AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan was thrown into the media spotlight during the 2001 US-led invasion and subsequent fall of the Taliban.
In fact, the people of Afghanistan had already suffered over 20-years of conflict prior to this. The country is prone to earthquakes, drought, floods and landslides, and years of war combined with such natural disasters have left Afghanistan in tatters.
Access to education and health care is severely limited and large sections of the population are entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. Three quarters of the population are illiterate.
Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium poppies and large portions of the population have little choice but to trade in the drug as their only means of survival. The country is becoming increasingly lawless and divided at the hands of warlords and extremists.
Afghanistan has one of the highest childbirth and infant mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 16 percent of all Afghan mothers dying during childbirth. Deaths resulting from exploding landmines are also at one of the highest levels worldwide.
