While Afghanistan is progressing from a state of emergency
to a focus on development, women and children continue to face an "acute emergency''
because of exceptionally high maternal and child mortality rates. "Infant mortality
and under five mortality are very high, girls' enrolment is one of the lowest in the
world and malnutrition affects almost half of the country's child population," said
Cecilia Lotse, UNICEF's Regional Director for South Asia, after a week-long visit to
the region.

About 20 per cent of Afghan children die before their fifth birthday while about
1,600 out of every 100,000 Afghan mothers die while giving birth or because of
related complications.

An Afghan child today has a one in seven chance of dying before their first year as
a result of illness and malnutrition. Moreover, one child in five dies before his or
her fifth birthday as a result of common, but preventable childhood diseases such as
diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, typhoid and others that could be prevented by simple
immunisations and sanitary practices, she added.

Lotse said all children - but particularly girls - were "very vulnerable'' in
Afghanistan. Despite the return of several million children to school over the last
three years, Lotse said girls' enrolment in secondary schools in Afghanistan was
less than 10 per cent. School enrolment for young Afghan girls is among the lowest
in the world. With female illiteracy rates as high as 85 per cent in Afghanistan,
millions of young women are unable to play a part in the social and economic
development of their community, and of themselves. "This represents a tremendous
waste of human potential and a tremendous unfulfilled promise,'' she said.

"They [girls] often return home [leave school for good] to help the family -
particularly when the mother is a widow," she added. Additionally, the chances of an
Afghan girl marrying early was much greater and 40 per cent of Afghan women were
married before the age of 18, with a third of these having children before they
reached the age of 18.

"In some parts of Afghanistan, maternal death rates are as high as 6,000 per 100,000
women, according to Afghan public Health Ministry figures. "Afghan women don't live
long lives,'' she said.  "Afghanistan may be the one country in the world where
women die before men.''

"It is essential that all of us - the Government, the UN, and others - prioritise
investments in education, that we increase the quality and accessibility of health
care for women. How well Afghanistan does then, depends on how serious we are today
about making the right investments, investments that must start with women and
girls," Lotse said.[Source: UNICEF]