Afghanistan on brink of universal poverty, urgent efforts needed: UN

Adds Taliban response to Afghan protests becoming very violent

The United Nations development agency has said Afghanistan is teetering on the brink of “universal poverty” which could become a reality in the middle of next year unless urgent efforts are made to bolster local communities and their economies.

It said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has put 20 years of steady economic gains at risk.

The UN Development Programme outlined four scenarios for Afghanistan following the Taliban's August 15 assumption of power that predict the country's GDP will decline between 3.6 per cent and 13.2 per cent in the next fiscal year starting in June 2022, depending on the intensity of the crisis and how much the world engages with the Taliban.

That is in sharp contrast to the expected 4 per cent growth in GDP before the fall of the government.

“Afghanistan pretty much faces universal poverty by the middle of next year,” Kanni Wignaraja, UNDP's Asia-Pacific Director, told a news conference on Thursday while launching its 28-page assessment. 

“That's where we're heading — it's 97-98 per cent (poverty rate) no matter how you work these projections.” Currently, the poverty rate is 72 per cent and Wignaraja pointed to many development gains after the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001. 

The UN rights office on Friday said that the Taliban response to peaceful marches in Afghanistan has been increasingly violent, with authorities using live ammunition, batons and whips that have resulted in at least four protester deaths.

Ravina Shamdasani, UN rights spokesperson, told a briefing in Geneva that it had received reports of house-to-house searches for those who participated in the protests.