Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA /BCAH), said on December 2 in New York that next year, in 2022, 274 million people in the world would need humanitarian assistance and that this would require a budget of 41 billion dollars.
We remember that a year ago, Mark Lowcock, who then occupied the post of Martin Griffiths, had launched an appeal for 235 million people, against 168 million in 2020, for a budget of 35.1 billion dollars according to the Global Humanitarian Overview of OCHA (GHO). In his report, Martin Griffiths acknowledges that the UN was only able to help 107 million victims in 2021 out of 168 million!
So we have not helped all the populations in danger! What happened to the people who were not rescued or were only slightly rescued? Why are we not able to help them? Who is responsible? Is the humanitarian system underfunded or do aid actors lack the necessary capacity, if not the will?
But are assessments of the number of people to be helped relevant? Aid needs are diverse in nature and volume and require a comprehensive but also local and targeted approach. Is this the case? Have we been prevented from accessing certain populations because of war or interdiction?
My purpose here is not to judge, because I know how complex these questions are, but rather to question the humanitarian ecosystem and its financiers so that the means meet vital needs as much as possible, since the raison d’être of humanitarian aid is to save lives, not to leave anyone behind and to anticipate the relaunch of development.
Among the countries in major crisis, there are these: Syria, Yemen, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Afghanistan, which today illustrates our concern and our call for a surge.
Afghanistan is on the brink of collapse.
According to a November 8 report by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), more than half of the Afghan population, 22.8 million out of 38 million Afghans, are now facing acute food insecurity.
Already in October, the UN declared that more than three million children under the age of 5 were facing malnutrition and UNICEF warned in September that, without immediate treatment, one million children were at risk of dying of malnutrition. Yes, you read that right, one million children are in danger of dying!
On August 15, all the world’s media focused on the Kabul airport for weeks, where are they today? There was a lot of talk about human rights then, so why isn’t it being talked about now? Are human rights not also the right to food, water, health care and shelter? Are human rights subject to political preconditions decided by whom and for what?
We cannot say that we do not know.
And yet, we can’t say we don’t know when David Beasley, the executive director of the WFP, said on the BBC on November 8: “This is as bad as you can imagine. In fact, we are now witnessing the worst humanitarian crisis on earth. As many as 95% of people do not have enough food.
At a UN conference for Afghanistan on September 13 in Geneva, it was estimated that emergency humanitarian aid needed $606 million by the end of the year to meet the basic needs of 11 million Afghans. And Paris had announced to contribute up to 100 million euros according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Antonio Gueterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, said: “Let’s be clear: this conference is not just about what we are going to give to the Afghan people. It is about what we must.
Three months later, we see that the number of Afghans to be helped has risen from 11 million to 22.8 million. This gives a dizzying idea of the race against the worst. So, has the $606 million been raised and is it being used to save lives? How do we supplement these funds when the number of Afghans at risk has doubled in three months? As David Beasley says, “Hunger is growing and children are dying.
It is a death struggle against time that is engaged. Afghans are victims of the combined effects of drought, long years of conflict and their consequences, of the covid-19 and of the economic crisis that has been raging since August. Will the question of the responsibility of the international community, of the UN, of NATO eventually arise?
According to the testimonies of humanitarians I contacted in Afghanistan and in Paris: “There is currently no hindrance or interference with our humanitarian action and the improved security conditions allow us to make trips that were not possible before. Other humanitarians testify: “The main constraints are the international sanctions, the paralysis of the banking system and the difficulties of access to the country.
Preventing rather than counting victims.
Recently back from Afghanistan, the director of operations of the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), Dominique Stillhart, published a lucid and courageous op-ed in which he wrote “Why the anger? Because there is nothing inevitable about this suffering. The economic sanctions that are supposed to punish those in power in Kabul only deprive millions of Afghans of the essential goods and services they need to survive. The international community is turning its back on the country while it runs into a man-made catastrophe.
Preventing humanitarian catastrophe is the top priority and for that the international community must change its posture. In the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published by WFP and FAO, it is stated that during the lean season, from November 2021 to March 2022, more than one in two Afghans will be acutely food insecure. Everyone is warned.
What a responsibility for the international community.
Reacting is urgent to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe that is now underway as the harsh winter will isolate much of the country and millions of people, especially farmers. As Mr. Qu Donggyu, Director General of the FAO, said: “We cannot stand by and watch the humanitarian disaster that is happening before our eyes, it is unacceptable.
It was Martin Griffiths who gave an estimate of the financial means needed to face this major humanitarian crisis when he declared at the United Nations on December 2 that “the world’s largest humanitarian appeal of $4.47 billion is for Afghanistan, closely followed by appeals in Syria and Yemen.
My experience in Afghanistan has taught me that there are two mistakes not to make. The first is not to abandon this country as was the case after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in February 1989, then in 1992 when the Afghan resistance took over Kabul from the communist regime. We have seen the consequences. The second mistake is to corner the Afghans at the risk of contributing to their radicalization and to end up making alliances that have made them unhappy, like ours with Al Qaeda.
It is the role of diplomacy to avoid the worst by finding the necessary compromises acceptable to all, knowing that it will not be easy. But we are not going to start a war again!
In the meantime, as the European Union rightly says, referring in particular to humanitarian aid, “Dialogue does not imply recognition of the Taliban government.
Finally, the international community, especially the Westerners, should not be accused of having let famine kill Afghans on a massive scale. Nor should Afghanistan become a sort of cold war between two sides as it was during the Soviet occupation. No one has the right to play the sorcerer’s apprentice with so many lives in danger of being lost. In the face of human suffering, the only answer is solidarity.
Alain Boinet.
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