Top officials of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (ONAMA) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) briefed ambassadors to the 15-member Council and described the impact on civilians since the Taliban took power in August 2021.
Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan and Head of UNAMA marked “enormous poverty” across the country.
“Afghanistan is still plagued by enormous poverty This makes the population even more vulnerable to the many natural disasters we have seen in recent years due to climate change,” she said.
This is despite more than $7 billion in international humanitarian aid and more than $4 billion in civilian aid since de facto power came to power.
Brain drain
In addition, Afghan female civil servants, who were told they could not return to work until “necessary conditions” were approved by the Taliban, are now facing major salary cuts.
UN photo/Eskinder Debebe
Special Representative Otunbayeva briefs the Security Council.
This raises concerns about the inability to pay rent or provide family support.
“This restrictions deprive the country of essential human capital that the country must implement the Taliban’s own self-reliance policy,” Ms. Otunbayeva said.
“They are contributing to a brain drain that is undermining Afghanistan’s future.”
Impact on women and girls
Lisa Doughten, director of financing and partnerships at OCHA, expressed her concerns about the situation of women and girls.
“Afghanistan will soon enter its fourth year under de facto control of the Taliban,” she said, adding: “no one has felt the impact more deeply than women and girls.”
Furthermore, the de facto authority has banned girls above the sixth grade from receiving education – a policy that has been in place for more than 1,000 days.
The ban, Ms Doughten said, is causing an increase in child marriage and early childbearing.
It has also led to an increase in depression and suicide attempts among young women and girls.
Climate change problems
Ms Doughten also underlined that the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events and more frequent and intense droughts, have further complicated the crisis.
UN photo/Evan Schneider
Director Doughten informs the Security Council.
About 120,000 people were affected by it flash floods and mudslides in several regions of the country. Hundreds were killed, villages destroyed and tens of thousands of hectares of farmland destroyed.
“Afghanistan remains grossly unprepared to counter these increasingly persistent threats and will require significant investment in early warning and early response systems,” Ms Doughten said.
She called for longer-term solutions to help Afghans overcome poverty and adapt to climate impacts.
“Nothing is easy in Afghanistanbut with continued help we can support people in achieving lives of peace, stability and hope.”
A hope to move forward
On June 30, the UN will organize a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha continue discussions about the situation in Afghanistan.
Special Representative Otunbayeva expressed hope that the meeting will see key stakeholders reach an agreement on what can be done to “remove the insecurities” facing the Afghan people.
This will only happen if there is great flexibility among stakeholders and “a clearer political willingness on all sides to go beyond crisis management and address the bigger issues within Afghanistan and among Afghans, and those between Afghanistan and the international community” , she concluded.
