By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

The takeover of an interim Afghan administration December 22 and the United Nations' sanction of an international security force are both actions designed to help stabilize the fractious nation and improve the security situation. Humanitarian organizations have been appealing to the international community for weeks about the need for these steps if the flow of international humanitarian aid is to gain greater force.

Over the last few weeks, the advance of the Northern Alliance and the retreat of the Taliban in city after city have created more openings for food, medical and winterization materials to move into parts of Afghanistan. But lawlessness and looting have become rampant in some areas during this unstable period, causing humanitarian agencies to proceed only with great caution.

The World Food Program reports that food deliveries in the first two and a half weeks of December exceeded the entire amount of commodities the agency was able to move into the strife-torn nation during all of November. The 55,000 tons of foodstuffs delivered in November was the greatest single-month delivery since WFP began providing aid to Afghanistan in 1964.

WFP Spokesperson Jordan Dey said in an Islamabad briefing December 19, "This delivery rate bodes well for the vulnerable people who are living in the hardest to reach regions of Afghanistan."

The increase in aid delivery was achieved, Dey said, largely through the opening of new routes into the country, and improved support and logistic operations in the neighboring countries of the region. While the WFP has been delivering food to eastern Afghanistan through routes and support facilities principally in Pakistan, the intensified relief effort building over the last several months has allowed the flow of more supplies into northern, and northeastern provinces of Afghanistan.

WFP has established greater aid flows into Afghanistan from Uzbekistan across the Amu Darya River, long closed to humanitarian aid deliveries because of security concerns. In the northeast, the humanitarian agency has established an improved delivery corridor between the Kyrgyz city of Osh and the Afghan city of Faizabad and the surrounding region.

Winter has hit hard in the region, however, and these deliveries are not made with ease. Dey said, "The journey, over icy roads packed with snow, is 1200 kilometers and requires approximately 10 days to complete."

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nongovernmental organization working with underwriting from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is also stepping up food deliveries to other areas described as underserved prior to now. A December 14 IRC press release said food deliveries are set to move from Iran into western Afghanistan into the provinces of Heart, Badghis, and the northern Baikh province.

The way for relief aid has by no means been entirely cleared, however. WFP reports that security concerns still prohibit deliver of food to the city of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold which was among one of the last cities to fall to the Northern Alliance. Dey said the agency is ready to deliver commodities in and around the city, but has still been unable to ascertain the status of stores and facilities that were abandoned when WFP staff evacuated the city in September.

A survey of the relief organizations' diverse activities also reveals progress in the delivery of supplies and personnel to improve health care. This is an especially critical area for a population weakened by malnutrition resulting from several years of drought, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO issued a special report in October describing the dire state of health in the Afghan population, citing especially the dangers of diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections and measles.

WHO reported in a December 16 update that it is taking steps toward an "increased emergency preparedness related to the Afghanistan crisis." The U.N. health agency is working to bolster its support facilities and resources in Turkmenistan, providing a capability to better deliver medical assistance into northwest Afghanistan.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), one of the prominent NGOs providing health care services, landed additional personnel and supplies in Kabul December 18. MSF now has fifty expatriate personnel in Afghanistan, rebuilding its staff strength after evacuation of international staff in September.

The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) is supporting 48 clinics across the country, with the capacity to help 50,000 patients a month. The IFRC facilities have suffered in the course of the fighting, however, with some clinics looted and destroyed. The current patient capacity is down significantly from an earlier capacity of about 80,000 patients a month. IFRC reported December 18 that it is working to restore the damaged facilities, and expects resumed operation at the clinic in Bamyan, for instance, within the week.

"With each passing day, the International Federation is building up its operational capacity in Afghanistan," according to the December 18 statement. Unstable security and infrastructure damage are still impediments to progress, however.

Mercy Corps International (MCI), a U-S based nongovernmental organization, faces similar problems. Organization representatives returned to their offices in Kandahar December 13 to assess damage from looting that occurred several weeks earlier. At the same time, MCI delivered medical supplies to Hazarjuft Hospital in the Helmand province west of Kandahar. A December 14 statement from the NGO said, "These activities mark what Mercy Corps hopes is a turning point in the ability to provide humanitarian aid in southern Afghanistan."

The international community now readies for a January 21-22 conference in Japan at which donor nations are expected to start making pledges for contributions to the massive Afghan reconstruction effort, but some of that work is already getting underway. USAID announced December 19 funding for two projects to help rebuild the infrastructure of a nation pounded by more than 20 years of war and drained from several years of drought.

USAID has awarded a $1.3 million grant to the NGO Shelter for Life which will be used in a cash-for-work program rebuilding roads and homes, involving returning internally displaced persons in Kunduz and Takhar provinces.

Mercy Corps is receiving a $3 million grant to go toward reconstruction of agricultural infrastructure projects such as the rehabilitation of wells, herds and nurseries.