Afghanistan > Country Background and Current Challenges
More than 35 years of conflict and war have left the people of Afghanistan in a state of protracted crisis. Despite the overthrow of the Taliban regime ten years ago, civil unrest and increasing levels of insurrection have hindered efforts to bring stability and development to the nation. Almost a third of Afghans are food insecure.[1] In 2010, 191,000 of Afghanistan’s youngest children died before reaching their fifth birthday—that’s an average of 523 child deaths every single day.[2] More than one-quarter of those deaths are caused by diarrhoea,[3] an indication of the country’s poor sanitation and unsafe water. In addition, more than 400,000 people—the majority living in remote and isolate communities—are affected each year by natural disaster.[4] For these families, many already living hand-to-mouth, a flood, landslide, or earthquake can exhaust all their coping means, leaving them desperate for outside assistance.
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[1] 2007-2008 National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/asia/documents/afgh_nrva_2007-08_full_report_en.pdf
[2] Levels and Trends in Child Mortality, Report 2011. UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation: www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2011_Final.pdf
[3] WHO Statistics 2011. www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS2011_Full.pdf
[4] 2007-2008 National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA)
ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/asia/documents/afgh_nrva_2007-08_full_report_en.pdf
