Earlier this month, the United Nations requested five billion dollars for Afghanistan, which would be the largest aid package for a country in the organization's history.
So far, the request has fallen on deaf ears.
Neither the U.N. nor the Taliban should be trusted to be good stewards of five billion dollars given by international donors. Maybe five percent of that money will reach Afghan workers and institutions.
Throwing aid money at poor, undeveloped countries is always a bad idea.
There are better ways to help Afghanistan's shattered economy like opening up its banks to international creditors, and removing U.S. as well as international sanctions.
The economic isolation of Afghanistan serves no one's long-term interests.
An excerpt from, "Afghanistan: How the Taliban stand to benefit from Norway talks" DW, January 25, 2022:
The West faces a dilemma: It accuses the Taliban of continued human rights abuses in Afghanistan but at the same time understands that engaging with the Islamic fundamentalist group is now more important than ever.
The main reason behind this engagement is the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Earlier this month, the United Nations made the "biggest-ever appeal" for humanitarian aid for a single country, saying it needed $4.4 billion (€3.9 billion) for Afghanistan to prevent the "world's most rapidly growing humanitarian crisis" from deteriorating further.
For that reason, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed that the international community "must talk to the de facto authorities in the country" as it "cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster."
