Muttaqi: Aid must be adjusted according to people’s needs

KABUL (Pajhwok): Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Thursday stressed the importance of taking maximum advantage from the international community’s humanitarian assistance and adjusting its distribution according to people’s basic needs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said in a statement Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) and UN officials held a coordinative meeting today.

Representatives from the ministries of Rural Rehabilitation, Economy, Finance, Interior, Public Health, Refugees and Repatriates, Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, Water and Power, Information and Culture, Disaster Management, Education, Martyrs and Disabled and officials of the Municipal Affairs Cohesion, Kabul Municipality and Environment Protection Authority and a number of other departments attended the meeting.

The two sided discussed the needs of the Afghan people, IEA priorities, aid the UN provided during the past one year, UN’s future plans and further enhancing coordination and bilateral understanding between the government and the UN.

Acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the war had ended in the country and the time had come to focus all efforts on the country’s reconstruction and development.

“The IEA government is making all-out efforts to put the country on the path to self-sufficiency and development by using available resources. but the available resources are not enough to fix the rubles of the past four decades of wars and to reach out all the widows, orphans, disabled, refugees, rehabilitate drugs addicts, clear landmines, respond to drought and help the earthquake-hit people and those affected by climate change, floods and other disasters. Afghanistan needs both short and long term aid of the international community.”

Muttaqi said In order to make maximum use of international aid, it was necessary to adjust the aid’s nature and distribution according to the needs and priorities of the people of Afghanistan.

During this meeting, UN’s deputy special representative Indrika Ratwette shed light on UN activities in the country and pointed at under focused areas and hinted at development assistance in addition to humanitarian assistance, saying the world’s body was working in this regard.

The two sided also discussed their respective priorities and stressed further coordination.

They also talked about the needs of people affected by natural disasters, especially recent floods and to maintain and increase the existing spirit of cooperation and coordination and to move from humanitarian aid to development aid, agreed to establish technical mechanisms.

aw/ma