The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), Martin Griffiths, will soon travel to Afghanistan to meet with the Taliban government to discuss the veto of women in non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
«The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator will undertake a visit to Afghanistan where he will seek to meet with the highest officials to resolve the situation,» UN Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan Ramiz Alakbarov said during a press conference at the New York headquarters on Thursday.
Alakbarov detailed that the visit will last several hours and is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.
Griffiths will come with the intention of holding a dialogue to resolve «the bottleneck in the delivery of life-saving assistance» caused by the ban on women working with non-governmental and international organizations, the U.N. agency said in a statement.
At this point, relief agencies are still assessing the impact of the Taliban’s latest decision, but have already been forced to suspend some urgent programs due to a lack of «female staff.»
According to the UN, about 70 percent of their programs are implemented in collaboration with NGOs, international or local agencies, which they use to bring resources and basic services to the region.
The Afghan government’s veto of allowing women to carry out humanitarian work «has immediate consequences that endanger the lives of all Afghans,» the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) said in a statement.
The agency has also expressed its willingness to continue life-saving activities but anticipates that «many more activities will have to stop» because humanitarian aid cannot be provided without women workers.
SOURCE: (EUROPA PRESS)
