Priority 3. Provide humanitarian assistance for extremely vulnerable people, including refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons.

Vulnerable Afghans suffered the effects of intensified and spreading conflict, and were furthermore afflicted by natural disasters. Three earthquakes struck eastern Afghanistan in the quarter; one of them killed 21 people and left more than 600 families homeless. Serious flooding in May across northern, northeastern and western Afghanistan affected more than 22,000 families. Canada supported United Nations and Afghan agencies coordinating and delivering emergency help.

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.

Efforts to accomplish the eradication of polio throughout Afghanistan in 2009—the third of Canada’s signature projects—continued during the quarter, although new polio cases were reported. A national campaign in May reached about 7.2 million children across Afghanistan. In Kandahar, 400,000 children were targeted for vaccination in June, and about 369,000 of them (92 percent) were successfully vaccinated. Children were missed mostly because violent insecurity prevented movement of vaccination teams in part of the province. (Immunization of a child nearly always demands more than one vaccination.)

Despite the efforts of Canada and others, eight new polio cases were reported in Afghanistan during the quarter. In the first half of 2009, 13 new cases were reported, including seven in Kandahar.

The persisting insurgency in southern Afghanistan, and an increasing number of cases in neighbouring Pakistan, continued to impede the polio eradication program, which is led by the World Health Organization. With Canadian support, international partners are battling to reduce the danger of cross-border contagion. Some 11 border vaccination checkpoints have been set up to monitor movements between the two countries and administer vaccinations.

In another Canadian-supported activity, 270,000 square metres of land were cleared of landmines and other explosives in Kandahar and released back to the community. Community-based demining in the province was launched with initial training for 80 newly recruited deminers.

More generally in this priority, Canada contributed $3 million to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, $6 million to the World Food Programme and $4 million to other humanitarian agencies. These funds will support relief for Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons, and pay for food and other aid to vulnerable Afghans.

Three benchmark revisions have been made. First, a new progress indicator has been added to register food aid delivered to Afghans. Second, the indicator for polio vaccinations has been clarified to show more accurately how vaccination numbers are reported. Third, the target for training health workers in Kandahar has been strengthened by specifying the number (500) to be trained by 2011.