OCHA Head: Efforts Being Made to Provide Winter Assistance
Isabelle Moussard Carlsen, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan told in an exclusive interview that OCHA is striving to deliver aid to those in need during the upcoming winter season in Afghanistan.
Isabelle Moussard Carlsen stated that United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organizations have assisted 14 million people across Afghanistan this year. According to Carlsen, OCHA is developing its 2025 assistance program, focusing on food security, water scarcity, climate change, and natural disaster response.
The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan said: “First of all, we are still in preliminary numbers for 2025, the humanitarian respond needs plans will be published in December, so we still have a bit of time — couple of weeks — we are working very hard in getting all the information and having all the actors working with us in consulting to make sure that we have the best plan for 2025. And we are also at the same time starting to discuss and advocate with donors to ensure that there will be funding for the humanitarian response in Afghanistan in 2025.”
Moussard also attributed the temporary halting of some aid projects in Afghanistan to administrative obstacles and noted that United Nations agencies make impartial decisions in assisting vulnerable people based on their policies.
On this subject, she added: “It is not OCHA that is stopping because OCHA doesn’t have any projects. OCHA is a coordination body, so the partners that we are working with, have sometimes had to temporary — and its what the report says — suspension of project because they had issues of administrative natures and since we have to respect humanitarian principles, when we can’t respect them, we temporary suspend project till the administrative implements are solved.”
In another part of the interview, Isabelle Moussard Carlsen reported that only 32% of OCHA’s total requested budget has been met from the beginning of the year until November.
She further explained: “Depending on the provinces, the districts, the region, depending on the needs, it will be different types of assistance. And it also depends on the resources. This humanitarian needs and response plan I have talked about, as of October, it’s only be in 31, 32 percent funded, which means that there is a big gap of funding to cover all the needs.”
Although the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Coordination in Afghanistan has noted that the current situation in Afghanistan has improved compared to three years ago, it emphasized that the situation remains fragile and that citizens remain in a vulnerable state.
