Development News from Afghanistan

By Ed Johnson

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) — Afghanistan needs urgent international
aid, akin to the Berlin airlift 60 years ago, to stave off the
threat of famine that could see villagers turn against the
government, a London-based defense institute said today.

An estimated 8.4 million Afghans, a quarter of the population,
don’t have enough to eat because of drought and rising food prices
and will depend on emergency supplies to survive this winter, the
Royal United Services Institute said.

Famine poses a greater threat to the country than the spiraling
Taliban insurgency and the international community must “mount an
intensive air operation to deliver life-saving aid,” RUSI analyst
Paul Smyth said in a briefing note.

The U.S-led airlift beginning in 1948 delivered more than 2.3
million metric tons of food, fuel and medicine to West Berlin to
circumvent a Soviet blockade. Planes landed every three minutes in
the effort that lasted 462 days. While the aid operation to
Afghanistan would be smaller, it would be “strategically
significant” and help prevent local frustration and anger against
the government and NATO-led forces, the institute said.

Food shortages are compounding the problems facing President
Hamid Karzai’s government, which is battling Taliban fighters
mainly in the south and east of the country.

The United Nations and the government in Kabul appealed in July
for $400 million to assist vulnerable Afghans in the nation of
almost 33 million people.

`Eating Grass’

“Reports already indicate that Afghans are migrating in search
of food, some are eating grass and a tiny number have died of
starvation,” RUSI said. “Afghanistan may be on the brink of a
calamity which has the potential to undermine much of the progress
which has been achieved there.”

Insurgent attacks on aid convoys compound the food shortages,
RUSI said. “Help must come from farther afield, swiftly, and to
any part of the country,” it said. “An airlift meets these
demands.”

The country needs 25,000 metric tons of supplies before winter
and another 70,000 tons before February 2009, RUSI said, citing
the World Food Programme.

Airlifting such a quantity of aid “should be well within the
international community’s military capacity, if it has the will,”
RUSI said.

The WFP estimates that 24.9 million people in Afghanistan live
below the poverty line. A risk assessment in 2005 found that 6.6
million Afghans don’t meet their minimum food requirements, a
problem compounded by drought this year in the south, east and
southwest of the nation, according to the UN agency.

The country faces a cereal shortfall of 2 million metric tons
and the WFP says it intends to send food assistance to about 1.8
million people each month until next year’s harvest.

The insurgency by supporters of the Taliban regime ousted in
2001 is worsening the humanitarian situation and making the
delivery of aid difficult, according to the UN.

RUSI Briefing Note
http://www.rusi.org/downloads/assets/RUSIAfghanBriefingNote.pdf
 
A third of Afghans (8.4m) are suffering from food insecurity, and are facing a famine this coming winter; whatever the effect of insurgent violence on the mission in Afghanistan this predictable humanitarian disaster will place a greater obstacle to ISAF’s success, a leading defence and security think-tank warns .
C130 landing Afghanistan
 
A briefing note from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) challenges the will of the international community and calls for nations across the world to mount an intensive air operation in Afghanistan to deliver life-saving aid similar to the Berlin Airlift sixty years ago.
 
A combination of light spring rain, a summer drought, poor irrigation, low crop yields and rising global food prices have created the conditions for a ‘calamitous’ famine in Afghanistan this coming winter. RUSI warns ‘if the international community is found wanting, we can expect increasing frustration and anger from a population which once saw international intervention as a source of hope’.
 
‘To maintain its credibility and moral authority to act in Afghanistan the international community must take timely, concerted and effective action’, writes Paul Smyth, Head of Operational Studies at RUSI.
 
‘Afghanistan may be on the brink of a calamity which has the potential to undermine much of the progress which has been achieved there, especially in areas ostensibly free of insurgent activity.’
 
The briefing note also outlines the fact that many areas vulnerable to famine have reduced or rejected controversial poppy farming; an added irony to this potential humanitarian disaster that seriously jeopardises efforts to create sustainable progress in Afghanistan.
 
In August 2008, the UN World Food programme estimated Afghanistan has an emergency need for 25,000 tonnes of mixed commodities before the coming winter, and a requirement for an additional 70,000 tonnes before February 2009.
 
Drawing comparisons with the Berlin Airlift, which brought food to millions and prevented a strategic defeat during the early Cold War, Smyth suggests a much smaller, yet ‘strategically significant operation’ could have similar effect in Afghanistan.
 
‘The added significance of acting decisively in Afghanistan is that for all the focus on insurgency, a more serious blow will be dealt to the Afghan government and the UN/ISAF mission if the international community does not prevent a predictable humanitarian disaster’ RUSI warns.
 
The RUSI briefing note follows questions about the limits of NATO’s mission and recent attacks on Afghan aid workers. On Tuesday General Sir Michael Rose, writing in the RUSI Journal, warned that security gains in Afghanistan will not endure without greater numbers of soldiers, good governance and swift reconstruction. General Rose also noted there was “a race against time” between the Afghan Government and the Taliban to win the support of the vast bulk of ordinary Afghans who have not taken sides.
Copyright © 2008 RUSI

By Ed Johnson

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) — Afghanistan needs urgent international
aid, akin to the Berlin airlift 60 years ago, to stave off the
threat of famine that could see villagers turn against the
government, a London-based defense institute said today.

An estimated 8.4 million Afghans, a quarter of the population,
don’t have enough to eat because of drought and rising food prices
and will depend on emergency supplies to survive this winter, the
Royal United Services Institute said.

Famine poses a greater threat to the country than the spiraling
Taliban insurgency and the international community must “mount an
intensive air operation to deliver life-saving aid,” RUSI analyst
Paul Smyth said in a briefing note.

The U.S-led airlift beginning in 1948 delivered more than 2.3
million metric tons of food, fuel and medicine to West Berlin to
circumvent a Soviet blockade. Planes landed every three minutes in
the effort that lasted 462 days. While the aid operation to
Afghanistan would be smaller, it would be “strategically
significant” and help prevent local frustration and anger against
the government and NATO-led forces, the institute said.

Food shortages are compounding the problems facing President
Hamid Karzai’s government, which is battling Taliban fighters
mainly in the south and east of the country.

The United Nations and the government in Kabul appealed in July
for $400 million to assist vulnerable Afghans in the nation of
almost 33 million people.

`Eating Grass’

“Reports already indicate that Afghans are migrating in search
of food, some are eating grass and a tiny number have died of
starvation,” RUSI said. “Afghanistan may be on the brink of a
calamity which has the potential to undermine much of the progress
which has been achieved there.”

Insurgent attacks on aid convoys compound the food shortages,
RUSI said. “Help must come from farther afield, swiftly, and to
any part of the country,” it said. “An airlift meets these
demands.”

The country needs 25,000 metric tons of supplies before winter
and another 70,000 tons before February 2009, RUSI said, citing
the World Food Programme.

Airlifting such a quantity of aid “should be well within the
international community’s military capacity, if it has the will,”
RUSI said.

The WFP estimates that 24.9 million people in Afghanistan live
below the poverty line. A risk assessment in 2005 found that 6.6
million Afghans don’t meet their minimum food requirements, a
problem compounded by drought this year in the south, east and
southwest of the nation, according to the UN agency.

The country faces a cereal shortfall of 2 million metric tons
and the WFP says it intends to send food assistance to about 1.8
million people each month until next year’s harvest.

The insurgency by supporters of the Taliban regime ousted in
2001 is worsening the humanitarian situation and making the
delivery of aid difficult, according to the UN.

Xinhua / September 11, 2008

The Afghan government and the World Bank on Thursday signed an agreement under which 8 million U.S. dollars grant will be provided as part of the assisting programs to tackle food crisis in the war-torn country.

“The initiative of the agreement on The Afghanistan Food Crisis Response Project, which is signed by Afghan Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady and World Bank Country Manager Mariam J. Sherman, is to enhance wheat and other cereal production by supporting small scale irrigation at the community level,” said a World Bank statement released here.

“As part of The Bank’s new Global Food Crisis Response Program, the project focuses on medium-term investments needed to increase food security over time,” it said.

“The project will support the rehabilitation of around 500 small, traditional irrigation schemes critical to the recovery of the country’s agriculture,” it said.

The statement also noted that the whole project will be implemented by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development through elected Community Development Councils in the provinces most affected by drought and food shortages.

Nearly 70 percent of Afghanistan’s wheat production comes from irrigated lands, according to the Afghan finance minister.

“It is important that we give priority to the rehabilitation of irrigation systems,” Ahady said.

As a leading lending agency, the World Bank has contributed more than 1 billion U.S. dollars towards rebuilding Afghanistan since 2002, with part of them soft loan.

KABUL, 4 September 2008 (IRIN) – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and government of Pakistan are finalising an agreement involving the loan of 50,000 tonnes of wheat for pre-winter food aid operations in Afghanistan.

Once the agreement is signed, WFP will begin importing the wheat over two months, Susana Rico, WFP’s country representative, said. It will be pre-positioned in vulnerable areas where access is difficult in winter.

The loan will help WFP to remedy immediate funding delays in emergency food aid for about five million Afghans hit by high food prices and drought.

Upon receiving funds from donors WFP will pay the loan back.

Funding delays

UN agencies and the Afghan government jointly appealed on 9 July for US$404 million to deal with the food crisis resulting from high prices and drought.

The joint appeal included WFP’s request for $185 million, which it will use to procure 230,000 tonnes of food to be distributed until August 2009.

The UN has reiterated calls for “vital funding” to avert a possible crisis this winter amid donors’ “slow and insufficient response” to the joint appeal.

WFP said it had received up to 25 percent by 3 September.

Meanwhile, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has pledged 50,000 tonnes of wheat, WFP said.

The American donation “is expected to arrive at port [Pakistan] six to eight weeks from now and a further two to three weeks to arrive at regional hubs in Afghanistan”, Rico said.

WFP said the 100,000 tonnes of wheat would be sufficient for its “winter pre-positioning programme”.

Government wheat procurement

The hike in food prices has prompted Pakistan to impose a ban on food exports to neighbouring Afghanistan, which relies particularly on Pakistani wheat flour.

Earlier this year Pakistan agreed to sell 50,000 tonnes of wheat to the Afghan government to ease its domestic food shortages.

“Over 12,000 tonnes of the wheat procured from Pakistan have been imported to the country and the process is ongoing,” according to a government statement on 2 September.

The imported wheat will be offered at a subsidised price, the government said.

The statement also said separate agreements signed with the Russian Federation and Ukraine would allow the country to import about 80,000 tonnes of wheat.

According to the country’s National Risk and Vulnerability Assessments, 42 percent of the Afghan population (approximately 12 million people) live below the poverty line, on 45 US cents per day or less.

KABUL, 1 September 2008 (IRIN) – The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says donors must provide “vital funding” to enable aid agencies to avert a possible humanitarian crisis this winter.

UN agencies and the Afghan government on 9 July launched a joint appeal for US$404 million to mitigate the impact of high food prices and drought which have forced over five million people into “high risk” food insecurity, but so far donors have only pledged a small fraction of the requested funds, aid workers said.

“It’s vital to see this money comes into Afghanistan… [The funds] will enable us to ensure that current problems do not become a crisis,” Dan McNorton, a spokesman for UNAMA, told IRIN in Kabul on 31 August.

The UN call for urgent funding echoes a warning issued by Oxfam International on 30 August about a possible humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

“This is a race against time, the international community needs to respond quickly before winter when conditions deteriorate. The health of one million young children and half a million women is at serious risk due to malnutrition,” Oxfam said in a statement.

Oxfam warned that if donors fail to respond quickly and sufficiently “people could be forced to sell assets or leave their homes and villages, and there could be a further deterioration of stability.”

The UN said it supported Oxfam’s calls for increased and urgent funding.

Women, children at risk

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said five million people, most of them women and children, have been affected by drought and high food prices and are in need of food aid.

“Hundreds of thousands of children under five years of age and their mothers may not be able to meet their nutritional needs, robbing them of future development opportunities,” said Susana Rico, WFP country representative.

Aid agencies are concerned that worsening food insecurity may reverse the progress made recently on maternal and infant mortality rates: “Infant, child and maternal mortality rates – already some of the world’s highest – could increase even further,” Oxfam said.

One in five children dies before his/her fifth birthday due to malnutrition and preventable and curable diseases, according to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.

Afghanistan suffered one of its worst winters in three decades in 2007 when extremely cold weather, heavy snow, avalanches and lack of access to food and health services took the lives of over 1,000 people, according to statistics from the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority.

Aid agencies say relief supplies must reach vulnerable rural communities before access becomes problematic in winter.

Deutsche Welle / August 30, 2008

The aid agency Oxfam has warned that Afghanistan needs urgent help if it is to avoid a humanitarian disaster this winter. Oxfam called for a “major humanitarian response” in a letter to development ministers around the world. In July, it appealed for just over 400 million dollars to meet the needs of some five million Afghans, but has apparently received only a fifth of the amount. Nearly 1,000 people died last winter in Afghanistan, where about half the population lives under the poverty line.

Archaeologists unearth
Buddha statue’s head in Afghanistan

[ANI] Islamabad, August 30 : French and Afghan archaeologists have unearthed the head of a Buddha statue and a precious coin in the province of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

The statue’s head belongs to the period when Buddhism thrived in the central province and the coin dates back to the time of Alexander and the Greek empire, according to Najeebullah Ahrar, the director of the information and culture department in the province.

According to a report in Pak Tribune, the team of Afghan and French archaeologists is working under the supervision of Professor Zemaryalai Tarzi, an Afghan archaeologist.

Bamiyan hit world headlines in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the enormous Buddha statues that for centuries stood in carved niches in the cliff faces around the main town.

The town of Bamiyan is situated on the old Silk Road and became a meeting point of eastern and western cultures.

Buddhism arrived in Bamiyan in the third century with the spread of the Kushan Empire.

KABUL, 28 August 2008 (IRIN) – Fatema takes her four-year-old daughter, Nafeesa, to a free soya-milk distribution centre in Herat city, western Afghanistan, three times a week in a bid to protect her against malnutrition.

Three months ago medical experts told Fatema about protein deficiency in Nafeesa’s body and warned that unless the child was well fed she would be malnourished.

“I told doctors about our poverty and that we could not provide good food and fruits for my daughter,” said Fatema whose husband, Najibullah, earns a modest income from his bicycle repair shop.

“Doctors told me about this soya-milk distribution centre for pregnant women and children,” she said.

The free soya-milk distribution centre is jointly run by the department of women’s affairs and a non-governmental organisation, and is funded by a Canadian donor.

“My daughter’s health has improved since I brought her to this centre and she has stopped complaining about bone pain,” Fatema told IRIN.

High infant mortality

Afghanistan has an infant mortality ratio of 165 deaths per 1,000 live births. One in four children dies before reaching the age of five, mostly due to acute malnutrition and preventable diseases, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported.

“Among under-five children, 7 percent suffer from acute malnutrition and 54 percent are chronically malnourished. The nutrition figures could be higher in the areas affected by conflict and drought, where access is denied and humanitarian services are difficult to deliver,” says UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action Report 2008 [INSERT LINK http://www.unicef.org/har08/index.html

Soya bean products (milk, flour and beans) are also highly recommended by medical experts for pregnant and lactating women who do not have access to adequate food and nutrition.

Afghanistan is only second to Sierra Leone in terms of high maternal mortality rates, with at least 1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to UNICEF.

Most pregnant and lactating women die due to lack of access to adequate food and nutrition, health experts say.

Protein-rich

The soya-bean is a species of legume and considered by nutritionists to be a rich source of amino acids and protein essential for the human body.

Afghanistan’s climate and soil are suitable for the cultivation of soya beans, particularly in the south, east and southwest which have hot summers.

A USA-based nutrition expert, Steven Kwoon, introduced soya beans to Afghan farmers for the first time in 2003 through his small organisation – Nutrition & Education International (NEI) – to help tackle protein deficiency and malnutrition among children and women.

The NEI distributed two tonnes of genetically modified soya seed in 2005 which produced 10 tonnes of soya beans, and over the years the number of farmers has risen to over 4,000 and production has soared to 2,000 tonnes in 2007, the NEI said.

“If Afghanistan produces 300,000 tonnes of soya beans annually it will be able to meet the protein requirements of 30 million people and will be able to eradicate malnutrition,” Kwoon told IRIN on 28 August.

Setback

One third of the 60 tonnes of soya seed which the NEI had imported from the USA for distribution to Afghan farmers could not be used as seed because the consignments had been held for too long in the hot weather at customs inside Afghanistan, Kwoon said.

“We have only distributed 20 tonnes of seed this year and as a result production levels will be lower than 2007,” said Kwoon adding that the country would still produce about 1,000 tonnes of soya beans.

The NEI said it was working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock to end the country’s reliance on soya seed imports by establishing a domestic seed production capacity.

KABUL, 11 August 2008 (IRIN) – A sharp increase in fuel prices has pushed up the already high cost of food in Afghanistan making daily survival even more difficult for millions of vulnerable people.

Over the past several weeks, the price of a litre of diesel has risen by 10 percent and petrol by 11 percent, a government official said.

“Fuel prices have risen after Central Asian countries – particularly Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia -banned fuel exports to Afghanistan until September,” Azizullah Rozi, director of the state petroleum and gas enterprise, told IRIN in Kabul on 10 August.

Landlocked by six neighbours, including oil-rich Iran to its west, the Afghan government imports all its fuel from Central Asian countries.

However, over 30 percent of the estimated 1.6 million tonnes of petroleum products – such as diesel, petrol and propane gas – used in the country every year is imported illegally and/or smuggled from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan, officials said.

“We don’t have a formal contract with Iran on oil imports but merchants usually smuggle diesel and gas from Iran and petrol from Pakistan,” said Rozi, adding that the fuel illegally imported was much more expensive than legal imports from Central Asia.

Afghanistan is also largely dependent on food imports from neighbouring nations, particularly Pakistan and Iran.

Impact on food prices

The rise in fuel prices has increased transportation costs and in turn inflated already high food prices in Afghan markets.

Traders at Kabul’s main food bazaar said the price for 50kg of wheat flour had risen from 1,600 Afghanis (US$32) to 1,750 Afghanis ($35) in the past two weeks.

The rise in food prices bodes ill for millions of people in a country where, according to a National Human Development Report, almost half its estimated 26.6 million population live on less than $2 a day.

At least four million most vulnerable people have already been pushed into the “high-risk food-insecurity” category largely due to unprecedented increases in food prices, according to UN and government officials.

UN agencies and the Afghan government have appealed for over $400 million to mitigate the humanitarian impacts of high food prices and drought.

Aid delivery cost up

The increase in fuel prices had also affected food aid delivery to vulnerable communities across the country.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it has increased by 10 percent the payment of commercial transporters carrying the organisation’s food aid consignments around the country.

Earlier, WFP had sought extra funding to compensate for increased logistics costs.

Sex work is on the rise due to high food prices, unemployment and lack of economic opportunities for vulnerable women, women’s rights activists say
MAZAR-I-SHARRIF, 16 July 2008 (IRIN) – High food prices, drought, unemployment and lack of socio-economic opportunities are pushing some women and young girls in northern Afghanistan into commercial sex work, women’s rights activists and several affected women told IRIN.

“I have no way of feeding my children other than by doing this disgusting job,” said 27-year-old Nasima (not her real name), a commercial sex worker in Balkh Province.

Clad in a blue `burqa’, Najiba, a sex worker in Mazar-i-Sharrif, the provincial capital of Balkh Province, said she had been pushed into sex work after food prices started rising dramatically in November 2007.

“I am a widow and I have to feed my five children. I am illiterate and no one will give me a job. I hate to be a prostitute but if I stop doing this job my children will starve to death,” Najiba told IRIN.

Most women who turn to sex work are illiterate widows who lack professional skills to find alternative employment, according to Malalai Usmani, head of a local women’s rights non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Balkh.

“Extreme poverty and the obligation to feed their dependents have increased prostitution among women,” Usmani said.

Severe penalties

In Afghanistan sexual relations between a man and a woman outside marriage are considered a serious crime and offenders can face death penalty and/or a lengthy prison sentence, depending on their marital status and other circumstances.

Every year hundreds of female sex workers are sent to prison for allegedly having “unlawful sexual relationships”, according to women’s rights activists such as Usmani.

“This [sex work] is an abhorrent deed and an appalling crime. We encourage and help security forces to arrest and punish women involved in prostitution,” said Fariba Majid, director of the Women’s Affairs Department in Balkh Province.

Majid acknowledged that many female sex workers have no other option, but warned that the country’s Islamic laws and conservative culture meant prostitution was “unacceptable”.

Sex workers are also exposed to stigma and discrimination. “We cannot live in one place for long,” said a middle-aged sex worker who refused to be identified. “We move as soon as local people become suspicious of us.”

“People will spit on us and no one will interact with us if they know about our work,” she added.

Photo: Parwin Arizo/IRIN
Most sex workers are unaware of the risk of sexually transmittable diseases and HIV, health workers say
Poor HIV/AIDS awareness

Afghanistan launched its first ever national HIV/AIDS control programme in 2003. At least 436 HIV/AIDS cases have been confirmed over the past five years, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

Health specialists warn that sex workers, intravenous drug users, truck drivers and other vulnerable groups have very little knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases and preventive measures.

At least three female sex workers interviewed by IRIN said they paid no attention to HIV, and had not used condoms to avoid infection and/or the spread of the virus.

“I don’t know about HIV/AIDS,” said a female sex worker who preferred anonymity. “I have not seen any of my clients using a condom.”

Saif-ur-Rehman, director of the National HIV/AIDS Control Programme in Kabul, said there was a widespread lack of awareness about sexually transmitted diseases and HIV among commercial sex workers.

“We will launch a project to boost awareness and introduce preventive measures among sex workers hopefully in September [2008],” Rehman told IRIN, adding that the distribution of free condoms would be part of the project. “It’s a very sensitive project and we will try to avoid misconceptions that it supports or encourages prostitution in Afghanistan.”

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