As Afghanistan enters a perilous and uncertain future, the United Nations has promised to “stay and deliver.” The country’s humanitarian emergency is getting more acute by the day, taxing UN agencies like the World Food Program. Meanwhile, the Security Council’s role in managing the political transition in Afghanistan is unclear, and many of the Taliban’s senior leadership are still under UN sanction

On the line with me to discuss the UN’s role in the new Afghanistan is Mark Malloch Brown. He is the President of the Open Society Foundations and had long career at the United Nations, including as administrator of the UN Development Program and as the Deputy UN Secretary General.

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Zuhra Bahman was out of the country on a business meeting when the Taliban took control of Kabul.

She is the Afghanistan country director for Search for Common Ground, an NGO that engages in community based peace-building work. I was eager to speak with her because it is very unclear to me and to the entire international community the extent to which NGOs will be able to operate under Taliban rule. 

As Zurha Bahman explains, she is eager to get back to her work and life in Afghanistan — but only if certain conditions are met. To that end, she is urging engagement with the Taliban to enable development and humanitarian NGOs to work in the country on behalf of the Afghan people. 

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