Profoundly moved and motivated by ground realities, I look at the challenges ahead, and reiterate our mission to ensure that every person in Afghanistan, including children like the girl from Kunduz, can plan and have a dignified future, well beyond striving for survival today.
As we move forward, we will continue to work to improve the lives of people in Afghan – including women and girls. When the Taliban returned to power last summer, we rapidly scaled up the provision of essential health, education and protection services for women and girls. We have expanded this support in recent months, opening new women friendly health spaces in Kabul for increased access to psychological support; scaling up mobile health teams to reach more vulnerable women and children affected by the earthquakes and rolling out more training programmes for displaced and returnee women through our empowerment centres.
Yet despite our unprecedented response, the needs across Afghanistan remain vast. Rates of food insecurity, poverty and debt have soared since the Taliban returned to power last summer, even if the roots of these problems existed long before 15 August 2021 following decades of neglect and underdevelopment in key public services and infrastructure.
Without access to these services, including strong healthcare, a functioning banking system and resilient agricultural sector, the lives of ordinary Afghans will continue to hang in the balance. The people of Afghanistan deserve a serious commitment and sustained investment in their future, which is why, one year into the Taliban takeover, we are redoubling our efforts to strengthen the fundamental pillars of Afghan society, starting with its economy.
Women ‘relegated to the margins’
The full return of women to the workforce is essential to transforming Afghanistan’s economy, which is why we are working hard to support women-led businesses and expand employment opportunities for women across the country.
“Shortly before the Taliban takeover in 2021, I visited an orphanage in Kunduz, a city in the north of Afghanistan. I was heartbroken when I spoke with a young girl there who had lost her entire family the day before, following intense fighting between the Afghan National Security Forces and the Taliban.
Decades of neglect
In the first six months of this year alone, we reached 94 per cent of the overall 24.4 million people in need with some form of humanitarian assistance. Vulnerable households were supported with life-saving and life-sustaining food assistance – from emergency rations, to seasonal support, agricultural supplies and nutritious supplements – to healthcare, emergency shelter and non-food items, hygiene and protection assistance.
Over half of the country’s population now live below the poverty line. Nearly 23 million people are food insecure, many of them severely so, and more than two million children are suffering from malnutrition. In June 2022, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the central region of Afghanistan, killing over 1,000 people and pushing already vulnerable communities to the brink.
Whatever uncertainties lie ahead, we will place the needs of women and girls at the centre of our recovery efforts and will work every day to ensure that they return to work, go back to school, and are able to resume their right to live free and equal lives.
Since then, these challenges have grown exponentially and our efforts to build a stable future for children like the ones I met last year in Kunduz have become more demanding. From hunger to chronic poverty, the scale of suffering in Afghanistan continues to rise across many areas since the Taliban advanced on Kabul last summer.
Focus on the agricultural economy
I am especially worried about Afghan women and girls, whose lives have changed unrecognizably since the Taliban returned to power last summer. Since 15 August 2021, we have seen a significant rolling back of their economic, political, and social rights and a worrying escalation in restrictive gender policies and behaviours. Without the right to education, work and freedom of movement, women now find themselves increasingly relegated to the margins.