Thursday

1st Jun 2023

Opinion

A year of Taliban — only aid is keeping Afghan kids alive

Listen to article

Samar* doesn't go to school as much anymore. Instead, the 11-year-old spends half his day sewing rugs with his 15-year-old brother Zalmay*.

The economic crisis in Afghanistan means his family, who had a good life before the Taliban regained power, now struggle to survive. Sending Samar to work was an agonising decision for his parents.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

He said: "I was going to school before August 2021 and now I am not going to school [as often]. I don't like making rugs — it makes me so sad."

It's a year since the Western military presence in Afghanistan ended. A year since panic-stricken people flocked to Kabul airport, trying to flee the country, and girls and women waited fearfully for the disintegration of their hard-won rights.

Now, more than half the population of Afghanistan needs urgent assistance.

The economy is collapsing — the result of years of conflict, natural disasters, poor governance and now international sanctions.

On top of that, the country is feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, drought and looming famine, and a devastating earthquake in June.

A Save the Children survey found four-in-five children had gone to bed hungry in the past 30 days, many of them too weak to play and study.

With food prices rising, desperate parents are taking their children out of school and sending them to work to help provide for the family. This will only add to the 10 million already at risk of dropping out of school, including girls who are banned from attending secondary school in most regions.

Many boys and girls we spoke to in focus groups also said they could not get medical help for financial reasons, even if a clinic was nearby. 13-year-old Reza* told us his baby niece died because his family couldn't afford the treatment needed to save her life. "We lost her due to a lack of money," he said.

The people of Afghanistan need our support more than ever.

Humanitarian organisations like Save the Children are doing everything we can to keep children alive. But humanitarian aid was never meant to be a long-term fix. This is an economic crisis, and it needs an economic solution.

When the Taliban took power in August 2021, governments around the world reacted by withdrawing billions of dollars in international aid and freezing Afghanistan's foreign currency reserves. A year on, they still haven't found a way to get that money back into the country.

Without dedicated multi-annual funding for things like education and healthcare, there is no future for children in Afghanistan.

They will continue to die from hunger, malnutrition and disease. Without the chance to go to school, they will never grow up to be the teachers, doctors and economists the country needs to get back on its feet. More boys and girls will lose their childhoods — and lives — to labour, marriage and rights violations.

It would be a moral failure to let another year pass without resolving this crucial issue.

The European Union and the international community need to act now. Showing unwavering global leadership, the European Commission must lead on joint efforts to find a way to restore development aid to Afghanistan and solve the cash-flow problem.

Until they do, they are complicit in the loss of every Afghan child who dies from hunger and disease.

(*Names have been changed to protect identities.)

Author bio

Ylva Sperling is Europe director of Save the Children.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Lessons for the EU in Sahel, from Afghanistan

Former UK ambassador to Mali and Niger, who also served in Kabul, reflects on the implications of the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan for EU policy in the Sahel.

Afghan withdrawal may spark ex-forces terrorism in Europe

Right-wing extremist narratives thrive on the US's swift withdrawal from Afghanistan. They may gain traction particularly among soldiers and veterans of Western armed forces, some of which have in the past been confronted with right-wing radicalisation among their troops.

The EU needs to foster tech — not just regulate it

The EU's ambition to be a digital superpower stands in stark contrast to the US — but the bigger problem is that it remains far better at regulation than innovation, despite decades of hand-wringing over Europe's technology gap.

EU export credits insure decades of fossil-fuel in Mozambique

European governments are phasing out fossil fuels at home, but continuing their financial support for fossil mega-projects abroad. This is despite the EU agreeing last year to decarbonise export credits — insurance on risky non-EU projects provided with public money.

Latest News

  1. EU data protection chief launches Frontex investigation
  2. Madrid steps up bid to host EU anti-money laundering hub
  3. How EU leaders should deal with Chinese government repression
  4. MEPs pile on pressure for EU to delay Hungary's presidency
  5. IEA: World 'comfortably' on track for renewables target
  6. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  7. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall
  8. Adapting to Southern Europe's 'new normal' — from droughts to floods

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us