Forty years of war, periodic natural disasters, long-standing poverty, drought, and predominantly the COVID-19 pandemic have left more than 18 million people in Afghanistan in a dire need of humanitarian assistance. The recent escalation in conflict and resulting upheaval has exacerbated needs and further complicated an extremely challenging operational content.
Pakistan has a key role in awakening the world by warning them of the after-effects of ill-advised foreign policies of the world towards Afghanistan. The isolation of Afghanistan will be disadvantageous for the world. The prime minister of Pakistan has already urged the international community to support the vulnerable people of Afghanistan. The extraordinary session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that was called on by Pakistan played a vital role in highlighting the plight of afghans facing crises.
Multiple factors have made the organizations say that Afghanistan will slip into famine this year. According to the world food program, only two per cent of afghans have enough food and over three million children are suffering from malnutrition. Prices for food staples such as flour and rice have skyrocketed, severe drought in much of the country has destroyed crops, and several challenges have halted cross-border aid. This winter, the natives of the country would be suffering from acute hunger.
Nearly every Afghan citizen could be living in poverty by the middle of this year, which means there would be no source of income no means of earning bread and butter no opportunities for Individuals to get the basic human needs fulfilled. Afghanistan has also been cut off from the global financial system because the United States froze more than $9 billion in assets belonging to the central bank, so the bank doesn’t have enough liquid funds to meet withdrawal demands. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that the Afghan economy could contract by up to 30 per cent.
The danger of a complete economic meltdown cannot be ignored when 40 million Afghan citizens are on the verge of breaking down.
The condition and prospects of Afghanistan’s health sector are complex and grave. coronavirus cases reported up till now are 158,612 whereas 7,376 people couldn’t make it back to life. With the newly discovered omicron variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly worldwide, Afghan doctors are bracing for more infections in the country. Hospital administrators say that they are facing severe financial and logistical problems, ranging from the lack of money to pay salaries of health care personnel to shortages of medicines and essential equipment, among other things.
Martin Griffiths, the UN Undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, recently warned that Afghanistan cannot survive on donations alone and urged donor countries to show flexibility, allowing their money to pay the salaries of public sector workers and support “basic services such as health, education, electricity, and livelihoods, to allow the people of Afghanistan some chance to get through this winter and some encouragement to remain home with their families.” It is observed that Pakistan, on its part, is offering all possible assistance to Afghanistan, including the provision of wheat and other essential goods whereas Islamabad is also keen to help Afghanistan to bring betterment to its fragile economy. Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the concerned authorities to explore ways for exporting skilled and trained manpower to the neighbouring country and provide assistance at its earliest.
United Nation and its partners had launched its largest-ever country-specific appeal for Afghanistan of more than $5 billion to meet the crises in Afghanistan in which the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for the suspension of rules preventing the use of money in Afghanistan to save lives and for a path to the conditional release of frozen Afghan foreign currency reserves.
The danger of a complete economic meltdown cannot be ignored only for the Taliban leaders when 40 million Afghan citizens will be on the verge of breaking down. Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the US to “de-link” the Taliban government from Afghan citizens to prevent a humanitarian crisis and chaos in Afghanistan was being asked to consider a six-point plan to help Afghanistan that would engage with Taliban authorities to help ease pressure on their country. It would include coordinating aid, investment opportunities, helping rebuild Afghan institutions, and providing technical experts to uplift the economy.
The world has its eyes on how the humanitarian groups in the country and what matters is what mechanisms would be worked upon to deliver aid to the economically declining country and make it sustainable enough to make living happy in Afghanistan. The smiles on little faces will enlighten the catastrophic state as it is rightly said, together we can stand against every disaster, and as individuals, we only collapse.
The writer is Chairperson (Global Women Media) and a journalist.