Afghanistan at the Frontlines of Climate Stress & Migration
Meetings & Events
Date: 28 September 2026
Language: English
Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/en/asset/k1w/k1wochba56
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Afghanistan · Charge d'Affaires [0:01]:

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, esteemed panelists, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. On behalf of the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations, it's my pleasure to welcome you to today's discussion on climate security and environmental resilience in Afghanistan. I express our sincere appreciation to Global Resilience, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security, the Women in Water Diplomacy Network, and the Jubitz Family Foundation for their partnership and co-organizing this event. We are particularly grateful to Mr. Selwyn Hart, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Climate Action and Just Transition, for joining us as our keynote speaker. I also welcome Ms. Anne Richard, my co-organizer and co-chair, Dr. Freshta Sakhi, and all our distinguished panelists and participants who are joining us in person or virtually. Dear colleagues, Afghanistan's climate crisis is inseparable from the wider challenges facing our people. Drought, floods, water scarcity and land degradation are placing further pressure on communities already affected by more than four decades of conflict, poverty, displacement and institutional fragility. The trend is unmistakable. FAO reported that snowfall at the start of the 2025 and 2026 wet season fell to a 25-year low, threatening the snowmelt on which our crops and livestock depend. Drought, which once struck about every three years, now returns nearly every other year. The United Nations estimated that 22 million people Approximately 45% of Afghanistan's population will need humanitarian assistance in 2026. UNDP reports that drought affected 64% of the country in 2025, up from 34% in 2024. And according to OCHA, nearly 88,000 people affected by natural disasters in 2026. had been impacted by floods and flash floods as of its July update. These figures describe different periods and impacts, but together, they make clear how little time many communities have to recover between shocks. They are also driving people from their homes. Environmental hazards such as drought, water shortages and soil erosion accounted for 79% of internal displacement in the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, about 2.8 million people returned from Iran and Pakistan in 2025, placing further strain on scarce water, land and services. For an Afghan farmer, drought can mean losing a harvest and ability to feed a family. For a displaced household, another flood can mean losing the little they have rebuilt. For children, the risks overlap. UNICEF reports that 41% of Afghanistan's roughly 21 million children face multiple climate shocks, and that more than 8.8 million children are exposed to at least three climate hazards. Although Afghanistan has contributed less than 0.1% of global emissions, its people face severe consequences. They must not be left behind in the global response. Environmental pressures are also compounded by countries' political and human rights crisis. The exclusion of women from education, employment and public life undermine Afghanistan's capacity to adapt. Communities cannot build resilience while women's knowledge, skills and leadership are excluded from decisions affecting their future. Today, I hope our discussion will advance these priorities. First, we need practical support that reaches communities, early warning systems, disaster preparedness, resilient agriculture, restoration of watersheds, and reliable access to water. Humanitarian assistance remains essential, but families also need the means to withstand the next crisis. Second, women must participate meaningfully in designing and delivering these efforts. Afghan women are engineers, researchers, farmers, and community leaders. Participation is essential to effective adaptation and sustainable water governance. Third, we must strengthen regional cooperation. Afghanistan's shared rivers connect its future with those of its neighbors. Dialogue, scientific cooperation, and responsible water management can help prevent tensions and build trust around shared needs. And this can only be done through a responsible, legitimate, and inclusive governance committed to its national and international obligations. Across these priorities, we need accountable channels for climate finance and technical assistance that benefit the Afghan people, uphold human rights, and support locally-led solutions. Excellencies, our task today is to connect this discussion to action. What can we support? Whom must we include? And how can we sustain cooperation? The Afghan people deserve the opportunity to protect their livelihoods, restore their environment, and shape a more secure future. Their resilience must be matched by sustained international solidarity. Thank you for joining us, and with that, I'll conclude my opening remarks. It's now my pleasure to invite Ms. Anne Richard, board member of Global Resilience. our co-chair, to deliver her opening remarks. Please.


Global Resilience · Board Member, Co-Chair [6:22]:

Thank you very much for everything your office has done to make this a reality today. We are so, so grateful. And allow me then to also express gratitude to, in addition to the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN in New York, to Afghanistan Water and Environmental Professionals Network, Women in Water Diplomacy Network, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and the Climate and Environmental Youth Initiative, as well as the Jubitz Family Foundation and Climate Refugees. So what do we mean by creating and naming a new 501, a tax exempt charitable organization, Global Resilience? For me personally, the attraction for me is this concept of protection, protection of people and the environment in which they flourish. And I'm so happy to hear mention already this morning of protection of women, protection of children, all these aspects of society that are affected by environmental change. We will, in the coming times, be focused on human rights work, as we have in the past, when this was a project that it was sort of incubated at Freedom House. And but but for today, the focus really is on environmental protection. And then we will be emphasizing that the need for environmental global resilience. As you already have heard from the ambassador, the context in Afghanistan is very challenging, including drought, environmental degradation, need to dig deeper and deeper wells to get to clean water, impact on drinking water and crops, on health and sanitation. And I'm so thrilled that several of the invited expert, truly expert speakers today are Afghans. And so my role for the rest of the meeting is really to listen. There are three other large scale problems that are also affecting what's going on in Afghanistan. One is large scale return of Afghans from other countries. And this, of course, will put greater pressure on resources. And in my background, working on migration issues, very, very focused on how people sometimes leave from a rural area, but when they come home again, they go to the cities. And so that changes the demographics of a country. Secondly, challenges with shrinking aid budgets around the world. This is unfortunately happening and affecting very many of the humanitarian development and human rights sectors. And so this is something with which we're all coping. And the third, normally we would decry lack of attention. But in this case today, we have attention. So thank you very much for your attention. I'm going to hand back to the ambassador then to introduce our keynote speaker.


Afghanistan · Charge d'Affaires [10:01]:

Thank you, Mr. Richard. And now it is my honor and pleasure to invite Mr. Selwyn Hart, special advisor to the Secretary General on climate action and just transition to deliver his keynote speech. Please, Mr. Hart, the floor is yours.


UN Secretariat · Special Advisor to the SG on Climate Action and Just Transition [10:23]:

Thank you so much, Ambassador and Excellencies, and Ms. Richard, sponsoring entities. It's a pleasure to be here, and apologies for being a few minutes late. We're still running around and recovering from high-level week, but I really wanted to be here with you, given the important work that you're doing, but also to show solidarity with Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan. The reality is that the climate context is becoming more dangerous, and Afghanistan sits on the front lines of the climate crisis. The past 11 years have been the warmest record. We are approaching an overshoot of the 1.5 degree limit of the Paris Agreement and a strengthening El Nino is adding heat to an already warm and overheated planet. And this increases the risk of drought, floods and extreme heat. Overshoot matters enormously for fragile and conflict affected countries. And the science is clear, overshoot brings Additional severe risks, some irreversible, and the risks grow with both the magnitude and duration of overshoot. Adaptation options that work today will become increasingly constrained and less effective as warming rises. So therefore, every fraction of a degree matters moving forward. And no effort must be spared to address the root cause of the climate crisis, emissions and fossil fuels, to make this overshoot as small and as short as possible. But equally, and in parallel, we must address the consequences of overshoot. And this means, as the Secretary-General has repeatedly said, an overshoot in adaptation, an overshoot in resilience building, and an overshoot in finance. An overshoot will not occur on a blank piece of paper. It will hit communities already struggling with poverty and displacement, governments with limited fiscal space and institutional capacity, food and water systems already under pressure and humanitarian systems already stretch. So it will mean more shocks, more severe shocks, and less time to recover between them. That is why the security implications of climate change are no longer theoretical and they should no longer be ideological. We can see them and while climate change might not automatically cause conflict, but it interacts with political, economic, and social pressures. It can multiply and will multiply risks, destroying livelihoods, worsening food and water insecurity, driving displacement, and increasing competition over scarce resources. And Afghanistan brings these realities into sharp focus. It has contributed less than 0.1% to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet faces an acute combination of climate vulnerability, environmental degradation, economic fragility, and limited institutional capacity. Four consecutive years of drought between 2021 and 2024 devastated communities in Afghanistan. This spring, flash floods affected more than 73,000 people, and some 21.9 million persons, around 45% of the population, need humanitarian assistance this year. And decades of conflict have compounded these risks. Degrading land, damaging water, irrigation systems, and weakening the capacity to prepare for and recover from these shocks. Every new climate shock lands on communities that have not recovered from the last one. And this is why the UN, the United Nations, it established the climate security mechanism. Between 2018, or since 2018, sorry, it has brought together expertise from across the UN system to strengthen our capacity to analyze and address the links between climate change, peace, and security, and to translate that analysis into practical responses. And that integrated approach is increasingly important for Afghanistan. So I see four major priorities in our work moving forward. And both the ambassador and Miss Richards have have already mentioned some of them. First, we must prepare before disaster strike. Because we know. Disasters will strike. Early warning and anticipatory action, it saves lives. Disaster mortality is nearly six times lower in countries with comprehensive, multi-hazard, early warning systems. With El Nino increasing risk, the Secretary General's Early Warnings for All initiative must reach communities across Afghanistan. So early warnings for all and ensuring that Afghanistan is part of the early warnings for all work and initiative must be our first priority. Second, we must put water security at the center of resilience. As the ambassador said, Afghanistan's major river basins cross borders. Water scarcity can increase pressure and competition. But water can also be an instrument of cooperation. Better water management, water diplomacy can support adaptation, confidence building, regional cooperation, and environmental peace building. Third, invest in Afghanistan's people and locally led solutions. That means climate resilient agriculture, climate tolerant crops, restored rangelands and resilient infrastructure. Afghans, communities, scientists and practitioners have knowledge that can help shape many of these solutions. And of course, as everyone has said before, women must be part of this effort. They're disproportionately affected by climate and environmental pressures, but are also essential actors in water management, food security, disaster preparedness, and community resilience. Fourth, finance must reach the places where vulnerability is greatest. Today, extremely fragile states receive a mere fraction of the climate finance reaching non-fragile countries. And this is something that the Secretary-General and our office have been working on with institutions like the Green Climate Fund and the multilateral development banks. Fragility cannot continue to be a reason for climate finance to stay away. It must be a reason to find better ways for finance to get in and working through entities like many of you that are in the room. Working through appropriate partners, including the UN system and others, with transparency, accountability, and safeguards. Because in an era of overshoot, adaptation is simply not about protecting infrastructure. Ultimately, it is about protecting people. It's about protecting and safeguarding livelihoods. So we must invest before climate shocks become disasters, before climate pressures become deeper humanitarian and security crisis. The United Nations, we stand with the people of Afghanistan and we stand in support of this and other efforts to ensure that Afghanistan can and the people of Afghanistan can have dignity and that their livelihoods will be protected in this era of climate overshoot. So thank you so much.


Global Resilience · Board Member, Co-Chair [19:15]:

We are so grateful for your participation and the contribution that you've already made this morning. We so appreciate your position that has been engineered by the Secretary General, and also that you might be a little tired after last week, but you don't act tired. And It is so wonderful to have you here and also to hear from you. So thank you again. At this point, we'll turn to the co-founder and the president of the Global Resilience Organization, Ms. Frisch Tosaki, Dr. Frisch Tosaki. She is originally from Afghanistan. She has been working on Afghan issues for well over 20 years, including as, once upon a time, a UN staff member, an Afghan diplomat, and involved in non-governmental organizations, and as a professor at George Mason University. So we are very, very pleased to have her as the leader of the Global Resilience effort at this key time. Thank you, Freshta.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [20:34]:

Thank you very much, Anne, for your kind introduction. Excellencies, representative of member states, and distinguished colleagues, good morning. Let me begin by expressing my appreciation to His Excellency, Mr. Nasir Ahmad Fayyad, Charge d'Affaires of the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations. Mr. Sylvan Hordt, Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General for his support and keynote remarks, Distinguished Anne Richard for her support and for her leadership in bringing this important conversation to the United Nations General Assembly. I also want to extend my sincere appreciation to the distinguished panelists and co-organizer for this very important meeting today. And I'm deeply honored to moderate today's important session. Colleagues, we meet at a critical moment for Afghanistan, where climate change, water insecurity, environmental degradation, displacement, food insecurity, and economic vulnerabilities are converging with the legacies of more than four decades of conflict and institutional fragility. Afghanistan ranks 180th of 185 countries in climate vulnerability, yet contributes less than 0.1% of global emissions and has limited capacity to adapt due to the current crises. It is facing a crisis it did little to create, making climate justice central to Afghanistan's climate challenge. And the consequences are no longer a distant or future concern. In 2025, drought affected two thirds of Afghanistan, access to a drinking, a safe drinking water fell approximately to 44% low, while around 28 million Afghans, three out Every 4 people were unable to meet their basic needs for a country whose economy and millions of livelihood depend heavily on agriculture, changing precipitation. patterns, recurrent droughts, floods, and degradation, and declining water availability have profound implication for food security, rural livelihood, and community stability. Water lies at the heart of this crisis, and these environmental pressures are increasingly connected to human mobility. Approximately 2.9 million Afghans returned to the country in 2025. In September 2026, IOM and UNHCR reported 1.2 million returns to Afghanistan this year, including more than 500,000 deportations from Iran and Pakistan. IOM has also reported 79% of displacement recorded in Afghanistan during the first quarter of 2025, and the main reason was climate and disaster events. These are not simply migration issues, but every return places significant pressure on communities already struggling with water scarcity, food insecurity, land degradation, housing shortages, livelihood, and limited public services. This is where climate displacement, development, and security converge. And these impacts are not experienced equally. Women, children, rural communities, displaced population and people with limited access to resources can face disproportionate consequences. For women in particular, water scarcity, food insecurity and livelihood disruption can deepen existing inequalities by limiting their ability to participate in decisions about the resources on their families and communities depend. This is what women's meaningful participation must be understood as part of climate resilience itself, not as an additional consideration. The same is true for young people and local communities. They hold deep local knowledge of ecosystem, water and agriculture, while women, youth, environmental advocates and civil society leaders are advancing currently climate actions and community resilience under very difficult circumstances inside Afghanistan. We should also recognize the important role of Afghan diaspora, particularly after the August 2021. Afghan researchers, professionals, environmental advocates, civil society organizations in exile can help connect local knowledge and experiences to the international research, scientific expertise, climate finance, diplomatic networks and global environmental platforms. These efforts are currently disconnected. Afghanistan environmental challenges are also regional in its nature. The country shares rivers, watersheds, and ecosystem with neighbors. Climate change and water scarcity therefore create challenges that cannot be addressed in isolation. At the same time, shared environmental interest can create platforms for dialogue dialogue, confidence building, practical cooperation with Afghanistan neighbors, particularly Central Asian republics, Pakistan and Iran. This is where environmental peace building becomes particularly important. So our discussion today is not only about vulnerability, it's about agency, knowledge, and leadership. Afghanistan climate vulnerability cannot be separated from broader global climate agenda, and climate resilience cannot be separated from peace, human security, development, and regional stability. To explore more about this nexus, I'm honored to introduce our today's distinguished panel who bring together expertise in climate, water governance, displacement, and regional cooperation. We also have a colleague joining us today from Afghanistan, and I would like to introduce our panelists today. Thank you very much. We have Dr. Najibullah Sadi. Dr. Najibullah Sadi is a water resource, environmental, and climate change expert based in Germany. He holds a PhD in water resource management from University of Stuttgart and currently advises on climate change and food protection for the State Office of Environmental of Rhine Health Palatinian. He's also the steering committee member of Afghanistan Water and Environmental Professional Network. Welcome, Mr. Sadeed. We have Ms. Fooman Farooq. Fooman Farooq is a water resource engineer and water governance and diplomacy expert. She previously held senior technical and leadership positions at Afghanistan National Water Affairs Regulation Authority, including general director of Kabul River Basins, and has served since 2021 as water resource engineer with South Nation Conservation Authority in Canada. She's also a founding member of Central Asia and Afghanistan Network of Women in Water Diplomacy Network. Welcome. Mr. Hamid Mobarrez is a PhD candidate and a researcher specializing in disaster management. security, and climate resilience. With a background in public administration and crisis leadership, he has held strategic positions in Afghanistan, including Presidential Assistant for Research and Innovation. He brings a multidisciplinary perspective to discussion on climate change, disaster preparedness, and regional resilience. We have Marwa Raheem, a colleague joining us from Afghanistan. Marwa Raheem is, Alam Safa is a environmentalist and climate resilience practitioner working on intersection of climate adaptation, environmental action, and youth engagement. She's a founder of director, she's founder and director of Climate and Environmental Youth Initiative and is currently serving as National Climate Adaptation Officer with the Aga Khan Foundation. We have Kimberly Hard, is a director of policy and program at Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, advancing women's leadership and participation in policy spaces. Previously, she led USAID's human rights programming and worked with Search for Common Grounds, Freedom House on conflict prevention. She has supported peace building in human rights efforts in more than 50 countries. And we have our colleague, Ms. Amali Towers. with us who will be wrapping up today's session. Ms. Molly Towers is a founder and executive director of Climate Refugees and an expert on climate-induced displacement, refugee protection, and forced migration. She has worked with NGOs, UNHCR, and the US Refugee Admission Program and conducts research and advocacy on the links between climate change, conflict, and displacement. Welcome, and with that, I would like to ask the first question from our colleague, Engineer Sadiq. Given the environmental and you have a PowerPoint presentation. And so given the environmental degradation and institutional fragility resulting from decades of conflict, why is Afghanistan particularly vulnerable to climate related shocks and how these shocks affecting livelihood, food security and broader economy? The floor is yours, Mr. Najibullah.


Afghanistan Water and Environmental Professionals Network · Water resource expert [30:31]:

I hope the mic works. So I have prepared some slides to give you an overview of what's happening in Afghanistan, not only the current condition in terms of climate change, but also the land degradation, environmental issues that our people are facing. So if you look at the map, basically, Afghanistan, we say in Afghanistan that Afghanistan is the blessing of Hindu Kush Mountains. It's not because of the treasures it held, but it's because it captures snow. And snow is making 70 to 80% of our water resources. You see the topographic map on the left side, you see how much water basically these mountains capture. You see that the higher the mountains, basically the more water towers it is basically generating for Afghanistan. Next, please. So as I said, snow is contributing to up to 80% to our water resources. And this topographic advantage is basically now is lost because or is gradually being lost due to the issue of climate change, because climate change adds to the air temperature. And that means that either Afghanistan gets less snow or if it snows, basically it melts away very fast. And for the summer agricultural period, there is no water. You see that this satellite imagery that shows the elevation of the central highlands of Afghanistan captures the most of the snow and this is the water resources of Afghanistan basically for the summer. And on the left side you see when it rains what happens in Afghanistan. So when it rains, it rains out of the country because It's an elevated area, the mountainous area, and of course, everything drains out of the Afghanistan. The shortest period water remains in Afghanistan is two days and the longest is 11 days. So after 11 days, water, the flash floods will drain out of the country. Next, please. So you see that as the climate, the air temperature changes, we have flash floods on one side and then after two months then the rivers are dry. And when there is no water, surface water, of course people are looking for alternative resources. Next, please. So now Afghanistan is basically caught between two major shocks. Either we have droughts and prolonged droughts since 2021, for example. And when it rains on the dry surface, water is not soaked into the soil. And so what happens? The runoff generates and this runoff becomes floods and flash floods that washes away our valleys, agricultural products, basically homes. And this is what the current condition is. Next, please. So how we can basically make use of flash floods because there is rain, but we cannot make use of them. So because Afghanistan is traditionally using snowmelt, but now snow is becoming less and less. So we need infrastructure. And in terms of infrastructure, you see this map is showing the global storage capacity of the world where dams have been built. And you see in Central Asia, in Afghanistan, Afghanistan has, after Turkmenistan, the lowest storage capacity in this region. And that shows basically why Afghanistan becomes very vulnerable, because it cannot cope with the water which is available in terms of flash floods. We cannot store flash floods and basically store it for the summer demand. Next, please. So what happens when there is no surface water, there is no storage, people are looking for alternative resources. And this alternative resources is groundwater. So, you know, in the last 20 years, in particularly, half a million of wells have been dug in Afghanistan. And 60% of these wells are after 2020. So it shows how much, basically, the climate impact is forcing people to go for alternatives. And this groundwater that now Afghanistan people are using, it's not a groundwater which should be replenished and recharged. They are basically fossil groundwater. They have less connection with the surface. That means that Afghanistan is moving toward not a crisis in terms of water, but bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that these resources are basically exhausted and extracted and they are lost forever. They cannot be replenished, they cannot be recharged. And this is basically putting livelihood of people in danger because in the Southwest, at least 12 million people are living And when they run out of groundwater, which is now basically lowering each year, so what will happen with these people? Where the livelihood would be provided? Next, please. So here, a summary of, you know, in terms of economical costs, what does it mean? An assessment by World Bank in 2017 shows that in a very moderate case, Afghanistan is losing up to 500 million USD to droughts, and in extreme cases, up to 3 billion. USD due to the droughts. And you see that even some other shocks are not included. And what does it mean? Maybe for some countries it's not a lot of money, but for Afghanistan, which is already in a very bad condition in terms of economy, you see that it contributes 3% to 18% of GDP of this country. That means that each time a drought hits, it's up to 18% of GDP of country is basically impacted. So this is huge, this is unprecedented. Next, please. You see another issue, which is basically why Afghanistan is more vulnerable, because its sector of agriculture makes basically the most of the people's livelihood. More than 70% of the people are involved in agriculture. And agriculture is a sector with highest contribution to the GDP of Afghanistan. You see in this map, Afghanistan already has like 35% of GDP is coming from agriculture. And agriculture is a sector which is largely impacted by climate change and of course water cycle disruption. So again, it's not an agricultural livelihood, but it's also a basic human rights of drinking water. You see in this map, this is showing access to drinking water worldwide. And you see this red area, which is Afghanistan in Central Asia, the heart of Asia, has the lowest access to drinking water. More than 80% of our people has less or no access to drinking potable, healthy drinking water. So this is showing how hard is the condition. Next, please. So it's not only, you know, the provinces, the rural areas, but also the center, Kabul, the capital, is running out of water based on some estimates. By 2030, Kabul city may be the first capital of the world which will run out of groundwater resources. And it's 11 million people are living there. So there are, you know, beside water, there are of course environmental degradation that's happening in Afghanistan, wars, you know, the mining activity. They are all basically disrupting the topsoil and also overgrazing of vegetation basically destroys the topsoil and the soil when it's destroyed, of course, the rain washes away and the rain basically brings with it a lot of sediments. Next, please. So you see, it's not only the human impact, but also there's international impact, which we see the impact of war in Afghanistan. This is the NATO bases that they had open put burning and also discharge of the wastewater. There's a study of mine which is under review, which should come out in November. Basically, we quantify all the bases where the wastewater was dumped on the soil, but also there was open put burning of military waste, which also contributed to the environmental degradation in this region. Next, please. So we have, before 1977, we had 4.5% forest and now we are basically in 2002, we are having less than 2% forest in the east of the country. You see the green area showing where the forest of Afghanistan is located. And this is an unprecedented rate of deforestation which Afghanistan basically had. Next, please. So these all have impacts on the livelihood and the health of the people. You see the massive dust storms are becoming more frequent and more intense across northern Afghanistan, but also in the west Afghanistan. You see also the air pollution, even in the summer, the air pollution due to this degradation of the land surface is becoming a challenge for the people. Next, please. So there is a new issue of environmental degradation, which is the gold mining. You see in the northern Afghanistan, on the banks, these two satellite images, it shows on the left before the gold mining and on the right after the gold mining. You see that all this very unique landscape, also ecosystem, is destroyed basically due to the intensive gold mining, which is not considering the environmental protection, which is not basically washing the soil, which was once fertile, but there's also leaking of, lubricants and all the chemicals that are used in gold mining now finding their way into the groundwater and also polluting basically the basic materials that are used for agriculture like the soil and the water and of course the environment. Next please. So I will end up here with the positive message that it's not all the things are negative, they are also positive. And the positive is that Afghanistan people are becoming more and more aware of the challenges and they are taking some initiatives. These dams and these structures and the watershed management, you see that they are taken by the people. And the largest dam that have been built is costing $3.6 million and they are basically funded by the locals themselves, by diaspora community. There has been more and more awareness building such measures have already contributed positive, but they need to be upscaled. to the other regions so that we can at least build some sort of resilience. With that, thank you very much for the attention.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [40:24]:

Thank you very much, Dr. Sadi for ending with a positive note. Now, I would like to give the floor to our colleague, Fuman Farooq. Fuman, John, what is the impact of water scarcity and mismanagement on communities? particularly on women, and what role Afghan women can play in water diplomacy and climate adaptation, particularly in strengthening community resilience and cooperation over water resources. Thank you.


Women in Water Diplomacy Network · Water resource engineer [40:55]:

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to join this important discussion. Water scarcity and the weak water management affect entire community, but the impacts are not shared equally. Afghanistan water system is already under significant pressure from recurrent drought, floods, groundwater depletion, inadequate infrastructure, growing demand, and weakness in water governance and institutional capacity. This pressure reflects some of the warning signs of what the United Nations University now describes as a water bankruptcy. But for community, it's not simply a hydrological problem. It's directly affect health, food security, livelihood, displacement, and household resilience. And for women and girl, the burden is particularly significant. Most of Afghanistan population lacks access to basic drinking water and basic hygiene services. In many household, women and girls are responsible to collecting water. So when a nearby well or a spring become unreliable, the impacts is measured not only in liters of water, but in hours of women spent to collect the water. UNDP recently documented that experience of a woman near Gharda, who had to walk 60 to 90 minutes for water three or four times per day. That means more unpaid labor. greater physical strain and less time for education, livelihoods and economic opportunity. For women and girls traveling long distance, it can also increase exposure of harassment, insecurity and other protection risk. And the burden continue inside the home when unsafe water and poor sanitation lead to illness, women often take an additional care responsibility. Limited access to water and hygiene also affected women's own health and dignity, including menstrual hygiene, and can make it more difficult for girls to remain in school. Under severe water, food, and economic pressure, families may also resort to harmful coping strategies, including child marriage. So water insecurity is not simply about whether water is available. For women and girls, it can shape how they spend their time, whether they can study or work, their health and safety, and ultimately, the opportunity available to them. And that is why women should not be viewed only as people affected by water insecurity. Their knowledge and capacity also need to be part of the response. And for the second part, I think the first point is that Afghan women should not be seen only as affected by water insecurity. They are already part of water management every day as a farmer, caregivers, professional and community members, and they hold practical knowledge about household water use, agriculture, livelihood and environmental change. That knowledge can directly support water conservation, climate adaptation and community resilience. And when we speak about water diplomacy, I think we should define it broadly. It's not only negotiation between countries over transboundary rivers. Water diplomacy also happens at the community level. When farmer, upstream and downstream user, neighboring village or different group need to negotiate access, timing, allocation and competing needs. In that space, women can contribute through local knowledge, communication, trust building, and mediation. The challenge is how to protect and expand that capacity under current restrictions. I see three practical ways. First, a strong community-based approach to give women a meaningful role in local water decision. They can invest in the technical capacity of women inside Afghanistan through training, mentoring, research opportunity, and professional network in water, climate, and environmental field. third, make better use of Afghan professional diaspora. Women engineers, researchers, and water professionals outside Afghanistan can support research, mentoring, technical training, data analysis, and knowledge exchange with women inside the country. And where mobility or formal participation is restricted, remote and hybrid approach can help maintain those professional and technical connections. For me, the goal is not simply inclusion, It's to create practical channel through which Afghan women can contribute knowledge, strength, resilience, help resolve local water challenge, and support cooperation over water resource. Thank you.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [46:15]:

Thank you very much, Ms. Farooq. Now I'll give the floor to Mr. Mobarrez. Mr. Mobarrez, how are climate-related disasters driving displacement within Afghanistan? and across its borders, and what can be done to better protect and support climate displacement of Afghan communities?


PhD candidate [46:37]:

Thank you for giving me the floor. Charge d'Affaires Fawwaz, Dr. Sakhi, and distinguished guests and panelists, it's a pleasure for being here today to discuss some of the important issues regarding climate change in Afghanistan. I prepared a presentation, and I hope to with considering the time limitation, I hope to summarize it in between five to seven minutes. If you go back, Mr. Nizami, to the first, yeah, second slide. The scale of climate vulnerability in Afghanistan. As for someone who has cried sometimes, has heard and has listened and has seen the affected families in Afghanistan, because I used to work for 10 years, nearly 10 years, as a director of disaster management in west zone of Afghanistan. And I saw when families are affected by disaster, especially climatic disasters, because we have two types of disasters which comes from climate changes, sudden events and slow onset events or disasters. The scale of climate vulnerability, the figures describes different dimensions and time period of Afghanistan's crisis. Afghanistan is a country which is exceeding between 1.5 Celsius degree warming since 1982, 2022. And it is exceeding the global warming trend, which globally it is between 1.20. And in some part of Afghanistan, especially in the north part, as we discussed last night with Dr. Sadeed, it reached to two degrees of Celsius. And it shows that the trend in Afghanistan is higher and faster. We had 1.3 million people living in internal displacement due to disasters by the end of 2024, and this number as only climatic disasters, displaced people. Generally, we have more than 3.5 million internally displaced people, which displaced due to conflict and climatic disasters. And 33 million people are facing severe water shortages in 2025, about 80 percentage of the entire population of Afghanistan. Next slide, please. These are some key points that I note down. Afghanistan faces severe climate pressure, including rising temperatures, declining precipitation, and reduced river discharge. From 1980 to 2022, minimum annual temperature increased by 1.5 degree of Celsius, exceeding the reported global average of 1.3, minimum annual precipitation decreased by 1.2 millimeters, while river discharge declined by 128 cubic meters per second across Afghanistan's five river basins. Also, we have climate impact have been particularly severe in Western Afghanistan. We had, after 2001, we experienced three times severe droughts in entire Afghanistan, but mainly in southwest, west, and northwest of Afghanistan. If we remember, before the year 2000, we had a severe drought, which due to that, more than hundreds of thousands of families have displaced from northwest, central Afghanistan, and southwest, and they moved to bigger cities like Herat and Kandahar, and some of them even reached to Kabul. Between 2002 and 2014, we were witness of the second wave of that severe droughts, which caused displacement of more than 500,000 families. On that time, I used to work as a director for disaster management in west part of Afghanistan. Those displaced people were mainly displaced from Ghor, Badghis, Farah, Nimruz, and Helmand provinces and moved to Herat, Kabul, and Kandahar, and some moved to even Mazar-e Sharif. And in 2025, approximately 22.9 million people required humanitarian assistance because of overlapping crisis, climate hazards, disasters, and population movements. Climatic disasters in Afghanistan is that nowadays it's not a future threat. We are living with it. And it is a current threat that destroys farmers, lands, families, and the certification in Afghanistan, especially in some part of the country, mainly in southwest and northwest of Afghanistan, reached to more than 80% of entire farmland. Why? Because more than 75% of Afghanistan's farmers are dependent on rain fed agriculture. There is no irrigation system in Afghanistan. It's so custom and typical. And when there is no drought, there is a nice saying in Afghanistan which says, no rain, no gain. And this is the main cause of human mobility in Afghanistan. And it is acting like a threat multiplier to push the people toward the bigger cities. When people are moving to the bigger cities, another types of problem is happening. Why? Because bigger cities in Afghanistan are always facing with lack of technical capacities and infrastructures. And when the new arrivals reaching to the bigger cities, some sort of other problems occurs, which we can see in housing, drinkable water, work or job markets, and food. And it intensifies clashes and leads to some other security problems. I was with someone who has the experience in this regard, we received several reports during the, when we relocated more than hundreds of thousands of people in Maslah, Shaido, and Manora Halk camps. More than 15 servicemen of Afghanistan National Army were killed through these locations. And it is like a threat multiplier, and it is unfortunately fueling the many problems that Afghanistan is struggling with. A climate shock can become forced displacement. Repeated losses exhaust the choice available to a household. As we know, and other friends mentioned, Hazard, drought or flood, damaged land, water and homes. Livelihood loss, families lost crops, livestock, income and saving. Poverty deepening, debt raises, food falls and fuel the social instability, which already mentioned. Mobility becomes survival. And in Afghanistan, when people choosing to move from one part to another part, they are seeing it like a strategy of survival, because they cannot survive with the empty or bare lands that struggling with. Sure, I'm going to. Yeah, as I mentioned before, arriving in a city does not guarantee safety, displacement, transfer pressure from rural livelihoods to urban services. And we can see all these pressures that housing, services, and infrastructure. Climate shock, climate change multiplies existing security risk and intensifies pressures that Afghanistan already struggles to manage. Next slide, please, poverty, displacement, and we have that. The consequence extend beyond Afghanistan. Water scarcity and human mobility connect climate resilience to regional stability. Cross-border water pressure, shared basins require sustained diplomacy and technical cooperation. Irregular migration, repeated livelihood losses can push people to move across border. and regional insecurity, economic desperation, and resources disputes can spread instability. And these four priorities can reduce displacement and insecurity in Afghanistan.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [57:28]:

I just-- We can cover it in the-- OK.


PhD candidate [57:31]:

OK.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [57:31]:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Mobarrez. That was comprehensive. And Now I would like to give floor to our colleague joining from Afghanistan, Ms. Marwa Alam. I hope colleagues can connect us. It may take a few minutes. Thank you for being patient with us. Ms. Marwa, are you with us today?


Climate and Environmental Youth Initiative · Founder and Director [58:16]:

Yes, I am here.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [58:17]:

Perfect. So my question from you, thank you, first of all, joining us from Afghanistan. And my question from you is, how are Afghan youth and local communities on the ground responding to environmental crises and protecting their natural resources? And what can be done more to support their locally led efforts? Floor is yours.


Climate and Environmental Youth Initiative · Founder and Director [58:40]:

Good morning and thank you so much, Mr. Hie for inviting me. So good morning, everyone. And thank you for inviting me and for creating this important space to discuss about climate and environmental resilience in Afghanistan. So to answer my question, I want to answer it in three parts and I want to do it through some pictures and some experiences. I will start from youth, then we will shift to communities and then we'll focus on some solutions that can support Afghan youth and community to build climate and environment resilience. If we go to the next slide. As you can see, I'll start from Afghan youth. Since 2023, something important has been happening in Afghanistan. And it is that despite very limited opportunities, we are seeing a new generation of young environmental volunteers, including women. They are organizing different initiatives themselves. And right now, their work is concentrated in two years, as you can see, awareness and advocacy. in terms of awareness. It comes first because, as you know, that environmental literacy in Afghanistan remains limited. So young volunteers use different tools, including social media, online platforms, webinars, and other kind of platforms to talk about environmental issues and raise awareness. and some groups that can operate physically, which means they are registered, they organize tree planting, clean up, waste management activities and so on. But where physical activity is difficult or limited, young people have become very active on online activities and they are reaching participants across Afghanistan and technology helped them a lot. So right now we are also seeing that there are a lot of youth-led initiatives, there is official registry, but there are at least 10 plus active youth lead initiative and network to this. I just list them, and some have register structure, other operate completely voluntary and online. For example, C, our own initiative is one example. At C, we have organized environmental literacy training program, SDG youth fellowship, and Now we have another program by the name of water list training program. And the idea is to connect Afghan youth with national or international expert and some youth initiative also working on environmental research and producing reports and stories and even some policy briefs that they can send it to UN agencies in Nepal. So the important shift I noticed is that young Afghan youth people are moving from awareness to action and advocacy. And that leads me to the next slide, if we have it. Yes. So I want to talk how local voices reaches to global advocacy stages. And my example is ALCOY. ALCOY stands for Afghanistan Local Conference of Youth. In 2023, ALCOY was organized for the first time in Afghanistan by a group of youth lead. networks with endorsement from Yungo, which is the official children and youth group of UNFCCC. So this LCOI established a youth-led process through which we could come together to discuss about our climate priorities and then connect perspective with the wider Young Global Conference of Youth and UNFCCC processes. As you can see on the slide, the early process relied heavily on online participation, which allowed us to make sure that we had women, because physical access was very difficult. By 2025, the process had developed into a hybrid three-day national conference with around 300 participants. When it was held in in person in Kabul, women were fewer in number, but they were active. So the key outcome, as you can see on the second picture, is was the development of national youth statement, which transformed our individual voices into a collaborative advocacy document. And Afghan youth drew this document, identified their priorities, then we document them and connect them with the regional and global network. And we also shared that document with all UN agency inside Afghanistan and also with other stakeholder like NGOs and even the facto So these two pictures on the right, I have, I want to go back to the, yeah, the slide. So these two pictures on the right shows another important part of the story, because for the first time, an Afghan youth delegate joined other youth delegate in presenting the global youth statement to UNFCCC representative, which means that Afghan youth are networking with Afghan environmental advocate outside of the country, and it's very important for us because we believe that environmental challenge do not stop in Afghanistan and we need to collaborate with the rest of the globe. And this year we are planning the first Afghanistan environmental dialogue under the children and youth major group of United Nations Environmental Program. Although United Nations Environmental Program is not operating in Afghanistan. But see, somehow we managed to receive the endorsement later from the Children and Youth Major Group to organize this conference. So as you can see, this evolution is from volunteer to learner to organizer. And now we are in a stage of network building. So if we go to the next slide. So, in the slide, I want to shift from you to local communities, because local community or locally lead environmental action is much older than youth engagement in the sector. And since 2022, what we notice is that environmental. actions are increasingly linked to livelihood opportunities for local communities. What I mean is that, for example, when water or agriculture protection is affected, community responds because these resources are part of livelihood. And we also see that communities maintaining or repairing the local water system, or they adopting to new kind of farming and participating in watershed or land restoration activity just because This environmental action is linked to their livelihoods. So this shows that environmental action in Afghanistan is increasingly linked to community needs and livelihoods. As you can also see, I have listed what community are doing right now and what NGOs can do it if they are engaged with community. And finally, what communities and NGOs can do together when they have financial and technical support. So that connection to livelihood is important because in Afghanistan, environmental action is more likely to attract and sustain the -- and attract community participation when people can also see a benefit of, like, water management practices or ecosystem restoration. So this is also where local and community-based organization matters. There are not they are not outside of the community, they understand the context of Afghanistan and they also have the trust of community so they can collaborate with community easily compared to international organization or other stakeholder. We also see the same logic in new climate programming which is supported by different stakeholder including EU, UNDP and so on. So my conclusion from the community side is not that community are already doing doing everything. It is that there is a foundation we can build on it because community have local knowledge, they have labor, they have a direct interest in protecting and protecting the resources. But here, local NGOs and community-based organization can be bridge to turn that local interest into stronger environmental action. So if we go to the next slide, which is about what international community actually can do to help youth and also local community is, I just separated what are some needs for Afghan youth and what are some needs for local community. So for youth, I would prioritize technical pathways because Afghanistan already have very committed young advocates, both male and female. But what many do not have is access to professional infrastructure that turns their advocacy into expertise. We need accessible fellowship, internship, scholarship, and technical mentorship. We also need a platform where we can conduct research and then support our community by those researchers. And it means that we need to connect with Afghan experts outside of the country and also other international institutions that they are conducting research. We also need accessible climate data because I witness that some of Afghani that they want to conduct any kind of research, they really want to have access to data, but there is not enough data access in Afghanistan. And research institutions can also create research placement for Afghani student, particularly for those who are already studied environmental or climate or engineering fields. And then this will help them to somehow build their confidence and participate not just in advocacy but also to be part of decision making because we noticed that many Afghan youth, although they have the commitment and they represent their community both at local level and international level, they have the confidence but the only problem is lack of expertise, enough expertise, and if they have enough expertise then they can follow that specific sector and they can contribute meaningfully. And for communities, they need direct and flexible local finance because climate finance is a big deal for Afghanistan right now. Everyone who is in this room, they understand that because of the political situation, what's going on in Afghanistan. But even if we have research, even if we have very committed and also inform community without technical and financial support, we cannot implement any big and transformative projects in Afghanistan. They also need technical support to improve their existing water committees. We have forest, for range land association and so on. And all of all these committees need technical support as well. So Afghan local organization also need multi-year partnership rather than treat it only as a short-term subcontract, because right now we have some organisations within Afghanistan that are specifically working on climate or on environment. In the past, an organisation by the title of a humanitarian organisation also worked on climate or environment, but now we see that there are some emerging organisations that are focused on climate and environment. If they have the capacity and the and financial support, they can really make a difference in Afghanistan. And with that, I will leave here if we don't have enough time. But you can also see other recommendations that can support both Afghan community and also Afghan youth to really make a difference in their communities.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:11:29]:

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ms. Alimzai. You're most welcome. Thank you for highlighting the role of communities, the role of youth, and giving us more hope what we can do currently in Afghanistan. Now, I would like to give the floor to our final panelist, Ms. Kim Hart. Kim, from your experience working with women, peace, and security, what does comparative experience tell us about women's role in environmental peacebuilding, climate adaptation, and natural resource management? Thank you for being patient and floor is yours.


Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security · Director of Policy and Program [1:12:09]:

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you to our distinguished panelists and of course, to our Afghan experts for sharing all of your deep insight. I also, of course, want to say thank you to the countless Afghan women inside Afghanistan and outside of Afghanistan working on climate security, human rights and peacebuilding for their bravery and their incredible work in this space. I'll keep my remarks short. I know we're tight on time, but I want to zoom out quickly and then zoom in quickly. I work at the Georgetown University Institute for Women, Peace and Security. We work with women peace builders and climate activists around the world. And I think on the comparative experience question, what we see around the world today is a growing intersection of conflicts, climate insecurity and gender inequalities, all reinforcing each other, which we've heard from a lot of our speakers here today as well. From Sudan to Yemen to Iran, we see this time and again that these issues cannot be separated from each other and contribute and kind of snowball. Globally, women are 14 times more likely to die in climate disasters than men. Climate shocks, increased displacement, violence, child marriage, livelihood loss, and create unique burdens on women and girls. And of course, those are exacerbated by gender disparities and discriminatory norms and laws of which are the most extreme in Afghanistan. Our women, peace and security index ranks Afghanistan as number 181 of 181 countries in the world. So the worst country in the world to be a woman. for women's well-being. And those intersect and exacerbate these various climate dynamics. The extreme restrictions of the Taliban regime, the gender apartheid that's being experienced, intersects with these issues in countless ways. All of the top five worst rated countries on our women, peace and security index, including Afghanistan, are among the worst rated countries in the world in the Global Peace Index and the Climate Vulnerability Index. So again, reinforcing that these these issues cannot be separated from each other. Globally, less than 0.1% of climate financing goes directly towards women led organizations. So I think our colleague, Mr. Selwyn Hart, spoke earlier about climate financing. We would argue that this is a structural failure. It's a failure of many different decisions at many different points, not only to not provide enough climate financing, but to not take women's issues seriously and fund women who we've heard from various speakers today have unique value add to address these issues. But women around the world are not just victims, and we've heard that, of course, about Afghanistan, they're uniquely positioned to respond to climate change and lead adaptation, whether that's, you know, from water management, like we heard from Ms. Fomon, to national resource management, to conflict resolution, to really innovative solutions that we're seeing women demonstrate around the world, things like micro-insurance led at community levels, really thoughtful ways to help communities be resilient to these challenges. Our research has found a strong correlation between more women's inclusion, and better ability to anticipate, adapt to, and recover from climate shocks. So the data shows that women's equality is a key pathway to climate resilience. And in countries like Afghanistan, again, the systematic attacks on women undermine climate change preparedness and resilience for the future. We recently conducted, along with DROPS Afghanistan, a survey of over 500 women peacebuilders in the country. And they identified the most urgent needs for the international community as follows. The first is legal support. The second is capacity building and training. Third, funding, especially long-term funding. Fourth, opportunities to participate in key international fora. And fifth, advocacy support from international organizations. So Afghan women are telling us what they need. They've been telling us what they need, and now we need to listen to them. and we need to step up and respond to these demands and requests that they have. Afghan women need to be central to all current and future conversations about Afghanistan's future, and resilience is not possible when 50% of the population is systematically excluded. For Afghanistan, climate and gender cannot be siloed. Women's leadership must be central to both, and environmental defense is really challenging and dangerous, both in Afghanistan and around the world. And I just want to take a moment to highlight the protection needs and crisis facing environmental defenders and women human rights defenders around the world, which, of course, I know Mr. is the expert on. Our survey found that Afghan women report significantly fewer benefits to working on peace and security issues compared to others in the region and around the world, and significantly more negative consequences to their work because of the extreme environment in which they work. But they are not being deterred. The international community needs to provide protection mechanisms and support, public reporting and pressure consistently on the attacks that these brave women are facing. both inside and outside of Afghanistan so I'll end by saying Afghan women understand the context they have tremendous expertise as so many people have highlighted they have innovative solutions and we need to listen to them empower them and support them to be leaders of climate adaptation for today and for the future for Afghanistan thank you.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:17:44]:

Thank you very much, Kimberly Hart. And now I would like to open the floor for question and answers and if there is any intervention. Yes, please. You can also introduce yourself.


Mexico [1:18:04]:

Thank you so much for the floor. I'm Jared from Mexico. Thank you for the research and investigation. My question is for the Dr. Hamid. Although their contexts are different, Afghanistan and south regions of Mexico, particularly Baja California, simultaneously face water scarcity, arid land, and security challenges. When security requires immediate attention, how can government prevent access to water and environmental protection from behind ignore it? And what lessons from Afghanistan could be useful for other countries facing similar situations? Thank you.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:18:47]:

Thank you. I'll take the questions first, and then we can respond. Thank you very much for your question. Any other questions or intervention? Yes.


Switzerland [1:19:07]:

And I work at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN. I want to say that Switzerland also supports the efforts of Afghanistan to face the challenges posed by climate and water security issues as well. We engage on strengthening the capacity through various means, including the Geneva Water Hub. and support to the UNRCCA, as well as the Women in Water Diplomacy Network at the global level and also in Central Asia and Afghanistan and through our initiative, Blue Peace Central Asia. And my question relates to the response and how we could strengthen also as a global community and do more in terms of moving from having this awareness, as you mentioned it, that communities are more aware and they should be capacitated to respond more, but also at the global level, how can the international community make more of a difference and respond better


Mexico [1:20:19]:

these acute crises that Afghanistan faces. Thank you very much.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:20:25]:

Thank you very much. Thank you for your concerted support. Yes.


Speaker 26 [1:20:37]:

Inspiring, I don't know the word, conversation. The challenge is so great.

I wanted to ask our esteemed panelists with the UN Water Conference. 2026 coming up later this year, we'll have an opportunity to put a great emphasis on issues of intersecting between, well, so many of the challenges that we're facing in this region, and specifically the issue of elevating women's voices as part of the UN Water Conference. So I'd like to ask if there's any thoughts on how we can ensure that the important voices of Afghanistan are also part of the, you?

UN Water Conference, important milestones coming up later this year.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:21:22]:

Thank you very much, Elizabeth. Any other question or intervention? We have also colleagues joining us from Geneva Water Hub online, so please feel free to speak if you have any question or intervention. Okay, so if there is no further question or intervention, I'll give the floor back to our panelist. Mr. Mobarrez, the first question is from you.


PhD candidate [1:21:56]:

Thank you for your question, and I'm trying to have the answer if I got your question properly because of language barriers. Look, there is much differences between Afghanistan and Mexico. Why? First, Afghanistan is a less developing countries and Mexico is kind of developed countries, at least in terms of infrastructures. But Dr. Kowal Madani, he's a researcher and I love what he is doing in this aspect. He says entire world will face with the water bankruptcy. He uses this term, and it is not matter of only Afghanistan or Africa. For sure, some part of the world will experience harder this issue. In some part of world, we have less problems of water scarcity. Honestly, I didn't zoomed on what's happening in Mexico, but a part of my research, which I done in my master's degree, for example, in Afghanistan, if you have between 185 to 220 millimeters of rainfall nowadays, you are kind of wet here. It's not and dry year. But at the same time, when I started research in Westchester County in Pennsylvania, it is 1,500 plus millimeters per year. So it's quite different geography and quite different problems. Here, you have proper infrastructures. I don't know what is the case of Mexico. You said you are from Mexico. But I'm pretty sure that you have enough infrastructure, you have technical capacities, and also in all developing countries, especially in less developing countries in Africa and for sure some Asian countries, the climate change concept didn't take seriously. It is a new concept for some of countries. Why? For example, till 2021, it wasn't a top priority for Afghanistan government. We signed Hugo Framework for Action, we signed Sendai Framework for Action, and we committed to bring some changes in our policy, in our roadmap, in our trajectory toward how to deal with disasters. For example, we committed to invest between 15 to 25 percentage of the budget from development projects to channel them toward disaster risk reduction. For example, when we had to build a school, we should have spent at least, and we spent $100, we should have spent between $15 to $25 to protect that school, to make it disaster resilience school, but it has never happened. Why? Because the top priority in Afghanistan on that time between 2002 and 2021 was how to fight with the Taliban, how to defeat them, and even some other aspects were not among the top priority. So it is a challenge for entire developing countries, but I don't know exactly what is the scenario in Mexico.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:25:49]:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Mobarez. My next question is from Ms. Fomard, in role of women in the upcoming UAE meeting.


Women in Water Diplomacy Network · Water resource engineer [1:26:00]:

Thank you. Just I have a very short request for the UN project or other international organizations. We have to change the measure of the success for the project. The measure of the success in the project may be account for how kilometers of the canal, how we built the dam. And if we want to include the community, especially women, in the projects, we have to change the measure of the success. The measure of the success may be, did it reduce the time and unpaid labor women and girls spent collecting water? Did it improve their health, safety, and ability to remain in education? Did it strengthen livelihood and community of resilience? And did women and local community have meaningful role in shaping the solution? I think it's now as they, as facing to climate change and exclude women from the decision maker, we should change the measure of the success and it's related to include women in the decision making.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:27:10]:

Thank you very much. And now the last question, I think I will give the floor to all of our speakers. And the question is, what are some of the key messages for the international community? What are some key recommendations to respond to the environmental and climate crises in Afghanistan? So each one of you have two to three minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. Najibullah.


Afghanistan Water and Environmental Professionals Network · Water resource expert [1:27:37]:

I would address the questions from the madam from Switzerland. So Switzerland, as far as I know, have supported Afghanistan. Two of our colleagues have studied glacierology, glaciers of Afghanistan in Switzerland. They have graduated with PhDs, thanks to Switzerland for their support. I also know some NGOs who are working in watershed management locally in Bamyan in central Afghanistan, and some other provinces who are also funded by Swiss government. So thanks to them. My message would be to upscale this, to train the locals how to take these measures themselves because NGOs might leave the region, but it's the people who would do the maintenance, who would expand the work. So this would be the message to train the locals, give the project key to them and say, okay, this is the method that should work for you and expand it to the other regions, train other locals from neighboring villages. This should be, I think, the message to go. And to your question, I have some concrete points, I think, that in the context of Afghanistan should work. One is, of course, with the context that we have in Afghanistan, the political situation that we have, we have to seek a way in order to basically reform the climate funding in fragile states. Fragile states, it's not only the capacity that they don't have the capacity basically to document, to make these papers, go through all the processes and to observe funds. It's also about some of these states are basically excluded, like Afghanistan has been excluded from all the source of UNCCC. Afghanistan cannot submit NDC to UNCCC. Basically, Afghanistan cannot get any fund for their climate adaptation projects. So at the moment, what should be possible is to reach out to the communities, to the non-state actors. We have seen a lot of communities. I am working with the communities who are building small-scale infrastructures to build resilient small-scale dams, pools, cropping. They have new crops. So to basically reach out to those communities for basically upscaling. upscaling these efforts. The climate adaptation funds, we are now, if you look at the reports of climate adaptation funds, all the fragile states, even those who states who are in stable condition, they are underfunded. So this adaptation fund gap should close up somehow. We cannot live like that because the climate resilience or the climate impacts are cumulative. It's not going away. The disaster that happens this year for the next year, it will sum up and it will end up the people that they lose their livelihood and there might be even regional issues with the things, with the disaster that are coming. So I think Afghanistan at the moment can be also included in regional regional initiatives, for example, Green Central Asia. There are also some other initiatives which are basically energy transport from Afghanistan to the region. So Afghanistan can be part of some regional initiatives when it comes to the climate adaptation and resilience building. So Afghanistan can benefit, the local communities can benefit from that. I think we have to focus at the moment because large scale infrastructure through government funding is not possible. We have to focus on locally, basically local, small scale, localized measures. And this could be at a province level. This could be at a village level that the international communities at the moment are basically involved like NGOs, FAO, for example, UNDP. there are other actors which are already on the ground. So we can basically upgrade, we can basically upscale their activities to the broader region. We can give them more funds, basically allow them more freedom. But also there are local Afghan NGOs who have gained some experience in the recent years. So we can of course support them financially to expand their work, to build resilience on the local community. I think that for the government at the moment for the DFA, my message would be to have NEPA an independent entity. An independent NEPA would be professional capacity, professionals at their head should basically communicate more in terms of comprehensively with internationals. If we have a NEPA, an independent entity, We can communicate more, we can exchange data, maybe we can open even the door for Afghanistan to submit their NDC to the UNCCC, and they are basically a door of communication opens between Afghanistan and the international. Thank you very much.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:32:39]:

Thank you very much for your comprehensive set of recommendations, Dr. Sebnajeeb. Now giving the floor to Kimberly.


Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security · Director of Policy and Program [1:32:48]:

And maybe I'll close with just a few words to your question on the UN Water Conference, because I think it's such a key space to engage on these issues, but we can't just assume that women will be able to go, will be empowered, will have a voice. As we know, women's organizations have just been decimated by the aid cuts. Afghanistan in particular has been severely impacted by aid cuts, and the activists who work on climate change and the environment have also been. Severely undermined by these aid cuts and when organizations lose their funding some of the first things they cut are their travel budgets their policy budgets their advocacy budgets and their communications budgets So not only do we have less money for experts but those organizations and experts have less money to go to the UN water conference to Advocate to spend time and really engage and so that takes a really intentional system of support by the international community to make sure that women and local organizations are there, that they have a platform, that they're funded to be there, that it's not a volunteer exercise. And so I guess my call to everyone in this room would be, like, how can we very intentionally create that space for people to be there? Because we can't assume, like, in past international fora that folks will just have the funding and capacity to show up and represent. And my last thought that I want to end with is, I think it goes to what Mr. Hart said about the lack of climate finance going to fragile countries. We can't confuse complexity with the inability to have change. Absolutely, Afghanistan is a highly complex environment for many different reasons, not least of all the Taliban and the regime. But that doesn't mean that change can't happen. And we've heard today about so many opportunities and examples of change. And so I think the call to this community is to double down on that investment, not pull away from it in times of complexity.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:34:36]:

Thank you very much. Yes, Mr. Mobarez, any final.

Words.

Or recommendations? And then?


PhD candidate [1:34:46]:

Yeah. International community should move from emergency responses in Afghanistan towards something sustainable. Honestly, it's not fair. It's not fair. For example, China is the main producer of global emissions and They have enough infrastructure. I'm not only pointing China, all industrial countries. They have proper infrastructure. They are well prepared against climate change, against any types of disaster. But for a country like Afghanistan, which we have no even technical capacity, no budget, no infrastructure. And we are, in fact, spending or paying for a thing that we were not involved in the shaping and creation of that problem globally. And once in the fourth AM CDR in South Korea, I raised this issue that let's sell and buy this right. For example, if we divide it in 100 units, okay, Afghanistan is contributing 0.1% as I heard from the colleagues here. So, and China, if China, for example, produce more than 10 of that unit, and we divide it equally by population or how big the country is. So can you pay for me to use my right to produce emissions? Otherwise, if you are not paying to me and you are not taking part to make me able to fight against this phenomenon, I'm not responsible. We are paying it by our lives. By our, by our livelihoods, by our money, by our everything. And as the one at the beginning, I mentioned, the one who has the experience. Honestly, when you are facing with the families who lost everything and coming and living under a tent with five kids, it's really hard. And you should have a big heart to accept that and to not cry about it. Thank you.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:37:30]:

Thank you very much. We will have Ms. Marwa for her final two minutes, and then we will give the floor to Ms. Amaly for final reflections and wrapping up. Ms. Marwa, any final remarks or key recommendations? You have two minutes.


Climate and Environmental Youth Initiative · Founder and Director [1:37:51]:

Most of my recommendation covered by Dr. Sadi, but I just want to add three things. First of all, for Afghan youth, I think right now we are in a stage that we need to invest in the technical expertise of young people because in the ground we see that they are very active on advocacy and some of them somehow find their ways into spaces of representation. And most of them, they really want to influence decision at local and national level. So by giving them the technical expertise in any areas that they are working, like biodiversity, climate, or water, this expertise will give them the confidence to participate in decision making. And the most important thing is that when they enter those spaces, their contribution are taken seriously because Beside of having commitment and advocacy, they also have expertise. This is the first recommendation. The second recommendation is about declaration. I recently read about the declaration on climate relief, recovery and peace, which was established during COP29. And I found it very relevant to Afghanistan, although Afghanistan is not among the countries that endorsed the declaration. But the situation and context of Afghanistan is very similar to that declaration. And I think that declaration is designed for context like Afghanistan. And that declaration, the different stakeholder agrees that climate action should not be neglected in fragile and conflicted, affected setting, including Afghanistan. And I saw that other countries like Somalia, Sudan, Yemen are included, but unfortunately, Afghanistan is not included. So thing, even if you are included on that declaration, although it is voluntary, but it will give, it will offer a useful cases for comparison with Afghanistan. And the final recommendation is about the RRR, because In Afghanistan, what I see right now is that we really think about climate adaptation or humanitarian aid or whenever when something happened and disaster happened, then we think how we can support communities. But there is one specific treaty that can help us to connect the DRR with climate adaptation and rather addressing them separately we have to integrate them to help our community to prepare for climate disasters and it will reduce the risk but also help community to become ready for the next hazard. We already as one of our panelists mentioned we already signed Sandia framework but Unfortunately, last week there was another meeting and I guess from UNDRR office mentioned that although Afghanistan is signed that specific framework, but Afghanistan is not considered. So this is another thing that Afghanistan signed many different frameworks and different declaration. So if we can use those declaration to find proper way to support Afghan community in technically and also financially, that would be great. So my message to anyone who will be part of COP 31 is that please focus on Sendai framework and how we can somehow connect this climate adaptation with disaster risk reduction, because this is a very important framework for Afghanistan. And secondly, if we can include Afghanistan also in the declaration of climate peace recovery, that would be great.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:41:45]:

Excellent. Thank you.


Climate and Environmental Youth Initiative · Founder and Director [1:41:47]:

Over to you.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:41:48]:

Thank you very much. Thank you for your set of recommendations. Now I would like to give floor to my colleague, Amali Towers. Amali will provide us a reflection and wrapping up the session with key recommendations, and then we can hand over to Ambassador and also to Anne Richard for their final concluding remarks. Thank you.


Climate Refugees · Founder and Executive Director [1:42:13]:

Thank you, Farishta. I have the impossible task of reflecting on the multiple decades of wisdom that we heard in this room, which I cannot tell you how much it uplifts my heart to see is led by Afghan people. So thank you for that. Thank you for inviting me, Farishta, to and for asking me to be here today. I'm very honored to join you and offer a few thoughts, very humble thoughts. Let me start by saying, this is on, right? In 1990, the IPCC, which is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that and found that climate displacement forced migration would be the greatest impact of climate change. That was 1990. And Mr. Mobarez, I take your point that it's only since 2021 that Afghanistan has been very acutely focused on the impacts of climate change. That's not to say, though, that a lot of people have been sounding this alarm. Given that kind of context, I also want to highlight that it's not just the responsibility and role of Afghanistan then. If since 1990 we've been aware, we are all acutely aware of how much inaction from the globe and from polluting countries and polluting industries has brought us to the incredible crisis that we are all at today. So there is an enormous amount of responsibility and responsible actors that we should be assigning here. It is not just the role and responsibility of Afghanistan, whichever government is in power. Secondly, 40 years of war and conflict and environmental degradation and displacement, injustice and human rights abuses also are part and parcel of this conversation. And that's 40 years of actors that should also be a part of this conversation. I see this as a fundamental issue of justice that is the role and lens through which I find power and passion in my work. And I think that we don't talk about that enough. I never heard that word here today. So turning to justice, I'd like to mention that today, 79% of all new displacements in Afghanistan, even though we all know about conflict and all the human rights issues underpinning, 79% of all new displacement in Afghanistan is climate led. That's coming from the International Organization for Migration. 25 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan are drought impacted. Drought is the leading risk and driver of displacement, followed by floods. We all know, as you heard, Afghanistan has no role in global warming or in the climate crisis, and yet it is on the front lines, its people are on the front lines. Transboundary water security and cooperation is integral, especially as this is not just a regional issue, but a geopolitical issue. Obviously, as you heard Dr. Sadeed say, we're going from snowmelt as the main way in which water was retained. Now we need to switch to rainwater fed and capture. These are things that multiple countries are doing. So the infrastructure exists, the technology exists. It is not that expensive to do. And if there's a diaspora and an Afghan-led resistance and resilience that's happening, this should easily be fundable and scalable. So that's one thing, because you cannot take yourself to groundwater depletion and water bankruptcy. On the issue of water bankruptcy, I would recommend that we look at the ICJ advisory opinion that just came out earlier this year and all of the recommendations about state-led responsibility and cooperation that needs to be a part of state responsibility to combat the effects of climate change. That's one. The UN Secretary General released a report on water bankruptcy, and I would recommend that Afghanistan tie into those responses as a result. Climate change needs to be integrated into all sectors, structures, and responses cross-cutting in anything that happens in Afghanistan. It should have always been that way, but it now is integral. And a primary function that everyone in this room can lift up in their work are the roles of the UN human rights procedures through the works of special rapporteurs. So that is a great way in which you can constantly feed how much climate needs to play a role in poverty alleviation, play a role in women's education, and so forth. Turning to drought, I heard that drought has become a massive economic loss, as much as $3 billion. I think it was you, Dr. Sadid, who said that. So I would highly recommend that when we talk about climate finance, we also talk about loss and damage finance, which I did not hear in this room. Loss and damage finance is just opened. It's heavily underfunded, but it is very much an instrument and a room in which people are talking about it as an issue of justice, as an issue of reparation. Maybe not a word you hear very often, but civil society is certainly saying it. And so what I heard today is, well, how much does Afghanistan fit that bill, right? We're talking about issues of loss and damage as an issue of injustice. So I would really recommend you look at that as well and upscale advocacy and apply. It just opened this year. Part of my work has been to advocate for community access windows so that there are no state barriers to access. Civil society, community-based organizations, grassroots-led, this is the role of this fund. So that's a huge thing that I want to lift up. and allows you to talk about this as a fragile conflict affected state, allows you to talk about this in terms of the particularities and the roles of women and girls education that Dr. Faru was saying. So I can't go into all of it, but, you know, early warning, anticipatory action, adaptation, all can be brought into this conversation through the loss and damage fund. I also heard about environmental degradation. I want to lift up again that that is also an issue of justice because it is a direct result of 40 years of war. And now you have extractive industries. And again, I brought up the UN special rapporteurs procedures because this is again a conversation that's happening in the human rights community as to should we be taxing extractive industries as sources of new and grant based finance, especially to FCS countries. So you see what I mean, we don't always have to go to systems that are failing. We have to be creating new avenues, new revenues as well. Mindful of time, because I could reflect, I have so many notes on all the brilliant things you all said. So lastly, I will just say to what Marwa, was it Marwa? Did I get that name right? Thank you for being here today. The youth-led work and the Afghan diaspora work is imperative. and this is where these voices need to not only be uplifted, but find a way in which to physically be at the UNFCCC processes. And that includes Bonn, that includes Hyogo, Sendai. And I want to mention that there is a new process happening, the PPEd, let's see, that is the protection for persons in environmental and climate related disasters. It's a new treaty that is being discussed, another avenue through which Afghanistan should be included and involved, and I'm so happy to facilitate any of these if you need it. But Marwa and youth-led processes need to be represented at COP and all UNFCCC processes, because that's another way in which you can address any state barriers to inclusion. I think I will leave it there because I don't want to give Hersh a heart attack with time. Because I know moderators job is not easy, but thank you for inviting me to be here and I hope that's helpful.


Global Resilience · Co-Founder and President [1:51:00]:

Thank you very much, Emily, for doing this excellent job of wrapping up today's conversation and also providing us with new avenues and new places where we can highlight the environmental crises in Afghanistan. Now, I would like to give the floor to Anne Richard and Excellency Mr. Fayyad to wrap up today's session. Thank you.


Global Resilience · Board Member, Co-Chair [1:51:24]:

Very briefly, I just want to say that this session today, this very important session today, I came ready to hear some tough information, some upsetting details. But what I didn't expect and which I'm so pleased to have heard today is real ideas and suggestions for a way forward, things that can be done. And that for me is just really lifted my spirits. I think in recent years, there's been a greater focus on locally led development. And this though in Washington has been in some ways more of a buzzword than an actual approach that's been followed through. It's clear today from our experts that Afghans, whether they are in Afghanistan, in the region, in the wider diaspora, Afghans have the energy, the smarts, the experience, the initiative, and in the case of youth, the potential to make major contributions to responding to this crisis in Afghanistan. And there's a lot that the rest of the world can learn from that. And so I salute our experts today who are so creative in their approach to these very difficult problems. I want to express gratitude to all the supporters and those involved in organizing this conference, but a special debt of gratitude goes to the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN, because without you all, this would not have happened. So thank you very much.


Afghanistan · Charge d'Affaires [1:53:20]:

Thank you. Well, it's very difficult to speak last, but I will not take so much time. Let me, first of all, express our sincere appreciation to our panelists, our distinguished panelists, moderators, and all participants, and also our keynote speaker for their contributions to this important discussion. It was very enriching and very timely. And I also would like to thank Global Resilience and all our partners for their cooperation, commitments to the people of Afghanistan. And also, we would like to express our appreciation to all those governments or member states, NGOs, and UN entities who have been supporting the people of Afghanistan in addressing this climate challenge in very difficult times. We express our deep appreciation. And the general, the central message of this gathering is clear. Climate resilience is essential to Afghanistan's human security, livelihood, and prospects for lasting peace. Behind every discussion of drought, water scarcity, or environmental degradation, or families struggling to sustain themselves, communities facing displacement and young people whose futures depend on the decisions we make today. I would like to, of course, I would like to also appreciate Ms. Amelie Towers for concluding, for summing up all these discussions. But also I would like to, I don't want to go to the details, just want to add some, our key messages or priorities that we take from this meeting. First, we must translate concern into practical support. Second, women's rights and participation must be central to these efforts. Third, environmental cooperation should help advance peace. So the political complexities surrounding Afghanistan must not lead to the abandonment of its people. Our response must remain principled, inclusive, and focused on the rights and well-being of the people of Afghanistan. For our part, the permanent mission of Afghanistan remains committed to working with member states, the United Nations, experts, and civil society to carry this discussion forward. I cannot further agree with Dr. Najib Sadeed's proposals or comments. We understand that there is a political complexity about the situation of Afghanistan. We don't want to politicize, of course, this discussion or the climate situation in Afghanistan. So our message is that our mission of Afghanistan is fully ready to work with all Afghan communities, NGOs, and experts, diaspora experts, to find out how we can address this important issue in Afghanistan, particularly when it comes to the United Nations, the conferences about Afghanistan. In the past, of course, there was a discussion about the Sustainable Development Goals and the former republic government, we had the national priority programs and national strategies. Unfortunately, things changed, but now we should focus on the people of Afghanistan. We have to find a ways how we can support communities, how we can find solutions, but women must be at the center of any decisions because we had enough discussions about women's rights in other side events. I don't want to bring it, but just want to highlight that women and people of Afghanistan should be at the center of the decisions. So until we find a political solution for Afghanistan, we should not abandon the people to suffer from the manmade and disasters or natural disasters they are faced with. With that, I thank you so much, and let us leave with a shared determination to turn today's exchange into a sustained cooperation and tangible support for the people of Afghanistan. Thank you, and I wish you a very nice and lovely day. Take care. Bye.