Inside Afghanistan’s worsening humanitarian disaster as aid funding falls short

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• John Yang:

  Since the Taliban reclaim control of Afghanistan in 2021, the country has plummeted further into political and economic instability, frequent natural disasters and shortfalls in aid funding exacerbate the dire situation making it one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Ali Rogin has more.

• Ali Rogin:

  Almost two-thirds of Afghanistan's population are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, a 45 percent increase since the Taliban takeover. Meanwhile, donor fatigue has left a humanitarian funding gap of $1.3 million. And in the impoverished West, a string of powerful earthquakes last fall killed more than 1,300 people. Another 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit this region just this week.

  And now the country is facing an influx of returnees being expelled from neighboring Pakistan following that country's announcement that Afghan migrants were no longer welcome. Dayne Curry is the Afghanistan director for Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian organization in town this week. Thank you so much, Dayne, for joining us here.

  Can you first give us an update on just what life is like these days for the average Auckland person?

• Dayne Curry, Afghanistan Director, Mercy Corps:

  Well, certainly the humanitarian challenges in Afghanistan are steep, and the situation is dire, particularly economically for the country, especially when there have been multiple emergencies facing the country both with the earthquake, and with the returning situation.

  It is a challenge for these communities to recover. The earthquakes in Herat were incredibly devastating. I visited one community where of the 150 villagers that were living in that community only five survived. The impact of the earthquake was severe. And it's going to take a long time for the recovery to occur.

  When you then add additional regional issues such as the returnees maybe as many as a million people coming back from Pakistan into an already challenging economic situation, it just creates even more challenges for the ordinary Afghans to be able to make ends meet day to day.

• Ali Rogin:

  And I know it's even harder for women and girls in Afghanistan, what is the situation like for them now?

• Dayne Curry:

  We're very concerned about this situation for women and girls. And we obviously can note the social and political challenges that face them. But the humanitarian challenges are of prime importance to us, it is incredibly important that women and girls have access to humanitarian aid, and we work to engage the authorities to ensure that they are able to have access to that assistance.

  You know, for many women in Afghanistan, it's just a question of how they provide food for their families that their children are able to get enough to eat that they have clean drinking water. In some communities, women girls are forced to walk two or three hours one way just to be able to find clean drinking water to use in their homes.

  And so we need to address all of those challenges and situations. And that's the priority for us as a humanitarian organization.

• Ali Rogin:

  And how have the earthquakes affected the work that you do in getting this humanitarian aid to where it needs to go?

• Dayne Curry:

  Well, thankfully, we, along with partners were able to respond very rapidly to the earthquake. The importance for what we see with the earthquake now is beyond just the initial emergency support. Beyond that first surge of assistance is the long term recovery efforts that will be needed for these communities.

  This isn't just a one dump of assistance, it needs to be a long term commitment to make sure that the resilience in Herat province is possible, and that people are able to recover in a way that doesn't further exacerbate their vulnerabilities.

• Ali Rogin:

  And as you just mentioned, there's going to be an influx of up to a million Afghans returning. How does that affect the need situation right now?

• Dayne Curry:

  Potentially, it could be a million more, it's already a half a million, could be a million more. And the thing to remember is that just because they're coming across the border on the Pakistani side, they're not saying there. They're returning to their communities of origin and resettling there.

  And these communities are already stretched. They may not have clean drinking water. They may not have jobs. They may not have just basic means to support themselves. So when you add that many more people into the situation, it underlines the need for funding and assistance that will be committed to the Afghan people for the long haul.

• Ali Rogin:

  And the hunger crisis is of course also worsening, the World Food Programme had to cut back its aid to 10 million Afghans last year, and now can only help one in five. How is that affecting the overall situation?

• Dayne Curry:

  It affects it significantly. It's important to remember while there's emergency assistance going into these communities, and that's essential to provide that emergency help with food aid. It's also important that there's efforts to support agriculture and livelihoods, ways for communities to be able to provide for themselves, so they're not wholly dependent on food aid.

  And when there are reductions of emergency support, it stresses the importance of trying to be more strategic with that funding. So the Afghans can have their own agency to take care of their needs and not be so reliant on that assistance.

• Ali Rogin:

  State Department, USAID officials have been on Capitol Hill this week testifying about the situation in Afghanistan. Here's what House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul had to say about the situation post withdrawal.

• Rep. Michael McCaul (R) Texas:

  There are no plans to ensure enduring peace, or to support the Afghan people. And now under the administration's failed policies Afghanistan continues to deteriorate every day.

• Ali Rogin:

  We know that many of these issues in Afghanistan right now existed prior to the Taliban takeover. But I wonder what do you see as some of the solutions that you would like the United States and other partners to focus on?

• Dayne Curry:

  Well, the United States is obviously the largest donor to Afghanistan and a significant part of what we do we're thankful for the assistance that the American people continue to provide for Afghanistan and it's vital.

  What we would urge the United States government is to not only consider the amount of funding that they're giving, but how they strategically use that money, like I mentioned, resilience for Afghan communities as important, helping Afghan farmers to grow more viable crops, helping Afghan women to access the job market, and to be able to have the skills to do that.

  These are all important resilient steps that that can be provided for the Afghan people so that the aid that goes into Afghanistan is more effective than it has been in the past.

• Ali Rogin:

  What are the messages you're hearing from stakeholders who are reluctant to provide that donor money, especially citing Taliban control, making it even harder for, for example, women to find those jobs that you mentioned.

• Dayne Curry:

  We understand the concerns and the challenges that donor funding going into Afghanistan presents, it has for long time presented many challenges, and we as humanitarian organizations take integrity with that funding very seriously. We have measures in place to ensure that the funding that we provide to Afghan people reaches the people that it's intended to reach and can be used most effectively to provide assistance to people in a sustainable way.

• Ali Rogin:

  Dayne Curry, Afghanistan Director for Mercy Corps. Thank you so much for your time.

• Dayne Curry:

  Thank you very much.