Q&A: An Afghan aid worker shares how the U.S. should respond to the hunger crisis

Advice from an Afghan aid worker

Uzma*, a CARE staffer in Afghanistan, helped conduct the assessment and interview community members in the provinces. She’s also a young Afghan woman with firsthand experience navigating the realities of her country’s rapid changes. She shared her reflections on what she’s hearing from Afghan women, her personal insights about the humanitarian impacts of the crisis, and what she wants U.S. policymakers to keep in mind:

What is it the situation in Afghanistan like today compared to a year ago? What are some of the barriers to accessing food specifically?

People are experiencing very bad psychological impacts, some had to leave their homes, and many can’t find food. Many people left Afghanistan but for the people who stayed these changes have really affected their quality of life.

Food used to be available in the markets and the cost of food was manageable. People had jobs and could afford to feed their families. Now the food is so expensive, and people can’t buy good quality food like meat but instead must eat beans and lower cost foods.

The economic crisis is really impacting families because some people don’t have any income to buy the things they need.

How are women and girls especially impacted?

When I’m visiting communities to monitor CARE’s aid response, women I speak to are concerned and really want to be able to have a job so they can have regular income again. Women worked before as teachers and in the government and now they can’t. Some have even been told to send their male relatives to their jobs in their place.

So many women we interviewed had the idea to start a small business — like tailoring — to get a little income, but it’s very hard because other people in the community don’t have the money to afford their services.

What would you like to tell people in power in the U.S. about how they can support Afghans?

Speaking for young women like me, we want freedom, peace, jobs, education, and opportunities. If women are able to work and go to school and travel, we can support our families and we can support our communities. If I want to have a picnic and see my friends or choose my clothes, I can’t; this is what our life is like. I’m lucky to go to the office and travel but most of my friends are at home and suffer depression. It’s hard to have hope for the future.

My father used to work for the army, my mother was a teacher, and my sister worked for a government ministry but [they lost their jobs] and now I am the only one with a job and responsible for supporting my family. In my community this is a typical story. Without education and jobs, the future is a question mark.

Translating evidence to action

Now is the time for policymakers in the U.S. and other donor countries to take action to address gender inequality and prevent and respond to the hunger and humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and beyond.

Here are 3 ways Congress and the Administration can help:

1. Be a leader in global humanitarian and food security funding and ensure that flexible, needs-based assistance can sustainably meet needs wherever and whenever they arise by:
   • Increasing regular appropriations from Congress for international disaster assistance and other humanitarian accounts that support responses in Afghanistan and around the world; and
   • Reauthorizing Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s flagship global food security program, at a minimum level of $1.23 billion annually and expanding its programming to more fully promote gender equality and support women and girls by elevating their role as decision makers, helping to break down barriers they face, and comprehensively integrating nutrition into food and health systems.
2. Address the underlying economic and financial drivers of the humanitarian needs and loss of livelihoods in Afghanistan by adopting policies that prioritize:
   • The urgent resumption of development aid in support of basic services- including civil servant salaries- via the Afghan Reconstruction Task Force and other means; and
   • Increased liquidity and macroeconomic stability including via recapitalization of the Central Bank and currency injections.
3. Support individuals, especially women and girls, experiencing food insecurity and crisis by adequately resourcing protection, gender-based violence prevention and response, and cash and livelihoods support; by holding humanitarian actors accountable to gender-responsive (and where possible and safe to do so, gender transformative) aid approaches; and by passing the Safe From the Start Act, into law.

You can take action now and urge U.S. policymakers to lead on global humanitarian response and food security at care.org/EndHunger.

 *Name has been changed to protect privacy