: ‘We can’t turn our backs on Afghanistan’s future’: A Resident Coordinator Blog #IndiaNEWS #International A year on from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the senior UN official in the country,

‘We can’t turn our backs on Afghanistan’s future’: A Resident Coordinator Blog #IndiaNEWS #International
A year on from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the senior UN official in the country, Resident Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov, describes his fears for girls’ lives, and calls for women to play a full role in reviving the Afghan economy.

“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.
Although she was safe from any immediate danger, had access to food, shelter and other life-saving necessities thanks to the support from our UN team on the ground, I knew that her needs and those of other vulnerable children across Afghanistan were far greater, and the problems faced by their communities more complex.
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.
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.
Women ‘relegated to the margins’

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.
As these developments began to unfold last year, our UN team vowed to stay and deliver for the people of Afghanistan. Under the auspices of the One UN Transitional Engagement Framework for Afghanistan, the overarching strategic planning document that guides our UN team’s work on the ground, we have been able to save lives whilst sustaining essential services and preserving key community systems.
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.