KABUL - Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, is calling on donor states to continue supporting the people of Afghanistan affected by the conflict and natural disasters. Valerie Amos, who is also the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, is winding up her first trip to Afghanistan where she assessing the humanitarian situation in the country. UNAMA radio producer Abdullah Alikhil spoke with Ms. Amos at the start of her trip there.

UNAMA: Could you tell us about your visit to Afghanistan?

USG Amos: Afghanistan is an important country for us in terms of humanitarian issues here and I am going to be looking at three particular things. One is: Afghanistan is going through a period of transition and in particular at ways in which it can consolidate the development side. For it is important that some of the humanitarian issues, particularly what is happening to people who have been internally displaced, but also the impact of recent natural disasters -- we have seen flooding in the last few days -- that we remember that there are humanitarian consequences and that we deal with those.

Secondly, our work is to support Afghan authorities to strengthen their response to natural disasters. In my meeting with the second Vice President today, he was talking about the importance of building capacity and working together to really improve the response.

And thirdly, it is very important that we work to build the resilience of local communities. Afghanistan is a country that every year faces a number of natural disasters. It is very important that we raise the awareness of the people, put in place early warning systems because to really save lives, the local communities have to be aware, they have to know what to do and they have to respond very quickly, so looking at how we can build that longer term resilience will also be a focus of my visit here.

UNAMA: How do you see your cooperation with the Afghan Government and where do you see the challenges?

USG Amos: I think that there are major challenges in terms of security situation and I think everybody recognizes that; but even with those challenges, there are significant amounts of work which has been done and which we will continue to do. I think there are real opportunities through this transition period which we have to grasp. It is very important that development gains are not eroded as part of that transition. In terms of working with the Government, I think the Government will face significant challenges, probably, on the economic side. There are concerns that with the number of people from the international community leaving over the next years, of course there has been a whole infrastructure that has been created in Afghanistan that has supported that international community and jobs have been created, so the Government will be looking at how they can grow the economy and how they can ensure that the high level of unemployment particularly among young people is addressed. Capacity is, I think, a challenge for the Government but we are working very closely with the National Disaster Management Committee, we will continue to do that, and we will continue to work with other parts of Government as well on the broad humanitarian agenda.

UNAMA: Afghans are concerned that after 2014, as you mentioned about the transition, that there will be a lesser role of the international community and there will be less on the humanitarian delivery side. How do you respond to that concern?

USG Amos: Well, I think the whole focus of security transition has been about making sure that this is a process which is Afghan-led and where the Afghanistan authorities themselves take the control for security, and I think the Afghan people are very supportive of that. I think in terms of humanitarian and development work, what we need is a partnership between ourselves and the National Government, but we also have to work through the National Government with the provincial and district authorities, particularly over disaster response and the preparedness side, to make sure that we are building and supporting the development of capacity of those communities. So I very much hope that what people will see is a continued response to the concerns that they have, but that it will be increasingly Afghans themselves who are able to grow and build their capacity for that response.

UNAMA: As you mentioned that there is a need of capacity building for the local population in their areas, what do you mean by this?

USG Amos: Afghanistan is of course a country of 30 million people. It is a country where over the last few years you have seen the growth of cities in Afghanistan, particularly Kabul, but it is also a country that has a large rural population. It is a country with significant development challenges in terms of what is happening in education, it is a country where we know that support for women and girls is particularly important. So we need to make sure that those areas will continue to be a core part of what is done on the development side.

I think there is a recognition, and in my meeting today with the second Vice President, he himself alluded to the importance of building capacity, and it is important in all of the work that we do that it is not about the international community taking on these roles on behalf of the Afghan authorities or on behalf of Afghan people themselves, but we are really growing and building a true partnership. Which means that together we are identifying what particular areas are that we can work on together, that all of the important examples that exist of how other countries have been able to put in place the right kinds of policies, the right kinds of systems that enable them to deal themselves with these issues -- those are shared. It is about sharing experience, it is about expertise and it is also about making sure that the skill levels of people in certain areas of the country are enhanced and developed.