UNDP Releases Annual Report on Afghanistan

KABUL (TOLOnews): The United Nations Development Prorgram released a new report on Afghanistan’s economic situation, saying that the already-declining licit Afghan economy lost nearly US$5 billion after August 2021 and is reversing “in 12 months what had taken 10 years to accumulate.”
The report is titled “One Year in Review: Afghanistan Since August 2021”.
The report said that the cost of a basket of essentials needed to avoid food poverty has meanwhile risen 35 percent, forcing poorer households to go deeper into debt or sell off assets just to survive. According to the report, nearly 700,000 jobs have vanished.
“Among jobs women have lost in government ministries and entities, more than 14,000 or 82 percent were in the Ministry of Education, following restrictions on girls’ education,” the report said.
“Afghanistan has experienced an economic implosion over the past 12 months and the UN’s strong, coordinated response to the crisis has proved critical in averting a catastrophe last winter. Building upon what worked last year including tailored efforts across multiple sectors to improve the livelihoods of more than half a million people, there is a pressing need to support further measures to prevent a deeper crisis,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.
“We need to help Afghans cope with the coming winter including through our ABADEI programme which aims to support two million people with livelihood and job opportunities over the next two years with a focus on particularly vulnerable groups such as women entrepreneurs and young people.”