More Than $1 Billion in Aid Pledged for Afghanistan

Ahmad El-Assasy

The United Nations announced on Monday that more than $1 billion in aid has been donated for Afghanistan to help alleviate one of the world's "biggest humanitarian crises," as millions of people in the country face hunger and the economy is on the point of collapse.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said poverty rates in Afghanistan had risen dramatically since the Taliban took power last month, with one in three people unsure where their next meal will come from and essential public services failing.

"The people of Afghanistan need a lifeline. After decades of war, suffering, and insecurity, they face perhaps their most perilous hour," Guterres said.

The United Nations had issued an emergency plea for $606 million to fulfill the country's most critical needs, which Guterres said had been "completely met."

"Today, we already have clearly more than $ 1 billion of pledges. It is impossible to say how much of these will be for the flash appeal, but in any case, it represents a quantum leap in relation to the financial commitment of the international community towards the Afghan people," he said.

Prolonged violence, poverty, back-to-back droughts, economic downturn, and the coronavirus epidemic have exacerbated an already grim situation, with 18 million Afghans — nearly half of the population — in need of assistance, according to UN agencies.

They noted that more than half of children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition and that violence has driven hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

With winter approaching, many people may run out of food by the end of the month, the UN chief said.

The World Food Program, which returned to Kabul on Sunday for the first time since the takeover, estimated that 14 million people were on the verge of hunger.

According to WFP's executive director, David Beasley, food prices have risen, cooking oil has doubled in price, and 40 percent of the country's wheat harvest has been lost this year.

Children are disproportionately affected by the various crises. According to the UN Children's Fund, if prompt action is not taken, the humanitarian crisis will worsen, putting 1 million children at risk of starvation (UNICEF). Nearly ten million girls and boys already rely on humanitarian aid to survive.

Meanwhile, according to HealthNet TPO, an NGO that runs a network of hospitals and health centres in Afghanistan, Afghan doctors are warning of the impending collapse of the healthcare system as hospitals and clinics run out of resources and health providers' funding is paused by international donors.

"The people of Afghanistan are facing the collapse of an entire country -- all at once," Guterres said in his speech.

However, he warned that "humanitarian help will not address the situation if Afghanistan's economy fails," which may lead to a "great exodus" that would jeopardise the region's peace.

"My appeal to the international community is to find ways to allow for an injection of cash in the Afghan economy, allowing the economy to breathe and avoiding a collapse that will have devastating consequences for the people of Afghanistan," Guterres said.

Guterres announced during his speech that the UN had received a letter from the Taliban assuring safe access to assistance workers in the nation. He claimed that providing humanitarian help inside Afghanistan would be impossible without interacting with the Taliban.

However, there are growing doubts about the Taliban's trustworthiness, as well as whether help will reach the Afghans who need it and not end up in the wrong hands.

Michelle Bachelet, UN's Human Rights Director, claimed the Taliban had already broken vows to safeguard human rights, notably for women and children, during a speech in Geneva on Monday.

Women have been instructed to stay at home, are prohibited from going out in public without a male chaperone, and women and girls' access to education has been restricted, with girls above the age of 12 barred from attending school in certain places, she claimed.

"The country has entered a new and perilous phase," she said. "In contradiction to assurances that the Taliban would uphold women's rights, over the past three weeks, women have instead been progressively excluded from the public sphere."

In order for the aid to be effective, the atmosphere in Afghanistan must be"conducive to the principled delivery of aid, including the ability for both female and male aid workers to operate freely" according to USAID.