Kabul: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has been forced to suspend critical programs in Afghanistan after a significant funding shortfall triggered by U.S. budget cuts, a senior official has announced.
Andrew Saberton, the Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, revealed at a recent press conference that the agency has lost $330 million globally due to the cuts, with Afghanistan suffering the greatest impact. As a result, programs worth $102 million in the country have been put on hold.
Saberton warned that the suspension will severely affect 6.3 million Afghans, most of them women and children, who will now lose access to essential and life-saving health services. He emphasized that Afghanistan already faces one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally, with a woman dying every two hours from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications.
During his visit to Afghanistan from May 4 to May 9, Saberton held meetings with senior Taliban officials, including the acting minister of public health, the governor of Bamyan, and the deputy minister of youth affairs. A key point of discussion was the ongoing restriction on girls’ education, which he argued could have disastrous long-term consequences for the country’s health system.
“If girls are only allowed to study until grade six, there will be no future generation of midwives when current staff retire,” Saberton said. “I made this point clearly, and they acknowledged the seriousness of the issue.”
Despite the funding crisis, Saberton reaffirmed the UN’s commitment to prioritizing Afghanistan and expressed hope that the international community would step in to help address the funding gap.
Islamic Emirate officials reportedly voiced concern over the decline in international aid during the meetings, but no clear commitments were made regarding policy changes.
