Afghanistan on the brink of universal poverty: UNDP Report

KABUL: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a report on Thursday, September 9, saying that the poverty rate could increase by up to 25 per cent in Afghanistan due to the contraction that Afghanistan is witnessing in its real gross domestic product (GDP). According to the report, about 97 per cent of the nation’s population might sink below poverty line if the nation’s political and economic crises are not timely addressed. 

Abdallah Al Dardari, UNDP’s resident representative in Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera Media Network that Afghanistan is currently suffering from budgetary and reserve shock. He added that because the reserves are completely frozen, the nation is also facing trade shock, where currently the domestic and international trade are facing interruption.

Even before the crises hit the country last month, the country was heavily aid dependent, where over a third of the nation’s GDP was drawn from foreign funding. Usually, in financial and social situations like the one Afghanistan is in, international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, all the bilateral and multilateral financial institutions would get together with the UN to propose an economic reform program. However, Dardari said that nothing similar will happen in this case, which increases the severity of the humanitarian and financial threat for Afghanistan and its people.

The report released by UN said that a combination of factors have the potential to cause Afghanistan’s baseline poverty rate, which is at 72 per cent right now, to balloon. The factors mentioned in the report include the COVID-19 pandemic, a prolonged drought, and an upheaval caused by the current political transition. In response to the report findings, the UNDP has proposed a package of interventions aimed to support close to nine million vulnerable people in the country, especially women and girls.