NEW YORK: The United Nations (UN) is likely to take the “heartbreaking” decision to pull out of Afghanistan in next month if it cannot persuade Afghan Taliban to let women work for the world’s body, the chief of the UN Development Program said on Tuesday.
UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said that the UN officials are holding talks with the Afghan authorities in the hope that Kabul will make exceptions to a decree in the current month barring women from working for the UN.
UN is likely to take tough decision about aid in Afghanistan
Steiner told Associated Press that Afghan officials have allowed women to engage in some work. However, a UN report released Tuesday indicates that Afghanistan desperately needs more women working, with its economy waving.
Afghan Taliban takeover has been accompanied by several very diffident signs of economic recovery in the country. There has been some raise in exports and less inflation. But gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to be exceeded by population growth, meaning that per capita income will decrease from 359 dollars in 2022 to 345 dollars in 2024, the report added.
Steiner said that some of those economic issues are due to Taliban policies keeping most female out of the workplace. Those economic issues mean more need in the country, but the UN took decision that the matter of human rights is non-negotiable and it will leave in May if Afghan Taliban do not yield.
A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Economy, Abdul Rahman Habib, told the media that world banking restrictions, the halt in humanitarian support and climate change explain Afghanistan’s poverty rate and bad economy.
He said that they want to develop the agricultural and industrial fields as well as mining extraction, supporting local business and local products, more and more focus on exports, attracting local and foreign investors and establishing special economic zones.
As many as 3,300 Afghans employed by the United Nations including 2,700 male and 600 female have stayed home since April 12 but continue to work and will be given salaries, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The UN’s 600 international officials, including 200 women, are not affected by Afghan Taliban ban.
