Priority 3. Provide humanitarian assistance for extremely vulnerable people, including refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons.
Canada’s humanitarian aid to Afghanistan answers the most desperate needs of Afghans and gives expression to our own enduring values. Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, and its people have suffered decades of war, bad government and natural disasters. Helping the most vulnerable among them remains a compelling duty.
Canadian Objective for 2011: Humanitarian assistance will continue to be accessible to Afghan refugees, and to returnees and internally displaced persons in Kandahar and nationwide.
Humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan are poor and deteriorating. Violent conflict, high food prices, drought and the resurgent incidence of polio have aggravated the plight of the vulnerable and created new needs. Warfare in some areas of Afghanistan has prevented or slowed the delivery of humanitarian aid.
In fact, humanitarian-aid workers are often victims of insurgent and organized criminal violence. In November, a mine-clearing team was abducted in Kandahar and one of its members was killed. Mine-education activities in two key Kandahar districts were suspended because of insecurity. In recent months, polio vaccinators have been kidnapped and vaccines stolen. A UN food convoy was attacked in Pakistan on its way to Afghanistan; 600 tonnes of food were lost.
Priority activities supported by Canada were nonetheless productive. Efforts toward the eradication of polio—a Canadian signature project—resumed during the quarter with vaccination campaigns in October and November. The World Health Organization and UNICEF, with help from Canada and others, continued to work with the military to institute “days of tranquility” when vaccinators can reach children in communities throughout Afghanistan. The Canadian target is to achieve polio eradication by vaccination across Afghanistan by the end of 2009. To this end, Canada supported the vaccination of 7.1 million children in this quarter. However, the number of reported polio cases in Afghanistan actually increased in 2008 to 31 cases from 17 the year before. Of these 31 cases, 27 were in the southern region that includes Kandahar. Canada has also allocated polio-eradication funding to neighbouring Pakistan, where polio case numbers increased dramatically in 2008.
Mine clearing and mine education are another Canadian focus, benchmarked with progress indicators. In this quarter, mine-risk education teams reached more than 13,000 people. Progress on mine clearance is reported annually; since 2006, 346 square kilometres have been released to communities across Afghanistan. Our 2011 target is to have 500 square kilometres released and made available to communities. Mine-risk education continued in Kandahar, and with Canadian funding the UN is expected to start community-based de-mining operations in the province in 2009; the object is to increase Afghans’ own participation in mine clearance and education. Nationally, the Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan is taking steps to assume more Afghan responsibility for mine action, and it carried out clearance work around Kandahar City.
Women and girls comprise the largest category of vulnerable people in Afghanistan, facing barriers to education, health care and other necessary services. In Kandahar City, Canadian-funded construction of an obstetrical unit at Mirwais Hospital was completed in the quarter. The first facility of its kind in all of Afghanistan, this project is part of an Afghan government initiative to increase the numbers of women giving birth with the aid of trained birth attendants. This facility is expected to receive 1,000 patients every year. Canada is also supporting renovation of the hospital’s female surgical wing and operating theatre.
The UN World Food Programme, with support from Canada and other countries, continued delivery of food supplies to Kandahar, with a focus especially on vulnerable populations of returning refugees and internally displaced persons. These food distributions have helped households cope with high food prices and the continuing drought afflicting Afghanistan.
Internally displaced Afghans, and returning refugees from Iran and Pakistan, remain acutely vulnerable and their numbers have grown. Through 2008 more than 377,600 Afghans were deported from Iran, and more than 278,000 returned voluntarily from neighbouring countries. By December there were more than 230,000 internally displaced persons in Afghanistan, most of them living in southern Afghanistan. In November, the convening of a major conference in Kabul—with Iran and Pakistan represented—indicated some progress toward a better coordinated regional approach to refugee issues.
