AJ Bonanno

Sara Price

Model United Nations

10 February 2023

United Kingdom Policy Paper

While the United Kingdom acknowledges that the human rights issues in Afghanistan are a

pressing problem, we believe that the collapsed economy of Afghanistan is a more important

issue that must be solved before human rights issues can be tackled.

The Afghanistan economy was having a difficult time even before the Taliban takeover.

After the Taliban seized control of the government and Afghanistan’s assets were frozen, it

worsened. Outside aid was largely stopped. According to “The UK and Afghanistan”, it ranks

170 out of 189 in the world on the Human Development Index, and even before the Taliban

takeover, outside funds largely ran the country. A large component of their domestic economy is

the production of heroin and other drugs, which is also very problematic and makes aid difficult.

(“Afghanistan’s” 6) This reliance on outside aid makes it almost impossible for the government

to function on its own, and if it’s not independent, how can it help its citizens? The other reason

that the economic crisis is more important is because dealing with it provides a good foundation

for the people of Afghanistan to start fighting for their rights more effectively. It’s much easier to

fight for rights if having enough food and water isn’t an issue every day. Since the Taliban

takeover in 2021, child malnutrition rates in Afghanistan have risen by almost 50% (Giannone).
It would be much easier to focus on solving human rights issues if Afghans and outside aid

organizations didn’t have to worry about rampant malnutrition and famine.

Our proposed solution to the issue in Afghanistan is to put all of our current effort into

solving the economic crisis. We believe that it is necessary to put all available resources into

establishing a functioning economy in Afghanistan. This will involve creating legitimate jobs,

continuing financial aid until they can function on their own, and other possible measures to aid

the Afghan economy. According to “The World Bank in Afghanistan”, the current aid is only

damage control. It isn’t enough to set the Afghan economy on the path to any meaningful,

sustainable, long-lasting recovery (“Political crisis”). This emphasizes that while the current aid

is doing something, 100% of our effort needs to be on the economy if we want it to recover. All

that’s happening right now is damage control and mitigation of negative impacts. The almost

complete dependence on foreign aid, combined with a lack of industrialization and a very limited

domestic economy makes it very difficult for the country to gain any forward progress.

Humanitarian aid on its own cannot solve this problem (“The cost”). The United Kingdom is

already on the forefront of helping Afghanistan, but we will shift 100% of our focus to the

economy, and will use our reach as one of the premier countries of the world to encourage others

to do the same.
 Works Cited

“Ten Years of Afghan Economic Growth, Reversed in Just 12 Months: UNDP | UN News.”

United Nations, United Nations News, 5 Oct. 2022,

https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129287.

“The World Bank in Afghanistan.” World Bank, 7 Oct. 2022,

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/afghanistan/overview.

The UK and Afghanistan. House of Lords, 13 Jan. 2021,

https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/4185/documents/43162/default/.

“Afghanistan Humanitarian Crisis Causes Parents to Sell Children.” BBC News, performance by

Karin Giannone, BBC, 24 Nov. 2022.