The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has ratified the national budget for fiscal year 1403 (solar year) after a “thorough review and consideration.”

This year’s national budget has been meticulously crafted to address the needs and priorities of the people, IEA spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday.

As with the previous year, the budget has been drawn up exclusively using domestic revenues.

The Ministry of Finance will, as always, incorporate the national budget for the fiscal year 1403 into the country’s financial system, Mujahid said.

All associated sectors, both ordinary and developmental, will be managed with full transparency and in accordance with standard procedures, he added.

No further details were given.

The United Nations said on Tuesday the next Doha meeting of Special Envoys for Afghanistan has been set for June 30 and July 1.

The spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, said at a briefing on Tuesday that civil society activists will also attend the Doha meeting.

He said DiCarlo had discussed with her interlocutors the various challenges that Afghanistan is facing.

Among other topics, she discussed the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, particularly the restrictions on the education of women.

DiCarlo was on a four-day visit to Afghanistan – from 18 to 21 May – and met with IEA authorities, the diplomatic community in Kabul and representatives of civil society as well as former politicians.

Dujarric said DiCarlo had extended to the Islamic Emirate’s  Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amir Khan Muttaqi, an advance invitation from the UN Secretary-General to participate at the upcoming meeting of Special Envoys.

The UN says the goal of the 3rd Doha meeting is to increase international interaction with the Islamic Emirate in a “coherent and structured” manner.

During her visit to Kabul, DiCarlo met with a number of people and officials, including former president Hamid Karzai.

In his meeting with DiCarlo, Karzai urged the IEA to attend the upcoming Doha meeting.

In his meeting with DiCarlo, the Deputy Prime Minister Mawlawi Abdul Kabir said the Islamic Emirate will participate in the third Doha meeting if its “position” is accepted.

He said that Afghanistan is under the complete control of the Islamic Emirate, that the country “has an Emir” and the government is “obeyed”.

According to a statement issued by Kabir’s office, the deputy prime minister told DiCarlo: “The previous meeting in Doha was incomplete due to some shortcomings of its organizers, and the position of the Islamic Emirate should be accepted in the next meeting so that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate will participate in it.”

The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly called on the United Nations and other countries to recognize them as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Kabir said that the Islamic Emirate has fulfilled all its obligations and “rules over the entire geography of Afghanistan… There is a central government in all of Afghanistan that has an emir and is obeyed.”

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned Tuesday that the devastating floods that struck the northeastern and northwestern regions of Afghanistan in the past two weeks are likely to intensify in the coming months, resulting in a significant impact on food security.

According to a statement issued by the UN agency, the floods have so far affected over 80,000 people.

WFP also noted that most of the affected districts are “hunger hotspots” and are already facing crisis levels of food insecurity.

The worsening climate crisis has led to erratic weather patterns, which have become the norm across the country, WFP warned.

Unusually high rainfall, which followed a dry winter that left the ground too hard to absorb rain, led to massive floods earlier this month.

This was further compounded by unseasonably warm temperatures that melted mountain snow, swelling rivers that then swept through villages, burying them under mud.

“With one disaster after another hitting these communities, they’re being pushed back into destitution,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP Afghanistan’s Country Director.

“Recent improvements in food security in Afghanistan now risk being lost,” said Hsiao-Wei adding that “these families need emergency assistance to survive, and in the longer term, they need investments in community infrastructure that help protect their homes, lands and livelihoods.”

WFP has meanwhile been hard at work providing affected people with fortified biscuits and children with nutritional supplements. Working with local bakeries, WFP also distributed bread to communities most hard hit.

By the end of last week, WFP started giving food rations to people in the affected districts, and providing cash assistance where markets were still functional.

But as the climate crisis worsens, the losses from flooding are expected to increase every year, WFP warned.

The floods come after years of drought that impacted most of the country.

WFP is investing in climate adaptation projects designed and built by communities to shield them from the impacts of the climate crisis. These include protective walls, dams and irrigation canals.

During the Baghlan flood almost two weeks ago, a WFP-supported protection wall safeguarded 670 families and 400 acres of agricultural land.

However, for the flood response, WFP needs an additional US$14.5 million to cover emergency food and nutrition assistance and resilience building projects.