Necessary but not sufficient
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Recent efforts by the international community to address Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis have been a necessary but not sufficient response as the country’s needs are enormous and difficulties still persist in the delivery of assistance. Nevertheless, multilateral initiatives launched in the past few weeks amid fears of a collapse of Afghanistan’s economy will go some way to help the country stave off famine and a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Saudi initiative to convene an extraordinary session of the OIC council of ministers hosted by Islamabad on December 19 rallied Muslim countries in support of the Afghan people. The communique issued after the meeting called upon the international community to provide “urgent, and sustained humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan” while expressing “deep alarm” at the situation there including the danger of an economic meltdown. The meeting took two concrete steps. It established a Humanitarian Trust Fund, under the aegis of the Islamic Development Bank, “to serve as a vehicle to channel humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan”. It also launched a Food Security Programme.
Expectations that OIC member states would announce pledges to the Trust Fund and the Food Security Programme did not materialize principally because the meeting was organized at very short notice. The resolution adopted urged member countries, Islamic Financial Institutions, and other global partners to make pledges to the Trust Fund as well as contribute generously to the Food Security Programme. Coming months will show whether these will come through even though many Muslim countries especially Pakistan have already been delivering humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
Two important developments followed the OIC meeting indicating that the US was softening its stance on helping Afghanistan beyond the humanitarian aid it has already provided. These developments took place against a backdrop of international media coverage of the country’s humanitarian plight with images of starving or malnourished children and prospect of famine-like conditions. This mounted pressure on Western governments to act. The country’s liquidity crunch and unraveling of its financial system raised the spectre of an economic collapse while the delivery of humanitarian assistance by the UN and others faced formidable difficulties due mainly to the banking system’s paralysis.
Along with international media, voices from the US Congress also expressed concern at the plight of millions of Afghans facing a worsening humanitarian situation. In a letter addressed to the American Secretary of State, several lawmakers urged the Biden Administration to help avert an economic disaster by relaxing sanctions and releasing Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves lying frozen in US banks. At the same time, a group of eleven former US Generals and Ambassadors who served in Afghanistan made a joint call to the Biden Administration for more help to “stave off disaster” by stabilizing the Afghan economy and warned that “delay will only fuel more death and suffering.”
Afghanistan will need enhanced and sustained humanitarian help from the international community to prevent state collapse.
Maleeha Lodhi
The first US-initiated action was the resolution it sponsored in the UN Security Council, passed unanimously on December 22. This exempted humanitarian assistance and other aid that supported basic human needs from UN sanctions against the Taliban for a year. The resolution was weeks in negotiation with the original version objected to by China who argued that humanitarian assistance was not subject to sanctions under the UNSC’s sanctions regime and only needed a straightforward clarification and not the so called ‘carve out’ from that regime. The original draft provided an exemption only to UN agencies and not to nongovernmental organizations or bilateral assistance and called for a case-by-case review. China however helped to make the final version more expansive. The resolution is expected to ease the humanitarian work of UN agencies, NGOs and others and enable salaries to be paid to government employees in Afghanistan.
The second action following the Security Council resolution was relaxation in restrictions by the US Treasury with issuance of new “general licenses” to enable international aid, NGOs and the administration to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. These two actions will help to address some problems in delivering aid and have been welcomed by the UN and the international community, albeit as a belated move.
But more needs to be done. This is urged by continuing problems in financial transactions and lack of a fully functioning banking system. US sanctions and the continuing freezing of Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves remain serious impediments to the revival of normal economic activity. Thus, the country’s ability to access its own financial assets will be important to avert an economic collapse.
Moreover, to sustain the humanitarian effort, more financial resources will be needed. The UN relief agency OCHA has made an appeal for $ 4.5 billion in humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan where “needs are skyrocketing” according to the agency. Even if these funds are raised and aid flows smoothly, it will take more than this to help Afghanistan get back on a sustainable track toward becoming a functioning state.
The head of UNDP in Afghanistan, Abdallah Al-Dardari, put it starkly: “We are witnessing the gradual collapse of one system [after another] The banking system, the health system . . . education, water, sanitation — all of these systems are falling one after the other.” This means Afghanistan will need enhanced and sustained humanitarian help from the international community to prevent state collapse.
- Maleeha Lodhi is a former Pakistani ambassador to the US, UK & UN. Twitter @LodhiMaleeha
