In this respect, supporting compliance with IHL and safeguarding humanitarian space is one of the key priorities of the EU. The European Humanitarian Forum that we will organize between 24th and 26th of January 2022 will have a strong focus on this. Turning to localization, I would like to highlight that increased support to local actors and responders is also and will be a key priority for us in line with the Grand Bargain. Concretely, next year we plan to develop dedicated guidelines that will cover capacity building, effective funding arrangements, supporting women-led organizations, and participation of local actors in humanitarian coordination structures. We plan to continue the discussion on this in January at the Humanitarian Forum and we would welcome to have you participate at the forum as well. Many thanks. Thank you very much and we will definitely follow up and be there next year. I would like to give the floor to Finland. Thank you for facilitating this critical discussion and for giving us the opportunity to share our views. I would like to further underline the need to consider the needs of those in the most vulnerable situations. One billion people, so 15% of world's population experience some form of disability. Despite a number of commitments made, persons with disabilities, particularly women and girls, are still routinely left behind in global humanitarian programs and policy frameworks. In situations of crisis and emergency, persons with disabilities suffer from a triple disadvantage. They experience the same impact as others. They are less able to cope with deterioration of the environment and responses to their needs are in many instances postponed or even disregarded. Sexual violence is a known byproduct of any crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic has not been an exception to this. Studies show that women and girls with disabilities are more likely than others to experience violence, including sexual violence, and that this vulnerability is heightened in humanitarian crisis. For this reason, Finland is committed to do its share to expedite the process at which disability inclusion is effectively considered in all humanitarian action. This will require leveraging the capabilities and capacities of persons with disabilities, as well as the organizations of persons with disabilities, who are the experts at the local level of the protection challenges people with disabilities face in a particular context and can advise on the most appropriate ways to address these challenges. Thank you. Thank you very much. I will go to the next three speakers, Germany, Netherlands and Norway. Germany, over to you. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you very much for the opportunity just to address a few remarks. And just five minutes ago, the new German Foreign Minister addressed the German colleagues working in the embassies and everywhere else were in the world. It was her inauguration speech. She is now the new German Foreign Minister. And one of her first sentences was, Germany will continue to engage in protection of human rights and in advancing human rights. So this was her first sentence, actually, and I just wanted that to share with you. And thank you very much. I'm also to the distinguished and panelists. I'm very encouraged, actually, by your commitment to the global protection and the experience you shared with us. So I think this was very important today to discuss and to learn a little bit more what you are experiencing. And you have shown that humanitarian needs and the number of displayed persons continue to increase. And talking about humanitarian needs, I was also impressed what Nada told us. So these were the humanitarian needs we addressed. So this all remains a major concern for Germany. And because a well-coordinated international protection, in our view, is key, we started to provide financial support to UNHTI in 2021 in order to strengthen its coordinating role in the global protection cluster. We also support the protection standby capacity project program to ensure that protection considerations are also adequately considered at field level. And we could listen to examples some minutes ago. So protection is also a core concern raised in the call for action to strengthen respect for international humanitarian law and principle humanitarian action, which was launched by France and Germany in 2019. We call on all states to follow the example of the current 52 signatories and join the call and allow me to highlight and it was mentioned here several times. One additional protection issue is what we attach great importance to is the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. So this is a very important topic and protection of young girls. So we look forward to continue our engagement and support to the global protection cluster also in 2022 and with this, thank you very much. Thank you so much, Mr. Ambassador. I will give the floor to the Netherlands. Thank you very much. And also from our side, thank you so much to the whole panel and everybody who was voicing the importance of protection, especially the very strong female voices. Keep it up. Great. Here in Geneva, of course, we know that human rights and humanitarian world, they come together and we know that we should people and their protection at the center of our work. And you only remembered, reminded us of doing that. So this is our pledge that we will keep on doing that. The protection of people and the right to security and livelihood is in fact, as we say, the only long-term solution and especially in crisis, which result from conflict. We've heard many examples now from the field and I just wanted to add that also a situation in Ethiopia where starvation is maybe used as a weapon or Syria where medical aid is denied to specific people in certain places and Afghanistan as we just heard where we really fear for the security of women and girls. We have to change it. We have to change protection and vulnerability actually into empowering. And that was so well said by some of the people in the panel because if we empower women and girls, if we empower vulnerable people, they can become part of the solution. They can help create it. They can help really create peace. And also we should think about using the local responders and their knowledge because local people can defend the interest of their communities. And let us also not forget the responsibility that we in the humanitarian sector itself have to stand up against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment. But so here comes our true commitment for the coming years. We think that we focus maybe too much only on physical survival. And we really want to commit to also making mental health and psychosocial support an integral part of humanitarian relief. We want to support generations of men, women and children to overcome trauma of crisis, to support their communities and to find their way back to peace. In other words, for us protection is not a technical term, but it's the core principle of humanitarian relief. Thank you. The floor is yours. Thank you. Well, thank you for re-organizing this event. It's highly appreciated. It's great that the funding and the political awareness has increased for protection in the humanitarian response. And we sincerely hope that this over time will continue and strengthen both the quality and the reach of the protection response. And we will continue as Norway to support dedicated protection programs both with earmark funding, but more importantly, continue to express our expectation that agencies allocate flexible on earmark funding towards the protection response. We believe that there is much to do still in the sector in terms of HCTs and the humanitarian coordinated to take collective responsibility to ensure that a protection is prioritized in the response plans. So this is a continuous dialogue that we will keep having and look for solutions to. We are also currently having a seat on the Security Council. And I would just like to underline here that protection of civilians is one of our priorities for our tenure in the Council. And we also chair the working group on children and armed conflict. And the protection issues are really core to what we do both in the thematic discussions and in the country specific discussions. So our aim is to anchor this issue of protection broadly across the agenda of the Security Council. Many of the issues that have been mentioned by others are also for star priorities. I think you know that we place much weight to our efforts on sexual and gender-based violence on child protection, on protecting education and the health sector. But I think it's also a sector where we need to look for innovative solutions to develop the protection response as both conflicts are more complex and more protracted than ever. We will continue to support the cluster and look forward to continued cooperation with all of you. Thank you. Thank you very much. And last but not least, I would like to give the floor to Sweden, Switzerland and the US. So Sweden first. Thank you so much. And unfortunately, this review of centrality of protection has never been more important than this year, as illustrated by our panellists from Afghanistan, Yemen and DRC and not least also Nada from Gaza. We see an acute lack of protection and we must together step up and increasing our efforts and increasing protection for people affected by crisis. Let me share some of the commitments from Sweden to try to accelerate this. The fact that there's an insufficiency in efforts to prevent and reduce the risk of violence and abuse. That was a decisive factor for Sweden to make reducing protection risk central in our new humanitarian strategy decided upon last year. And we see three important actions necessary. First, we have to step up efforts to making protection in the form of reduced risk, the actual results of what we want to achieve. We must move beyond reacting and responding to violence and abuse being perpetrated. And second, we must accelerate the efforts to ensure that protection, as many have emphasized already, is at the center of any humanitarian response. The complex and multifaceted nature of protection risks means that we all have to contribute if we are to effectively reduce risks irrespective of sector and area of expertise. And working across the humanitarian development and peace spectrum is also absolutely critical. Thirdly, it cannot be emphasized enough, as we've heard today, that people's own capacity to address and reduce risk that they face is key to success. Civilians engage in self-protection actions daily to keep themselves and their families safe and no one else is better placed to understand the specific threats and associated vulnerabilities in a community than the affected communities themselves. And as a donor, Sweden, together with other donors, we have an important role to play in supporting our partners to develop and strengthen working methodologies that support and enable community-led protection strategies as well as enabling local humanitarian actors to operate in hard-to-reach areas, which is also indeed another priority in Sweden's humanitarian strategy. So thanks again for a rich, inspiring and absolutely critical session today, and we look forward to continue in the protection endeavors together with all of you the coming year. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. The floor is to Switzerland. Thank you. Thank you very much to all the panadists for their very insightful views. On behalf of Switzerland, we just picked two topics among several in relation to protection, localization and gender-based violence. In relation to localization, after five years as co-convener of the Grand Bargain Workstream 2 on localization with IFRC, Switzerland will pursue its work on the basis of the study bridging the intention to action gap, the future role of intermediaries in supporting locally led humanitarian action. The study shows that intermediaries need to adapt if localization is to become a reality on the ground. That means that local and national organization must be empowered to drive, define, and deliver principled humanitarian responses to needs in their communities. Some key messages are principled humanitarian action, the need to strengthen local initiatives direct funding of local actors. Switzerland's engagement to support local humanitarian action has a specific link to the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement through the support of the National Society Investment Alliance NSIA. With regard to the gender-based violence, it is chronically underfunded in humanitarian context, as we all know in 2021, Switzerland has pledged to the call to action on the protection of, from GBV in emergencies and to women, peace, security, humanitarian aid compact to increase its funding for GBV prevention and response. It will also ensure that 50% of its GBV programs have only one intermediary to local organizations. It will particularly promote the role of local women-led organizations for the provision of services and for their support to gender equality, women's empowerment and the prevention of and protection from GBV. We thank the Global Protection Cluster for their insightful and dynamic work and look forward to pursuing our collaboration. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Switzerland. And finally, the US. Thank you. It's an honor to be here today with the GPC and especially today's panelists. As we approach the end of 2021, the unceasing growth in the number of forcibly displaced persons around the world, the unabating and increasing conflicts, the impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic are compounding protection risks. In this context, our work to put protection at the center of policy and programming is more urgent than ever. In terms of US priorities, the pandemic has made clear that local actors, women in particular, are the true safeguarding experts in essential providers of protection. Local protection actors complement the role of international partners. The United States is interested in how local actors and affected communities are meaningfully represented in the national protection analyses and we are proud to support the development and implementation of the GPC's protection analysis framework. As the United States has emphasized in the grand bargain, we are committed to enhancing our engagement with and our support for local and national humanitarian actors and protection experts in order to provide more support for local actors while maintaining our commitment to both multilateral and unearmarked funding, we are working with the UN and our international NGO partners to make this a priority to strengthen the mechanisms that make it possible. I'm grateful for the perspectives of today's panelists. Much of my time these days is focused on Afghanistan and I want to note the United States' appreciation for the protection clusters ongoing work in this difficult environment. In Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen and so many other crises, we all have significant work ahead to strengthen the protection for people at risk. Thank you. Thank you very much and thank you to each of you for those very clear commitments on the importance of the centrality of protection, on disability, on sexual violence, on human rights, on image PSS. But thank you also for your continuous support in supporting the cluster system, the coordination of protection work and the support that you are providing to local partners. To close this segment, I would like to invite Amanda from Save the Children for some quick reactions to some of the commitments that we have just heard from our donors. Over to you, Amanda. Thanks very much, Marie, for this opportunity. It's been really powerful to hear the experiences of NADA and the children in OPT, as well as the amazing impacts of local and national colleagues and the protection coordinators are having to protect populations in humanitarian action. You can see that it's needed now today more than ever. And as her Excellency, Gillian Triggs mentioned, children make up 50% of populations affected by humanitarian crises. And we know that they're disproportionately impacted by these crises and conflict. I wanted to mention now that Save the Children, alongside the Alliance for Child Protection and Humanitarian Action, the Child Protection Area of Responsibility and UNHCR are finalizing some new research for the Unprotected series, which tracks the state of child protection funding in 2020 with a snapshot of 2021. Similar to the findings from the Global Protection Cluster, we're also seeing a really welcome increase in overall funds for child protection in 2020. However, as we've heard today, protection needs for children have skyrocketed both in 2020 and this year. And the increases in funding are not yet keeping up with what is needed for life-saving interventions, particularly those that are having direct impacts on children's lives and well-being. I am really heartened and excited to see, however, and hear some of the protection commitments shared just now by leading donors. And I wish to reinforce and reiterate this with a call to action to you all to build on this positive progress that we're seeing so far and carrying these commitments forward. We really need to ensure that they're translating into ramped-up and collective efforts to elevate children and their families' protection as central to humanitarian response. Thank you. I mean, for me personally, it has been a fantastic event with so many outstanding insights I don't even dare to try to summarize. So my final task as a moderator is to hand it over to you, William, to share some concluding remarks and to take us forward from here. My thank you so much. Nada, Senfarian, Shahzad, Jonas, Tahani. This was powerful. And member states, representatives, this was also strong to hear your priorities and focus on protection. For the local responders that were with us today, you proved today, like every day, that the voice of local responders and communities is the clearest voice when it comes to protection. And the way you speak and you respond makes protection central to the way you tell the story, to the way you design your programs and interventions. And this is done far away from capitals and processes. So centrality of protection is where it belongs on the front lines. Thank you for that. To close this event and forum this year, I have this easy task. The way the speakers have spoken today have reiterated every single issue we have faced during this year. I would like to echo two strong messages by way of closing. I would like also to introduce our key topic and focus for next year and finish by a simple reflection on centrality of protection in a year when we are indeed revising the policy. First, in terms of messages, it is conflict. It is violence. It is marginalization. It is violations of human rights that remain the biggest problem. This year we had 113 million people in need and at risk of protection issues. We project for next year this figure to go to 150 million. This is 37 more million people in need of protection next year. This is probably one of the highest worst increases we have seen in one year over the last decades, if not ever. It's driven by two trends. Of course, we have renewed and new conflicts in Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Myanmar that are driving these needs up. But we also have lack of solutions and stubborn conflicts like Syria, Yemen, and Congo. And we heard about that today. Facing this challenge of next year will require collective efforts from frontline negotiations to open access and change behavior all the way to security council resolutions. We need all hands on deck. And then the second message is also equally important. The trust and recognition of protection expertise on the front lines is growing. Protection resources on the front lines are indeed substantially increasing. And for that, I thank the donors and the partners and the agencies for prioritizing protection. As Sanforian said, we have this year, we estimate to have mobilized and operated about $1 billion of services to about 23 million people in need. This is an important increase from the previous year, almost 50%. However, next year, we have 37 more million people in need. I don't think much needs to be added. Next year, we need to do as well as we've done this year, but take into account this major increase that we would have wished not to report on today, but that's a fact on the ground. We need to do more for more. And that's always a difficult message to convey. But we also need to do better for more by making sure that the resources are going to front line responders like the one we heard today. This year, we estimate at the end of the year that 18% of protection work has been operated by low correspondents. This is an important improvement, but it's far from the grand bargain and the GPC commitment to 25%. So next year, let's hit that mark. And let's use it as a springboard to do better. Now, for next year, the GPC focus will be simple. It will build on what we have done this year in terms of better advocacy, better analysis, simple minimum packages of responses, and smarter engagement with local actors. We will continue doing that. We have improved yet we are far from where we should be. However, looking at next year and the types of conflicts we're dealing with, the main priority will be to bring back the simple and powerful concept of protection by presence and community-based protection. To do that, we will need again, all hands on deck, to improve presence on the ground and ensure that access negotiation is measured by life-safe trucks as well as active protection services and actors that can say, stay and deliver. We need both, not one or the other, not one on the expense of the other. Now, turning to the centrality of protection, let me close by saying that the true measure of our collective work is pretty simple. Are we doing today in Ethiopia, in Myanmar, in Afghanistan, better than what we have done in Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Rwanda over a decade ago? Are we? Centrality of protection was born from contexts where genocide and ethnic cleansing and other grave conflicts have been created. An ethnic cleansing and other grave crimes happened while everyone on the humanitarian side was somehow doing their job. But no one looked at the big picture. We waited for certainty of crimes before we acted. We believed that it was someone's else job. That was wrong. So we pledged never to do it again. And our pledge is called centrality of protection. We pledged to look at the big picture crimes and not to look away. We pledged to sound the alarm bell before the crimes happened, not after. We pledged to be responsible even if we're not accountable. Leading on protection is not a matter of hierarchy. We heard it today. It's a matter of front line and truth proximity. It is having the courage to go first, to trust first, to take risks first, and always, always be on the side of the communities we work with and for. So and for this kind of leadership that keeps protection central, I thank you again, Nada, Sanforian, Tahani, Jonas, and Chazzard. And through you to all who you represent. Thank you for keeping protection central. I thank our team as well for a long year, our coordinators for a long year. I thank the colleagues on the ground and the champions and capitals that we heard from today. It's a tough year ahead of us. Our response capacity is robust. Our partnerships are far reaching. So let's keep up the courage and keep the flame burning and see you all next year. Thank you.