ĦĦĦĦĦĦKABUL, June 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The lack of funding and resources constraints
would have a serious impact on the ongoing international assistance to
Afghanistan, Deputy Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General for
Afghanistan NigelFisher said on Sunday.
ĦĦĦĦFisher told reporters that some 1.3 to 1.4 billion U.S. dollarshad been
provide to Afghanistan through different channels, such as bilateral agreements,
the U.N. agencies, the World Bank Trust Fund and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs).
ĦĦĦĦHe said that the U.N. agencies had so far received about 870 million U.S.
dollars, among which 343 million had been provided before the Tokyo Meeting in
January.
ĦĦĦĦ"So what we actually get from the end of January till now is about 527
million U.S. dollars. It is well below aspiration," he said.
ĦĦĦĦFisher, who is working closely with the Afghan Interim Administration on
the issues of relief, recovery and reconstruction, also pointed out that the
Tokyo Meeting's commitment of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in the coming two and
half years was far from enough for the war-torn country.
ĦĦĦĦ"4.5 billion U.S. dollars sounds like a lot, but in terms of the needs in
Afghanistan, it is really not much," he said.
ĦĦĦĦFisher took the food shortage as an example to illustrate the crying needs
in Afghanistan. He said the World Food Program (WFP) recently carried out about
400 rapid assessments to examine the food needs around the country.
ĦĦĦĦThe results showed that in the districts of the Central Highlands, 43 to 70
percent of the families were considered as food vulnerable. The average of food
vulnerable population was about 58 percent of the total in the south, 55 to 64
percent in the west and 60 to 90 percent in the north.
ĦĦĦĦHe said that the food vulnerable population had to sell off their
livestock, assets, and mortgages of lands and take on debts for food. The
hardship even led to child labor and early marriage of girls.
ĦĦĦĦHe also noted that the lack of funding would force the U.N. agencies to set
common priorities and make difficult choices, and the top priorities would be
the provision of food and creation of jobs.
ĦĦĦĦA press release of the International Organization for Migration(IOM) said
on Sunday that the IOM had been forced to suspend its Afghan internal transport
network due to lack of money.
ĦĦĦĦThe network was a major component of IOM's Afghan program and provided
transport for refugees from Iran and internally displacedpeople (IDPs) back to
their homes.
ĦĦĦĦThe press release said several donors had responded sympathetically to
IOM's appeal. But the total response was not sufficient to ensure the survival
of the internal transport network program, which would require an immediate
injection of 10 million U.S. dollars and a total of 18.7 million U.S. dollars to
continue till the end of this year.
ĦĦĦĦWFP spokeswoman Alejandro Chicheri said on Sunday that the WFP Emergency
Operation in Afghanistan currently faced a shortfall of 215,400 tons of food,
which accounted for 43 percent of the total requirement.
ĦĦĦĦShe said measures had been taken to scale down distributions. The food
assistance to every family of refugees and IDPs had been cut from 150 kg to 50
kg. Enditem
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