INTD724 Humanitarian Assistance and Service Delivery
Individual Project
Submitted By Uma Kanjinghat
AFGHANISTAN
Introduction
Afghanistan is a landlocked country in central Asia. The full name of the country is Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has a population of 33.4 million (UN, 2012). The capital of the country is Kabul which is also the largest one. The major religion in Afghanistan is Islam. The main exports that support the economy of Afghanistan are fruit and nuts, carpets, wool and opium. According to World Bank the Gross National Income per capita is US $470 (Afghanistan profile, 2014).
Afghanistan has abundant natural resources. Afghanistan has abundant of coal, iron, chrome, copper and salt deposits. It has also have small deposits of uranium, silver and gold. Natural gas is the richest source of hydrocarbon in Afghanistan. Considerable amount of oil deposits are documented but not yet evaluated (Library of Congress , 2008). Afghanistan has experienced serious instability and turbulence in the modern era which is ruining the economy and infrastructure. This instability has pushed majority of population into refugees (Afghanistan profile, 2014). Afghanistan was the 6th largest receiver of official humanitarian aid in 2012. The total aid received by Afghanistan came around 32% of Gross National Income. The vulnerability index score in 2012-13 in Afghanistan is high (Global Humanitarian Assistance, n.d.).
Underlying factors of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
The humanitarian crisis affected in Afghanistan are armed conflicts, natural disasters and forced displacement. In Afghanistan internal displacements of people caused due to armed conflicts are the major concern of humanitarian workers. The internal conflicts history can be drawn back to political crisis in 1978-1979 known as Saur revolution. Then soviet military existence in Afghanistan till 1989 has also resulted in armed rebellions inside the country. Then the Taliban command from 1994 onwards lead to most of the armed conflicts in Afghanistan. The effect of war on Afghanistan was completely shattering. This was accompanied with high mortality rate and high human rights violations. When the soviet forces retreated from Afghanistan, the economy of the country was highly devastated. There was no enough stable revenue for the country, no bureaucrats or mechanism to balance and distribute the resources which led the country to a deep crisis (Maley, 2010).
During this period in 1994 Taliban emerged. The policies of Taliban towards women earned them international disapproval. Their treatment towards minorities was often terrible and horrendous. The regime of Taliban came to an end in 2001. The government then formed was viewed as weak government. The efficiency was very low. A new constitution was formed in 2004 which established a presidential government in Afghanistan. This resulted in an overburdened system which resulted in not addressing of crucial issues unless the attention of President is drawn into it. Later in 2002, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai offered positions to military actors at provinces and districts to impede the extension of US International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) resulted in marginalizing local leaders. This resulted in questioning against new state and resulted in mal governance (Maley, 2010).
The response and different actors involved in the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
US troops were sent to Afghanistan after 9/11. The government under Taliban collapsed in December 2001. In same month UN Security Council authorized International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under Chapter VII of UN Charter to support interim government formed in Afghanistan to enforce security in Kabul. Later in August 2003, ISAF was positioned under the authority of NATO. After the formation of new government in Afghanistan, the aid agency presence in Afghanistan increased. UN Security Council Resolution formed UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan – UNAMA in March 2002 to assist reconstruction and development in Afghanistan. 17 agencies and programs under UN is working under the umbrella of UNAMA to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. These agencies include World Food Program, UNDP, IRIN, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNHCR, FAO and others. Though they have separate goals and objectives they are consolidated under the mission of UN program (Guidelines for the Interaction and Coordination of Humanitarian Actors and Military Actors in Afghanistan, 2008).
The international intervention during 2002 to 2008 was mainly undertaken through Provincial Reconstruction Teams – PRTs used mainly for stabilization. Around 25 Provincial Reconstruction Teams were established. Another set of actors worked under US led Operation Enduring Freedom – OEF (Maley, 2010).
Several other non-profit organizations worked for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. NGOs are civil society agents which may be national or international, are non-profit organizations committed to provide humanitarian assistance and support to development activities in Afghanistan. NGOs in Afghanistan are regulated under Law on Non-Governmental Organizations passed in June 2005. This law regulates acceptable activities and sets standards for the formation and internal administration of NGOs. Members of NGOs have dedicated to accept the NGO Code of Conduct passed in September 2006. It was signed by around 100 national and international organizations (Guidelines for the Interaction and Coordination of Humanitarian Actors and Military Actors in Afghanistan, 2008).
Critical Analysis of the Current Humanitarian Response
After September 2001, World Trade Centre attack there is a tremendous growth in the amount of aid pumped into Afghanistan. While analyzing the aid allocation, in the last quarter of 2001 the aid allocated was 433 million US dollars whereas the amount was only 232 million dollars in the first half of the year 2001. The aid allocation to Afghanistan has increased tremendously after September 2001. Afghanistan became a security concern for United States of America and countries in Europe.
US government is one of the main actors which brought forth the relation between terrorism and Afghanistan. The US led military operation against Al quidae and Taliban reaffirmed the need for security aid in Afghanistan. Media Intervention is also increased in Afghanistan after September 2001. The presence of international media and reports about Afghanistan has hiked after September 2001. 428 articles during the first half of 2000 then it increased to about 837 during the first half of 2001, and it came around 6.684 articles for the first half of 2002. These figures emphasize an observation made by Piers Robinson, who argues that the most common pattern of media coverage shows that it is the politicians especially the White House in Washington who selects the plan for international media attention. Here the argument first came the media attention and then started the flow of emergency assistance (Library of Congress , 2008).
Poverty, human sufferings, war and need of humanitarian assistance persisted in Afghanistan even before September 2001. But due to no media attention and enough donors the amount of aid came to Afghanistan was low. Little funds are generated to tackle needs like food security and poverty alleviation. Billions of dollars are directed to Afghanistan in the form of relief and aid after 9/11. The total assistance gained by Afghanistan in 2012 was 6.5 billion US dollars. The amount received under humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan was 492 million US dollars. The funds received on multi-lateral peace keeping operations came around 924 million US dollars (Global Humanitarian Assistance, n.d.).
After 9/11, the military interventions in Afghanistan has increased. The first intervention by United States was approved by UN. The government formed in Afghanistan in 2002 was with the help of UN. But critics says that UN activities in Afghanistan is dominated by United States in Security Council.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The humanitarian intervention in 2001 evolved a political situation that was, in numerous regards, more regrettable than that under the Taliban. One of the crucial capacities of an administration is to give at least security. The Taliban, for all their retrograde practices in different ranges, had the capacity give Afghanistan its first secure political administration in excess of 30 years. Conversely, the administration of outside occupation that succeeded them fizzled this test wretchedly. As indicated by a report of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "security has really crumbled since the start of the intervention in December 2001, especially over the mid-year and fall of 2003” (Bello, 2011).
More regrettable, Afghanistan has turned into a narco-state. The Taliban had the capacity fundamentally decrease poppy cultivation. Since their ouster in 2001, poppy generation has gone up 40-fold and 20 times as much extra land has been brought under poppy development.
Numerous Afghans would say that this life is no change over Taliban guideline for at any rate the Taliban could give one thing: fundamental physical security. This contention may not cut any ice with upper and working class individuals in the North that live in protected suburbs or gated groups (Bello, 2011).
Any humanitarian intervention need legitimacy to intervene. The only authority that have legitimate standing in towards scenario is United Nations. But the power of United Nations often undermines or overpowered by P5 group or Security Council with their veto power. The United Nations structure should be reformed to have an effective humanitarian intervention. Otherwise humanitarian intervention can lead to another western hegemony.
The nature of humanitarian intervention should be based on the needs of people. In general a referendum can be conducted to know the perception of people in the country which gives legitimacy to the intervention. Humanitarian intervention can be in any form like aid, relief, peace building etc. But it should be approved by UN as well as the state or people of the country.

References 1. Afghanistan profile. (2014, 9 24). Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12011352 2. Bello, W. (2011, August 9). The Crisis of Humanitarian Intervention. Retrieved from Foreign Policy in Focus: http://fpif.org/the_crisis_of_humanitarian_intervention/ 3. Forgotten Humanitarian Crises: Conference on the Role of the Media, Decision-makers and Humanitarian Agencies. (2002, October 23). Retrieved from Forgotten Humanitarian Crises: www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDoQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alnap.org%2Fpool%2Ffiles%2F5a60ced6b37aeaabc1256c5a0057d575-drc-forgottencrises-oct02.pdf&ei=UAVIVMWRHMG1yAS1joA4&usg=AFQjCNHisLWvlDZ9dS0ByHgHllh4v 4. Global Humanitarian Assistance. (n.d.). Retrieved from Afghanistan: http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/countryprofile/afghanistan#tab-home 5. Guidelines for the Interaction and Coordination of Humanitarian Actors and Military Actors in Afghanistan. (2008, May 20). Retrieved from http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/UD/Temabilder/Tema%20sikkerhetspolitikk/Afghanistan/Guidelines_Afghanistan%5B1%5D.pdf 6. Library of Congress . (2008, 8). Retrieved from COUNTRY PROFILE: AFGHANISTAN: http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Afghanistan.pdf 7. Maley, W. (2010, December). Humanitarian debate: Law, policy, action - Conflict in Afghanistan. Retrieved from International Review of the Red Cross: https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/international-review/review-880-afghanistan/review-880-all.pdf