In Tokyo, UN agencies appeal for financial help to rebuild Afghanistan’s public services
As a major donors’ conference on Afghanistan got under way today in Tokyo, United Nations relief agencies appealed for immediate and long-term assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan’s devastated public services.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) called for an immediate $60 million to assist the new Afghan Ministry of Health to design and implement key public health programmes. In a statement released in Tokyo, the agency said that an estimated $2.2 billion investment over the next decade will also be needed to develop a functioning health system capable of delivering comprehensive primary health care services in Afghanistan.
The agency said its main objective is to support the Ministry in responding to the needs of the Afghan population by providing technical expertise and helping to coordinate the assistance offered to the health sector by other UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
“Health is the core of long-term development. A mentally and physically healthy population is the most essential component for the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” WHO said. “Yet, health is one of the most devastated sectors in the country.”
Meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stressed that $39 million would be needed this year to improve access to food in rural and urban areas by increasing food production and generating income by providing basic inputs such as seeds and fertilizer.
“The shortest path to national stability will be for the rural population to return to their fields and produce the nation’s food,” FAO said in a statement. The agency estimates that some 85 per cent of Afghanistan’s population is dependent on agriculture.
FAO is asking for $18 million in short-term emergency funding and another $21 million for medium-term activities this year, such as rehabilitating irrigation schemes, reforestation, seed multiplication, promoting high-value crops to reduce poppy production, veterinary services and integrated pest management.
For its part, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today urged representatives attending the Tokyo conference to remember the crucial reintegration needs of millions of returning refugees.
“One cannot speak of rebuilding Afghan society if millions of people who have been driven out of their homes are excluded,” Filippo Grandi, UNHCR’s Chief of Mission for Afghanistan, said in Kabul.
According to UNHCR estimates, some 4 million refugees are living outside Afghanistan and more than 1.3 million are displaced inside the country, having fled years of conflict, drought and a shattered economy.
Since the fall of the Taliban regime last November, at least 100,000 refugees have returned from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran and thousands of internally displaced families have begun heading home, UNHCR said. But few can sustain their lives back home without substantive international assistance to recover the devastated infrastructure, farmland and employment.