The United Nations in Afghanistan on Monday released its Strategic Framework for Afghanistan for the period 2023-2025 outlining the UN’s approach to addressing basic human needs in the country.

According to a statement, the framework prioritizes the needs and rights of those most vulnerable, including women and girls, children and youth, internally displaced persons, returnees, refugees, and ethnic and religious minorities.

“Our Strategic Framework is a robust offer of assistance to the people of Afghanistan to address their basic human needs and complement the ongoing delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva.

UNAMA said the UN Strategic Framework was developed in close consultations with Member States, partners, and stakeholders.

The United Nations Country Team and partners have identified three complementary and mutually reinforcing joint priorities as it supports the basic human needs of the Afghan people:

Sustained Essential Services in key sectors such as health, nutrition, education, employment, water, sanitation, hygiene, social protection, and protection that are accessible to all, affordable, and can be delivered free from all forms of discrimination.

Economic Opportunities and Resilient Livelihoods through the creation of an enabling environment that facilitates economic growth and the provision of decent work opportunities, especially for excluded groups such as women.

Social Cohesion, Inclusion, Gender Equality, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law – as prerequisites for sustainable development and peace in Afghanistan – strengthening civil society engagement and advocacy for alignment of Afghanistan’s normative and legal frameworks with international human rights instruments.

“The United Nations and its partners recognize that humanitarian aid alone will not be enough to sustainably address the large-scale and increasing human suffering of the Afghan people in the medium and long term,” said the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim, Daniel Endres.

The UN Strategic Framework has a special focus on the delivery of principled assistance in response to the increasingly restrictive environment facing all Afghans, in particular women and girls.

UNAMA said the ban against Afghan women working for the UN adds to earlier restrictions placed on Afghan women and girls: against women working for NGOs, against women working for other diplomatic entities; preventing girls from attending secondary and tertiary education institutions; against girls and women visiting public parks, baths, and gyms.

These and other edicts limit the physical movement of women and girls and their participation in economic, social and public life, it added.

“Whether the UN can fully implement this framework will depend on actions by the de facto authorities and on donor support,” said Endres.