Alexander De Croo, head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has described the exclusion of girls over the age of 12 from education in Afghanistan as “completely unacceptable.”
De Croo told Foreign Policy that excluding half of the population from education is also a poor policy from a development perspective.
He added that Afghanistan needs the capacity of its entire population to address its wide-ranging challenges.
De Croo emphasized that denying girls access to education means failing to make use of half of the country’s population’s talent and potential.
He said UNDP also works on women’s entrepreneurship and has helped tens of thousands of women establish small businesses.
The UNDP chief said the organization speaks with the Taliban about the rights of women and girls almost every day.
