Integrity Score 380
No Records Found
No Records Found
Consequences of conflict in Afghanistan continues....
Although the situation slightly improved with the coming of the Taleban, they were non-hesitant to commit human rights violations on women and other ethnic minorities. The security situation in Afghanistan has remained highly volatile and basic human security has been denied to its citizens, especially, during the high-intensity war years. The military intervention by the US and allied forces which led to the subsequent collapse of the Taleban regime in autumn 2001, resulted in a power vacuum, which was immediately filled by hundreds of commanders as well as tribal or religious leaders. They possessed a certain legitimacy or controlled the means of the violence to a sufficient degree. This development was further strengthened by the US strategy of using Afghan militias to back up their fight against the remnants of Al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
The Afghan economy is one of the poorest in the world. The United Nations (UN) designates Afghanistan as a least developed country.
Historically, there has been a dearth of information and reliable statistics about Afghanistan’s economy. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of Afghanistan grew 14% in the 1960s, reaching a peak growth of 75% in the 1970s. Prior to the conflict in the late 1970s, its economy was characterized by food self-sufficiency, a predominance of agricultural exports, macroeconomic stability, a free-floating exchange rate, and a low debt burden. Over the period of high-intensity conflict, the economy was devastated as infrastructure stands destroyed, socio-political institutions and civil society weakened, and productive activities interrupted due to
protracted conflict. The economy stabilized for a few years in the mid-1990s but later collapsed again due to drought, a reduction of unofficial trade, a deterioration of infrastructure, macroeconomic imbalances, and the misrule and increasing international isolation of the Taleban regime.
Analysis of the Afghan economy continues to be problematic due to the lack of reliable statistics. An official but rough estimate by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) puts the 2002/03 GDP at $4.05 billion, with per capita GDP at about $186 using a population estimate of 21.8 million.
To be continued......