The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that 17,000 female staff members are not leaving the work force and they are working from home, and they will continue to be UN staff.
The UNDP released a report on Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023.
The report reads that when coupled with a population increase of more than 2 percent, average real per capita income of ordinary Afghans by the end of 2022 was estimated to have declined by 28 percent from the 2020 level.
The report said that there have been several improvements recently including security conditions, and “corruption has reportedly fallen.”
The head of the UNDP in Afghanistan, Abdullah Dardari, held a press conference late Tuesday to brief the media about the organization’s activities in Afghanistan.
“17,000 staff — female staff … they are not leaving the work force. For now they are working from home and they will continue to be UN staff and they will continue to be paid and they will continue to be very active,” he said.
The study, “Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023,” released today in Kabul by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said Afghanistan’s economic output collapsed by 20.7 percent following the Taliban takeover in 2021.
This unparalleled shock has kept Afghanistan among the poorest countries in the world.
“We believe it is also time to focus on more sustainable projects especially banking, private sector, unemployment to help the Afghan people recover from this type of situation,” said the deputy ambassador to Turkey in Kabul, who attended the UNDP event.
The report said that despite tentative signs of recovery, such as a relatively stable exchange rate, an increase in exports, growing demand for labor, and muted inflation, GDP is estimated to have further declined by 3.6 percent in 2022.
