Disaster Management Summit of the Americas Update

USAID/OFDA: Committed to Helping the People of Afghanistan

In April 2001, USAID/OFDA made history by sending a team into Afghanistan to provide the U.S. Government with a first-hand assessment of a devastating three-year drought and to determine effective assistance response strategies. The team members were the first U.S. officials to enter Afghanistan since 1998. The team consisted of a USAID/OFDA health officer, a USAID/OFDA nutritionist, and a refugee officer from the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. The team visited some of Afghanistan's worst drought-affected areas, including Herat and Farah provinces in the west, and Balkh, Samangan, and Faryab provinces in the north. The team witnessed villagers who had only bread mixed with wild grasses, saw fields that were barren, and heard stories of how the elderly were dying of disease as they gave up their food for the children in the village. Entire villages were pulling up stakes and moving to camps near the cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. The team's conclusion was that Afghanistan stood at the edge of a widespread and precipitous famine.

USAID/OFDA responded by deploying a Disaster Assistance and Response Team (DART) to Pakistan to assist in managing the U.S. Government's humanitarian program. In response to Afghanistan's deepening crisis of drought and civil war, USAID/OFDA overcame obstacles, including severe constraints on humanitarian access, to provide $12.6 million in relief assistance to Afghans living in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan during fiscal year 2001. The USAID/OFDA assistance was part of a three-pronged strategy designed to prevent further displacement by assisting people in their home villages; helping those who had already been forced to move to camps and other locations; and assisting displaced people in preparing for an eventual return to their homes. USAID/OFDA assistance was part of a $178.7 million U.S. Government humanitarian program during 2001 - the largest humanitarian assistance program in the world.

As part of a longer-running series of USAID assistance efforts that began in 1991 following the withdrawal of Soviet occupation forces, USAID/OFDA has demonstrated a long-term commitment to assisting the people of Afghanistan. As deepening civil conflict forced the end of the $132 million USAID cross-border development program in 1994, USAID/OFDA and Food for Peace, the food assistance office within USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Response, became the only U.S. Government offices still able to run programs inside Afghanistan. From 1994 to 2001, USAID/OFDA provided a total of $32 million in humanitarian aid, meeting a wide range of needs including emergency shelter for displaced people, heating assistance, support for emergency health programs, and relief commodities. Assistance was targeted to help Afghans survive the country's deadly mix of poverty, displacement, and civil conflict, and it increased significantly as Afghanistan’s three-year drought grew worse. In addition, USAID/OFDA responded to natural disasters including the two earthquakes that devastated parts of northern Afghanistan in 1998.

Since October 1, 2001, USAID/OFDA has provided more than $34,000,000  in grants and in-kind contributions to humanitarian agencies that are still operating in Afghanistan despite the current crisis. This total continues to increase as USAID/OFDA funds additional relief efforts (for the latest details, please refer to USAID Central Asia Task Force reporting on the region). Now more than ever, USAID/OFDA remains committed to assisting the Afghan people.

Photos are from the April, 2001 U.S. Government Humanitarian assessment.