The UN food agency said on Monday it urgently needs USD 800 million for the next six months to help Afghanistan, which is at the highest risk of famine in a quarter of a century. Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover of August 2021 and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely impacted by a Taliban edict last December banning women from working at national and international nongovernmental groups.
The UN was not part of this ban but last week it said the Taliban-led government has stopped Afghan women from working at its agencies in the country. Authorities have yet to comment on the restriction. The World Food Programme said women aid workers play a vital role in delivering the agency’s food and nutrition assistance and that it it will make “every possible effort” to keep this going, while also trying to ensure the active involvement of female staff.
“The WFP urgently needs USD 800 million for the next six months to continue providing assistance to people in need across Afghanistan,” the organisation said.
“Catastrophic hunger knocks on Afghanistan’s doors and unless humanitarian support is sustained, hundreds of thousands more Afghans will need assistance to survive.” The UN said on Monday that its Afghan operations remain severely under-funded, with USD 249 million reported to be confirmed for 2023, nearly one-third of the amount received for the same period in 2022.
It said Afghanistan is dealing with its third consecutive year of drought-like conditions, a second year of crippling economic decline, and is still suffering from decades of conflict and natural disasters. “The total immediate’ funding requirements to address critical gaps for the coming three months is USD 717.4 million,” according to a statement from the agency’s office for humanitarian affairs. “This is all part of an overall funding gap of USD 4.38 billion across the humanitarian response for 2023.”
It previously said that Afghanistan is its lowest-funded operation globally, despite being the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.