Taliban's ban on working women could cost Afghanistan's economy $1 billion: UNDP

Amid the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, a new UNDP report has revealed that the Taliban’s move to stop women from working could cost the country’s economy nearly $1 billion. In its socio-economic report, the United Nations Development Programme on Wednesday informed that Afghanistan’s nominal GDP is likely to contract by 20% within a year, from $20 billion in 2020 to $16 billion. 

UNDP warn that this decline may reach 30% in the following years if urgent corrective action is not taken. It said that the annual per capita income in Afghanistan had declined from $650 in 2012 to $500 in 2020. It is expected to even drop precipitously to $250 next year, the report added. 

"This new socio-economic assessment on Afghanistan estimates that restricting women from working could result in an immediate economic loss of up to USD 1 billion - or up to five per cent of the country's GDP," said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

"Not only is this a loss the country can ill afford but we call on the de facto authorities to uphold the rights of women and girls, including the right to learn and to work,” Steiner added. 

Further, the UNDP said that failing to invest in half of the country's human capital - in girls' education - will have dire socio-economic consequences for years to come. In its ‘Afghanistan: Socio-Economic Outlook 2021-2022’ report, it also went on to call for all available local resources to be mobilised, including female aid workers whose deployment is severely restricted in most provinces. 

Majority Afghan population is at risk of sinking below the poverty line

UNDP said that the economic modelling undertaken jointly by the UNDP and independent economists indicated that with falling incomes and a growing population, it could take $2 billion just to lift the incomes of all people in extreme poverty up to the poverty line. Notably, the agency previously had projected that up to 97% of the population may be at risk of sinking below the poverty line by 2022 unless a response to the war-ravaged nation’s political and economic crises is urgently launched. 

 UNDP Resident Representative in AfghanistanAbdallah al Dardari said, "We are facing the unfathomable prospect that the most basic human needs of nearly 40 million people will not be met.”

(With inputs from ANI)

Image: ANI/PTI