Countries: Saudi Arabia, World Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Please refer to the attached file. Riyadh, 25 February 2025As deliveredExcellencies, fellow humanitarians,I want to congratulate you, Dr. [Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief)], and all of you on such a successful gathering here in Riyadh. I want to pay tribute to the many speakers, the many participants, but to all of you who have celebrated these 10 extraordinary years of life-saving work – an anniversary measured, not in days and weeks and months, but in lives saved.And that is an extraordinary testimony to the leadership that you have of KSrelief, and the vision that you have for Saudi Arabia as a beacon of humanity.I also want to pay tribute to all the humanitarians who are here today. It's a tough time to be a humanitarian: We are overstretched, we are underfunded, and we are literally under attack. Last year was the deadliest year on record to do humanitarian work.And on top of that, there is a narrative setting in now around the world that our work, our mission, is somehow in retreat – that we have lost, as humanity, that sense of compassion and solidarity for those in direst need.But the message that has gone out from here, that has gone out from Riyadh over these last two days, is that we are not in retreat.We refuse to leave those who are in direst need to struggle alone, that we will remain by their side – and this matters more than ever.The number I would normally share with you now is a big one: 300 million, the number we must reach in the coming year.But the number which is scarred on my mind right now is the number I heard this morning from a colleague: the number three – three children who died overnight in Gaza from cold. Three children who froze to death.And behind that number, whether you are a parent or a grandparent or a brother or a sister or a friend, can you imagine how that feels to see a child freeze to death in front of you?And that is why we must leave here more determined, more committed – and more angry. More determined to take the action that we must take; more committed to stand up against these conditions that create inequality and poverty; and moved by anger to action, to humanitarian action.We must define our work more clearly – saving lives. We must deliver it more effectively, with the innovation that this conference has spoken of, with the partnerships that you have been building through these sessions, with that collective ingenuity, creativity, agility, determination to be more efficient and more effective in saving lives.And we must also go out from here more determined than ever to defend international humanitarian law and stand on the side of those 300 million people who so badly need our help today.So I pay tribute to you for your two days of networking and partnership and action here in Riyadh, and I urge you to go out from here to work even harder together.Thank you.Media contacts:In New York: Eri Kaneko, kaneko@un.org, +1 917 208 8910In Geneva: Vanessa Huguenin, huguenin@un.org, +33 6 98343176