UN threatens to quit Afghanistan in May if bar from women workers not lifted

UN representative last week issued a statement, declaring that it was reviewing situation.

(Web Desk) – The United Nations (UN) has said it has to take decision to pull out of Afghanistan in May if the Taliban do not let local women work for the organisation, officials have said.

The warning comes after UN officials spent months negotiating with the group’s leaders in the hope of persuading them to make exceptions to a hardline edict this month barring local women from working for it, according to the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Achim Steiner.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva last week issued a statement, declaring that the UN was launching an operational review to determine whether it can stay in the country despite the ban. The review period expires on May 5.

The threatened move comes as two-thirds of the population, or 28 million people, are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, and the US government and other G7 members have been threatening to cut aid.

The Taliban have refused to change their position, announced in December apparently on the orders of their reclusive leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. Women make up about a third of employees of locally hired aid agency staff and are also seen as most vulnerable to any aid reductions. The edict also limited women’s access to education.

The 3,300 Afghans employed by the UN – 2,700 men and 600 women – have stayed at home since 12 April, when the Taliban said Afghan women employed by the UN could no longer report for work. But they continue to work and will be paid, the UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has said. The UN’s 600-strong international staff, including 200 women, is not affected by the Taliban edict.

Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed a harsh regime since taking over in 2021 as US and NATO forces pulled out after two decades of war. They have returned to some of their most notorious practices, including public executions and far-reaching restrictions on women’s rights and education

The potential withdrawal comes amid predictions that the departure of the UN and other agencies could affect women and children most.

A report from the International Crisis Group in February said women and girls often received the smallest share of food in Afghan families and were more vulnerable to malnutrition and disease.

It also voiced concerns about the long-term impact of aid groups and others withdrawing. “If they leave, international actors may have a hard time coming back to Afghanistan in the future,” it said.

“Negotiating access to rural communities is not only a matter of getting the Taliban’s permission; in many places, NGOs have nurtured relationships with villagers for years, even decades. Rebuilding the level of trust they currently enjoy after abandoning these communities would be no small feat.”

The UN’s warning comes in the midst of a complex environment for aid agencies in Afghanistan, where some have chosen to suspend operations. The UN and other humanitarian groups have been clinging to a small number of exceptions allowing women to work in specific circumstances in health, education and nutrition as senior UN officials have tried to persuade the Taliban to reverse their December edict with little sign of success.

UNDP report

Meanwhile, a UNDP study, released on Tuesday, finds that without continuity for girls’ education and women’s ability to work, prospects for recovery of the Afghan economy would remain grim.

The study, “Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023”, details how Afghanistan’s economic output collapsed by 20.7 percent following the Taliban takeover in 2021. And despite tentative signs of recovery, such as a relatively stable exchange rate, an increase in exports, growing demand for labour, and muted inflation, GDP is estimated to have further declined by 3.6pc in 2022.

“A sustained inflow of foreign aid, to the tune of $3.7 billion in 2022, has helped avert the total collapse of Afghanistan,” said UNDP Resident Representative in Afghanistan Abdallah Al Dardari.

“Afghanistan is on the brink of economic collapse, exacerbated with the takeover in August 2021,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. “Only the continued provision of international aid and basic services to millions of Afghans prevented a full collapse.”

The UN contributed $3.2bn of the overall $3.7bn in foreign aid to Afghanistan last year. UN assistance directly reached 26.1 million Afghans with some form of aid, while helping to stabilise the exchange rate, curb inflation and affect other economic indicators.

The new report projects that the 2023 GDP in Afghanistan could increase by 1.3pc if the level of foreign aid remains at $3.7bn.

However, prospects for economic recovery remain weak and insufficient over the long term, especially if foreign aid is withheld as a result of restrictive Taliban policies.

The UNDP paper analyses the potential impact of a hypothetical aid cut on Afghanistan’s economy and predicts that the decline that would send the country hurtling to the bottom of the global poverty scale.