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https://www.voanews.com/a/un-reduces-humanitarian-appeal-for-afghanistan-/7145603.html
WASHINGTON — Amid unresolved wrangling with Taliban authorities over women’s right to work and education and a decline in donor funding, the United Nations has cut its humanitarian aid request for Afghanistan by more than $1 billion, forcing aid agencies to stop giving critical assistance to millions of people.
In March, the U.N. belatedly launched a Humanitarian Response Plan, or HRP, for Afghanistan, asking donors for $4.6 billion in funding to assist more than 23 million of the most vulnerable Afghans this year. The appeal’s launch was delayed for two months following a Taliban announcement in December banning Afghan women from working at U.N. agencies.
Women in Afghanistan are barred from education and work indefinitely due to “religious and cultural considerations,” Taliban officials say.
Several aid agencies suspended operations in response to the ban on women’s work as donors warned there would be consequences for the Taliban regime.
A mid-year review of the HRP has resulted in significant adjustments in the required funding and the number of beneficiaries it will assist.
“The revised HRP aims to reach 20 million people with multi-sectoral assistance between June and December 2023, requiring $2.26 billion in new funding,” the U.N. said last week.
Consequently, the revised funding appeal now totals just over $3.2 billion, including $942 million (with $850 million carried over from last year) that has been already expended to aid 17.3 million people between January and May of this year.
“Only a fraction of the appeal has been responded to favorably, so that’s the reason that the program had to be cut,” Richard Hoffman, director of ACBAR, a coordination platform for NGOs in Afghanistan, told VOA….
WASHINGTON — Amid unresolved wrangling with Taliban authorities over women’s right to work and education and a decline in donor funding, the United Nations has cut its humanitarian aid request for Afghanistan by more than $1 billion, forcing aid agencies to stop giving critical assistance to millions of people.
In March, the U.N. belatedly launched a Humanitarian Response Plan, or HRP, for Afghanistan, asking donors for $4.6 billion in funding to assist more than 23 million of the most vulnerable Afghans this year. The appeal’s launch was delayed for two months following a Taliban announcement in December banning Afghan women from working at U.N. agencies.
Women in Afghanistan are barred from education and work indefinitely due to “religious and cultural considerations,” Taliban officials say.
Several aid agencies suspended operations in response to the ban on women’s work as donors warned there would be consequences for the Taliban regime.
A mid-year review of the HRP has resulted in significant adjustments in the required funding and the number of beneficiaries it will assist.
“The revised HRP aims to reach 20 million people with multi-sectoral assistance between June and December 2023, requiring $2.26 billion in new funding,” the U.N. said last week.
Consequently, the revised funding appeal now totals just over $3.2 billion, including $942 million (with $850 million carried over from last year) that has been already expended to aid 17.3 million people between January and May of this year.
“Only a fraction of the appeal has been responded to favorably, so that’s the reason that the program had to be cut,” Richard Hoffman, director of ACBAR, a coordination platform for NGOs in Afghanistan, told VOA….
