In December 2022, Afghanistan’s defacto authorities banned Afghan women from working for NGOs. Around one third of World Vision’s team in Afghanistan are women. They are nurses, doctors, teachers, nutrition experts, team leaders, community health workers and more. They have access to people and contexts that their male colleagues can’t reach. They’re critical to safeguarding the communities we serve. They are essential to our work. As with a number of other humanitarian agencies, we made the tough decision to suspend all our activities in Afghanistan as we cannot deliver a suitable aid programme that reaches the most vulnerable without our female staff.
We’re already seeing positive signs. A number of exceptions to the ban have now been made, which means we’ve been able to restart the life-saving health, nutrition, and food assistance programmes you make possible. On 8 January 2023, we received assurances from authorities that the ban doesn’t apply to our health and nutrition staff or support workers. And it’s safe for women to resume these activities. Then in February 2023 we were able to resume our education and food assistance activities!
We hope that the ban will be lifted in its entirety and that we will be able to resume all our programmes. Our aim is to lift the suspension when female staff are allowed to work across all humanitarian sectors.
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