Afghanistan under Taliban: A decade’s progress eroded in a year, says UN

Afghanistan is gripped by a “cascading crisis”, including a crippled economy, a year after the takeover by the Taliban, stated a new report by a United Nations body. Humanitarian aid alone cannot address this crisis. 

The United Nations Development Program released a new report on Afghanistan’s economic situation October 5, 2022. 

The cost of a basket of essentials needed to avoid food poverty has, meanwhile, risen 35 per cent, the report revealed. This has forced poorer households to go deeper into debt or sell off assets just to survive. 

“Nearly 700,000 jobs have vanished, further threatening a population reeling from impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, drought and war in Ukraine,” stated UNDP.

Read more: Taliban take-over of Afghanistan: India should be a first responder in the humanitarian crisis

The Afghan people have been relentlessly subjected to extremely difficult circumstances, said the report One Year in Review: Afghanistan Since August 2021. They have survived numerous challenges in the last 40 years and shown enormous resilience, it said. 

“Yet the last 12 months have brought cascading crises: A humanitarian emergency, massive economic contraction, and the crippling of its banking and financial systems,” the report added. 

These crises are in addition to denying access to secondary education to girls and the restrictions on women’s mobility and participation in the economy, UNDP further said. 

Restricting women from working can result in an economic loss of up to $1 billion — or up to five per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the analysis forecast. 

“The rights of women and girls are critical for the future of Afghanistan,” raised UNDP Asia-Pacific Director Kanni Wignaraja. “It starts with education and continues with equal opportunities when it comes to employment and pay.”

The report said: 

With GDP in steady decline since 2008, Afghanistan had come to rely on international aid to sustain its economy, which accounted for a staggering 75 per cent of total government spending and nearly 40 per cent of GDP at the time of transition.

However, foreign donors largely suspended aid after the transition, UNDP noted.

The report that paints a bleak fiscal picture of the country, dating back to more than a decade before the Taliban ascendency, also brought forth that it has reversed in only 12 months.

Read more: Most number of people in need of aid in Ethiopia, Yemen, DRC & Afghanistan in 2021

Without support from outside, Afghanistan must now rely on limited domestic revenue from agriculture and coal exports, it raised.

“Authorities have sought to address revenue shortfalls by cracking down on corruption in key revenue streams, such as customs, and by reaching out to the private sector and foreign investors.”

“Two decades of heavy dependence on international aid and imports, a lack of industrialisation and competitiveness, and limited mobility and connectivity among regions, among other factors, have hindered Afghanistan’s forward momentum,” it further said.

“Afghans are running out of time and resources. Afghanistan needs support from the international community to bring back to life local markets and small businesses, which are the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy.”

The Taliban captured Kabul August 15, 2021 and seized control of the country. 

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