Archived Document
Priority 3. Provide humanitarian assistance for extremely vulnerable people, including refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons.
As one of the most impoverished countries in the world, Afghanistan remains in need of humanitarian aid from the international community. For this priority, Canada’s 2011 objective is for humanitarian assistance to be accessible to the most vulnerable people, including Afghan refugees, and to returnees and internally displaced persons in Kandahar and nationwide.
Canada remains fully committed to addressing humanitarian needs in Afghanistan, and works closely with a number of international partners to deliver desperately needed goods to Afghans across the country. To this end, in this quarter Canada allocated $20 million to enable civilian partners such as the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Food Programme and the UN High Commission for Refugees to address food and other humanitarian needs in the country.
Canada also continued to implement its third signature project, focused on the eradication of polio. Despite ongoing security concerns that resulted in their postponement, two vaccination campaigns were held in Kandahar province. The first reached an estimated 390,000 children, while the second reached an estimated 397,000 children—98 percent of the target group.
Canada works with allies and partners to
meet health needs across Afghanistan.
Canada has contributed to training over
1,200 health-care workers, surpassing
our target set for the year 2011.
Canada also continued to support other high-profile health needs across Afghanistan, including measures to stem the ongoing prevalence of tuberculosis. Canada provided primary funding in Kandahar for the local implementation of the Government of Afghanistan’s “Stop TB” campaign, whose goal is to increase the detection and treatment success rate of this disease through social outreach.
Beyond this, Canada is providing $2 million to the UN Mine Action Service for de-mining activities in support of the Arghandab Irrigation Rehabilitation Project—the umbrella project that includes repair of the Dahla Dam—which will enable previously contaminated land to be used for productive purposes, such as farming.
Afghanistan is also a country that experiences significant natural disasters and lacks the infrastructure necessary to deal effectively with the devastation they cause. Areas of Kandahar province and Jawzjan province experienced severe flooding and avalanches in February. With Canada’s support, humanitarian partners such as CARE Canada provided kits—blankets, plastic sheets, kitchen sets and other non-food items—to assist the most vulnerable families in the affected regions.
