A panel of leading Afghanistan humanitarian specialists gathered at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) on September 12 to examine that country’s entrenched humanitarian problems, warning that despite areas of progress as well as years of international development, reconstruction and security assistance the humanitarian crisis there persists and could well worsen amid the coming transition to full Afghan control.

“The prospects for the situation deteriorating seem really quite high,” said Andrew Wilder, director of USIP’s Afghanistan and Pakistan programs. “Let’s not forget the need for humanitarian funds moving forward.”

Wilder and four non-USIP specialists spoke at “Hidden in Plain Sight: Afghanistan’s Continuing Humanitarian Crisis.” The meeting touched on the poor state of human development in Afghanistan, where natural disasters have affected millions; food security remains precarious; the conflict creates further casualties and internal displacement of people; underdevelopment and joblessness deepen poverty; and many live in remote regions where aid is difficult to deliver. The international community’s focus on military engagement and reconstruction and development programs has also tended to eclipse humanitarian efforts.

• Michael Keating, deputy special representative of the Secretary-General at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the U.N.’s Humanitarian Coordinator, said “Afghans feel they face a very unsettling and unpredictable future,” adding that although “I think we’re doing as much as possible to reduce that uncertainty,” challenges remain. Keating noted that Afghanistan remains near the bottom of global indices of human development, its people afflicted with high rates of malnutrition, disease and poverty. The country received $57 billion in development aid between 2002 and 2010, he said, and yet by comparison last year’s consolidated international appeal for humanitarian aid of $448 million only received about one-third of that amount.
• Maureen White, senior advisor for humanitarian issues in the office of the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, pointed to examples of humanitarian progress in recent years: Life expectancy has risen from 44 years to 60 years; access to basic health care within an hour’s walk has grown from nine percent in 2001 to 60 percent now; and after-birth care for women expanded from 20 percent of Afghan women in 2002 to 60 percent in 2008. Nonetheless, White said, the country has been “cursed by calamity”—both natural and manmade—and international humanitarian giving this year is lagging. She called such aid “a moral imperative and also a matter of practical necessity.” With so many vulnerable Afghans, she said, “we cannot achieve our goals” of a secure country. White said the U.S. government has responded strongly to past humanitarian emergencies in Afghanistan, such as last year’s drought, and will respond to them in the future.
• Ciaran Donnelly, director of strategic analysis and management at the International Rescue Committee, described the findings of a recent study on internal displacement within Afghanistan, affecting an estimated half a million Afghans, caused by security threats, economic threats and environmental threats. He called for “a broader human security-based understanding” of conditions in Afghanistan, along with particular attention to the impact of the transition on Afghan economic and humanitarian conditions. “As we look toward 2014, it’s a bleak picture already, and it could get worse,” Donnelly said.
• Paula Newberg, director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and a visiting professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, urged greater Afghan ownership of Afghanistan’s economy and humanitarian and development efforts. She also stressed that “in Afghanistan, the humanitarian crisis is really a development crisis.” A continuing fragmentation of Afghan society would hurt prospects for improvement in the country’s humanitarian situation, she added, and an additional factor is the “fence-building operation” she sees in neighboring countries alarmed at Afghanistan’s security situation. “If the goal is a secure and stable Afghanistan, how do we think about the neighborhood?” Newberg asked those gathered at USIP.