UNSC says vaccine equity, aid to Afghanistan and Syria 'were high on 2021 agenda'

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has noted that the COVID-19 vaccine equity and aid to war ravaged Afghanistan and Syria were among the top priorities on its 2021 agenda as the two nations’ economy is left battered by the novel coronavirus pandemic. A total of 246 public meetings and the 15-member council adopted nearly 57 resolutions and 24 presidential statements in 2021 to address the crisis and demonstrate the solidarity to address the dire economic woes and devastating humanitarian crisis across the two regions, according to Xinhua News Agency. 

Across the UNSC, members participated in resolving the key issues related to Syria by reviving the cross-border aid delivery mechanism in July 2021. And member states also exempted humanitarian assistance from US-led asset freeze against the Taliban regime in Kabul to help the Afghan population emerge out of the looming food and hunger-related crisis. Such exemptions, as per the UNSC, “was aimed at pulling the war-torn country back from the brink of economic collapse”, Xinhua reported. “Perhaps no single nation’s trajectory was as dramatic in 2021 as that of Afghanistan,” it added.

Economic crisis, hunger, chronic malnutrition amid pandemic

While in Syria, the situation remained under control on the military front, the country witnessed a significant spike in economic crisis, hunger, chronic malnutrition, and other grave humanitarian challenges, said the UNSC. “About 13.4 million people across the country required humanitarian assistance, 20 percent more than in 2020,” Xinhua noted. Meanwhile, Afghanistan witnessed the economy and public services collapse due to the conflict and pandemic after the Taliban took control of the territory in August 2021. 

The Taliban’s control of the country led international donors to immediately suspend most non-humanitarian funding and freeze billions of dollars’ worth of assets, informed the UN. “Without this funding, most health clinics have closed and the economy has spiralled downward (risking near-universal poverty) as the country confronts an ongoing drought and hunger crisis and possible fourth wave of COVID-19," it said. In 2021, most Afghans could not afford to feed themselves or their families, and millions across the region were pushed towards famine. Donor countries’ halting funding and freezing of Central Bank assets created a major financial crisis for Afghanistan, according to the International rescue Committee.