U.S. Announces New Funding for Afghan Humanitarian Support
Washington, D.C. — The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) today applauded the announcement of new funding for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. The nearly $327 million, which was announced late Friday, includes close to $119 million through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) and nearly $208 million through USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.
The funds will support the work of international humanitarian organizations and implementing partners and will provide emergency cash, shelter, healthcare, and food assistance, as well as life-saving reproductive and maternal health services, and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response services to Afghan people inside Afghanistan and in neighboring countries.
The funding announcement follows a UN high-level pledging event for Afghanistan on March 31, where the U.S. pledged $512 million.
In response to the new funding announcement, Gayatri Patel, vice president of advocacy and external relations at the Women’s Refugee Commission, issued the following statement:
“This funding is an important step toward the Biden administration living up to its commitment to Afghan women and girls. Right now, almost 12 million Afghan women and girls require urgent humanitarian assistance and nearly 100 percent of female-led households are not getting enough to eat.
“Afghan women want to be able to go to work and feed their families. Girls want to go to school. They want the dignity of being able to leave their homes without a male guardian or getting harassed. The U.S. has the power to meet this demand.
“WRC is also pleased to see funding prioritized for reproductive health care services and for gender-based violence prevention and response services. These programs are critical to ensuring the rights and safety of Afghan women, girls, and other marginalized groups that are deeply impacted by the humanitarian and human rights situation in the country. It is unconscionable that their access to lifesaving health care and support to prevent and address GBV has lapsed in the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover. Advocates from around the globe – many of whom are Afghan women – have been pushing for this support since the fall of Kabul.
“It essential that the Biden administration – and other donor nations – see women’s rights as not just important, but essential and central to Afghanistan’s future.”
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Read more about WRC’s work on the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.