The gains of the past 20 years in Afghanistan will be lost unless we keep funding social infrastructure
Afghanistan is on the brink of economic meltdown. Millions of people are going hungry. Teachers and doctors are going unpaid. The social infrastructure built up over the past 20 years is collapsing, The banks are running out of money. Total collapse could come in days rather than weeks.
A catastrophe can still be avoided but only if politicians in the west – and primarily those in Washington and London – accept that they lost and the Taliban won. Unless the international community engages with Afghanistan’s new rulers and finds a way of providing financial support it will be a classic example of self-harm.