NewsGate Press Network

Media reports quoting a visiting official from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kabul has predicted that poverty levels in Taliban country is dangerously close to be affecting 90 percent of the population.

Mr. Achim Steiner the DG of UNDP  said Afghanistan’s economy urgently require a seizable dose of investment in order to arrest its freefall.

If corrective steps are not taken now, then, UNDP official stated, about 90 per cent of Afghanistan’s population will live below the poverty line by the end of the year.
“The answer to these challenges is also to invest in the recovery of Afghanistan’s economy. That means recognizing that the people of this country need urgent support to also be able to earn their own livelihoods, to have the income to be able to buy food, to send children to school, to pay medical bills,”, Achim Steiner said.
Steiner also said that several factors have contributed to the economic freefall of the country which includes not only “the political turmoil, but also Covid-19 and a drought (that) has created an economic reality in Afghanistan today that is essentially turning more and more people into poor people.”

During his visit to Afghanistan, the UNDP Director-General met with women entrepreneurs, media officials and private sector figures.

He said women entrepreneurs should be supported because they not only feed their own families but also provide jobs for other women.