UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said that he would donate the $500,000 from the UAE's Zayed Award for Human Fraternity to help those displaced by war and persecution.
Mr Guterres said he would give his cash prize to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which assists about 79.5 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes.
“I am proud to share that I will donate the monetary prize associated with this award to the UN refugees agency, in support of its invaluable work for the most vulnerable,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr Guterres was announced as the co-winner of this year's Zayed Award on Wednesday, alongside Moroccan-French activist Latifa Ibn Ziaten, who has campaigned against religious extremism since her son, Imad, was killed in a terrorist attack.
The UN chief’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the prize highlighted global challenges, including how “discrimination, racism and extremist violence are surging across the globe”.
“As the world faces the Covid-19 pandemic, an economic crisis, a climate emergency and threats to peace, unity and solidarity are more important now than ever,” Mr Dujarric said in New York.
The donated money will help the refugee agency to "buttress its indispensable efforts to protect the most vulnerable members of the human family – the forcibly displaced", Mr Dujarric said.
The award honours those who promote peace and tolerance.
It was created after the Document on Human Fraternity was signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, in Abu Dhabi in February 2019.
Pope Francis congratulated Mr Guterres and Ms Ibn Ziaten in a message to his 19 million Twitter followers, saying: “I thank both of you for your witness.”
Mr Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, has led the UN since 2017. He previously served as the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees and led the body from 2005 to 2015.
UNHCR has more than 17,000 staff across 135 countries and an annual $8.6 billion budget.
Its biggest projects focus on the crises in Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar.
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Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
Race card
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
6pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m
6.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
7pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
