Aid needs still overwhelming

The United Nations and its non-governmental partners need almost US $398 million to continue their humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction work in Afghanistan this quarter, a UN official told IRIN on Thursday. Andrew Cox, in the office of the deputy special representative of the Secretary General in Afghanistan, said that since the loya jirga last month, where a transitional administration is oncourse to run the country for the next 18 months, there has been a determined effort to "move beyond pure emergency programmes and to quite substantially expand recovery and reconstruction work" in the country. He cited the needs of returning refugees and of internally displaced Afghans (IDPs), the increase of social protection like food security programmes, urban management and food to cities for the most vulnerable, and health and nutrition programmes as priorities. But, he said: "Actually, in most cases these days, you would be hard-pushed to find just a relief programme. Most have a very strong recovery component. We're not even necessarily splitting the needs that religiously." According to a UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report released on Wednesday, there are many problems which require urgent action, and therefore funding. "Afghan cities and rural communities must cope with the rapid influx of returning refugees and IDPs, while the levels of chronic malnutrition, food insecurity and socio-economic vulnerability remain alarmingly high. Almost one-third of the population is dependent on some form of emergency assistance, leaving many Afghans to question the premise that peace brings material change," the report said. According to the report, the US $397.7 needed for programmes this quarter does not address the "equally urgent" need of the Afghanistan Transitional Administration to meet its recurrent expenditure obligations and requirements. "Our programmes are important, but also absolutely important is the need to give the government money ... for the ministries to function," Cox said. To this end, the Afghanistan Support Group, is meeting in Paris this week, where, according to news reports, the Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, complained that donors had only provided a "fraction" of governmental aid they promised. After the fall of the Taliban, donors promised in Tokyo that they would give the country's administration US $4.5 billion dollars over five years, US $1.8 billion of which was due this year. So far, however, President Hamid Karzai's government has been battling to pay civil servants and the new army. The aid is simply not arriving, Cox says. "The government is already looking at a very sizeable deficit." See the full UNAMA report