Finland eases Afghans’ distress amid suspended bilateral ties

Finland on Wednesday adopted a new temporary policy line to provide controlled, carefully targeted and selected assistance to Afghans via the UN and civil society organisations.

The bilateral development cooperation between Finland and Afghanistan will remain suspended Finland does not recognise the Taliban administration, but funds will be channelled to humanitarian activities and to responding to people’s basic needs, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release.

Finland’s support is delivered through the UN and civil society organisations and it will not fall in the hands of or support the Taliban.

The UN has estimated that Afghanistan will be the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in 2022. The need for assistance is more than EUR 7 billion. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that up to 97 per cent of people in Afghanistan will live in poverty by the middle of 2022. Socio-economic and basic services in the country are on the verge of a collapse, which increases human distress, suffering and social instability.

Responding to such human basic needs as nutrition, security and livelihood requires not only humanitarian assistance but also other measures.

Therefore, Finland is prepared to provide controlled, carefully targeted and selected assistance to Afghans via the UN and civil society organisations.

“The scale of humanitarian distress in Afghanistan is immense. Together with the international community, we must do our utmost to alleviate it. Finland’s support is targeted at safeguarding people’s survival and basic needs and on defending human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, during the crisis,” said Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari.

According to the policy, Finland will continue to support its long-term partner organisations such as UN Women and MSI Reproductive Choices in Afghanistan. Funds from the World Bank’s Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) will be redirected, for example, to the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In addition, EUR 4.9 million of funding originally allocated to Finland’s long-term development cooperation has now been directed to humanitarian food aid (WFP). In late autumn, Finland tripled the amount of its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, which was planned at the beginning of 2021.