Mr. Frick, a year ago the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Even before that, many people lived in poverty and suffered from hunger. How is the population in the country today? The situation has deteriorated significantly. The situation of most people in the country is unbearably hard, especially for people in the provinces. Almost half of the population is threatened by acute hunger. Almost six million of the 38 million inhabitants are on the brink of famine. The misery of the people is so great that many sell entire households or tools that are important for work – simply their livelihoods – in order to buy food. 90 percent of household income is spent on food. After all, the World Food Program reaches over 50 percent of the population.
Women and children in particular will suffer the most in the crisis. That is correct. It is they who must try to support their families. At the same time, the situation of women and girls has worsened enormously. When girls are excluded from school, women cannot travel, are left alone at home, this is an emergency in itself – and an essential part of the economically disastrous situation. If you exclude half the population from social life, you cannot be successful.
How many Taliban regimes are in crisis? The crisis has many drivers. And Afghanistan is the focal point for all the crises that are currently causing problems around the world. The long-lasting conflict is a major factor. Four decades of conflict have of course left their mark. Add to that years of extreme drought that have wiped out the livelihoods of millions of people. The country was also poorly prepared for the pandemic, which led to an economic crisis. But it has to be said that the crisis has also been exacerbated by the Taliban taking power – and the chaotic conditions that followed.
Now there are the effects of the war in Ukraine. And in two ways. The war has caused food prices to skyrocket around the world. For the people in Afghanistan, the grain can hardly be paid for. And what bothers us and what increases the cost of our work enormously are the fuel prices. Year-to-date, we’ve increased spending approximately $33 million per month on fuel, transportation and food to help serve the people in the provinces.
Economic crises, droughts, earthquakes, a brutal regime: will the suffering of the people lead to a larger flight? Whether in the civil war countries Yemen and Syria or in Afghanistan: the first step is always to flee in your own country, often out of necessity as a movement to the cities. Escape is not a voluntary choice, but something people are driven to by misery. However, we do not currently expect a movement beyond the national border. We know from Syria that early support and help with food actually prevents people from fleeing.
But how do you get out of this hunger crisis? In the medium and long term, there is no alternative to creating prospects in the country and rebuilding the economy, finance and banking. It needs a functioning state because you cannot feed this large number of people from abroad in the long run. One can draw conclusions from other underdeveloped countries: food security depends heavily on smallholder farms. We need to support these farmers and give them strategies to manage with little water and store rainwater. In this way, soils can be improved and fruit forms can be cultivated. After all, Afghanistan does not have to be a poor country.
A development program will therefore be needed. When there is a fire all over the world, the only thing that can often be done is to alleviate the need. We run after the crises. Today there are twice as many crises as 10 years ago. We have to come out of there with development prospects. A development program for Afghanistan will be needed in order not only to use financial means to alleviate the acute need there. But – especially in Afghanistan – it is only possible under the basic conditions of cooperation. And that means, in particular, that the Taliban respect human rights and that women have equal rights to participate in social life.
And yet you cannot reach everyone at the moment. What funds will the WFP need in the near future to expand the aid? By the end of the year, we will probably need US$ 960 million to be able to prevent famine, especially in the inaccessible provinces. urgently we need $172 million to buy 150,000 tons of food and bring it to the provinces before winter while the routes are still open. This would allow us to support an additional 2.2 million people over a period of five months.
To what extent are you currently dependent on cooperation with the Taliban – and is there any kind of control? The World Food Program has been active since the 1960s. We have a lot of experience in evaluating who needs help and also distributing the help to those in need – strictly on a humanitarian basis. The Taliban also respect this – because there is no alternative to our help. I think the Taliban have understood that they cannot use us as a political tool.
Is there anything that gives you hope? The suffering in Afghanistan is very great. And even if the Taliban are supported by parts of the population: I hope that people will want to reform, open up and, in particular, develop things that improve the situation of women and girls. The country will certainly not develop without women, not even economically.
