Humanitarian aid from the United Nations and donor countries to Afghanistan over the past three years has been one of the key economic issues for the country.

Despite steps taken by the Islamic Emirate's authorities in the areas of security, reconstruction, and the implementation of certain projects, particularly in establishing economic relations with neighboring countries, the region, and the world, words like poverty, unemployment, and migration continue to dominate the headlines.

Hamidullah, a resident of Kabul, said: "No one asks how we are doing, what problems we have. We have not received any aid."

However, in the latest instance, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in its 64th quarterly report stated that the United States has allocated $20.7 billion for Afghanistan since August 2021, including $2.9 billion for humanitarian and development aid, $3.7 billion for transferring Afghan assets to a trust fund, and over $14 billion for Afghan refugees.

But the Ministry of Economy of the Islamic Emirate has called SIGAR's report an exaggeration, saying that this amount of money has not been made available to the citizens of the country.

Additionally, the United Nations has announced that despite billions of dollars flowing into Afghanistan, the country is still facing widespread poverty.

Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said on June 22, 2023: “More than seven billion dollars have been provided by international donors for humanitarian assistance and more than four billion to support basic human needs to the Afghan people since the Taliban takeover.”

Given these reports, analysts consider the effectiveness of humanitarian aid efforts from the UN, the European Union, the US, and other donor countries and organizations.

Shabbir Bashiri, an economic expert, said: "Humanitarian aid over the past three years, as its name suggests, has been humanitarian, and some of this aid has reached those in need."

Officials in the Islamic Emirate do not consider the humanitarian aid from international organizations and donor countries sufficient to reduce poverty in Afghanistan, and emphasized efforts to shift this aid towards entrepreneurial sectors.

Abdul Latif Nazari, the Deputy Minister of Economy, said, "Over the past three years, international community aid and relief organizations have been effective, but insufficient, and the reason is that most of this aid has been humanitarian. We are striving to turn this aid into developmental assistance."

At the same time, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced that half of Afghanistan's population lives in poverty, and one in four Afghans is uncertain about where their next meal will come from.

According to OCHA statistics, around 23.7 million people in Afghanistan will need humanitarian aid this year, making it the third-highest number of people in need worldwide.