Priorities
Priority 3. Provide humanitarian assistance for extremely vulnerable people, including refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons.
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, and it is beset by natural and conflict-caused disasters. This Canadian priority is directed to saving lives, alleviating suffering and building self-reliance among the most vulnerable of the Afghan people.
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.
The most pressing humanitarian needs in Afghanistan now arise from food insecurity due to drought and high food prices, continuing internal displacement, child and maternal mortality rates that are among the worst in the world, and the many and chronic disadvantages afflicting Afghan women. Access to vulnerable people is often prevented by security conditions, and the Afghan government’s capacity to respond to their needs is severely limited.
Canada will continue to provide financial support to experienced international partners, such as United Nations agencies that are active in Afghanistan and aiding vulnerable Afghans. In a Canadian signature project, we will increase our contributions to the eradication of polio in Kandahar and throughout Afghanistan, which is one of only four countries where polio is still endemic. By late September this year 20 new cases had been reported, including eight in Kandahar. (Five cases were reported in the province in 2007.) Our benchmark for this signature project is the eradication of polio in Afghanistan. By2009, we expect that Afghanistan will have met its goal to halt the transmission of the polio virus in Kandahar and all of Afghanistan. About seven million Afghan children were vaccinated nationally last year and in the first quarter of 2008. (Depending on several factors, including a child’s age and health and the type of vaccine used, it can take one dose, or as many as 10 or more, for a child to be fully immunized.)
The polio campaign has been repeatedly subjected to insurgent attacks. In September, two Afghan doctors and a driver, working for the World Health Organization, were killed by a suicide bomber in the Spin Boldak area of Kandahar. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Another benchmark will measure the capacity of public Afghan institutions—most of them new and untested—to plan and coordinate emergency assistance in Kandahar. Our2009 targets for this benchmark are being developed with Afghan and international partners.
Still another indicator is the extent of land released and available to communities through surveying and clearing mines and other explosives, nationally and in Kandahar. Last year 180 square kilometres were released and made available in Afghanistan, and the number of mine victims declined 19 percent from the year before. Our 2011 target, based on the clearance target in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy, is a cumulative total of 500 square kilometres released and available for use.
