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As United Nations officials warn of shrinking resources for humanitarian work, Uzbekistan has handed over 256 tons of medicine and food to Afghanistan to help survivors of an August 31 earthquake that killed at least 2,200 people.
The aid was organized in the Uzbek city of Termez and delivered in a convoy of 14 trucks to Hairatan, a city in Balkh province in Afghanistan that lies just across the border from Termez, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. A ceremony was held in Hairatan on Saturday to mark the handover.
“This assistance was directed in response to the devastating earthquake that shook the eastern provinces — primarily Kunar and Nangarhar, as well as certain areas of Laghman, Nuristan, and Panjshir,” the Uzbek ministry said.
It said that officials from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan “agreed on mechanisms to ensure the targeted delivery and fair distribution of humanitarian assistance.”
Some international donors have previously expressed concern that Afghanistan’s Taliban government diverts aid for its own purposes rather than delivering it to those most in need.
Turkmenistan said it sent humanitarian aid to Afghanistan from Ashgabat International Airport on Friday.
Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that food, clothing and other essential goods were sent “primarily to children and residents affected by the natural disaster,” though it didn’t say how much assistance was provided.
Other countries have also provided aid or made pledges to do so. The Iranian Red Crescent Society has sent several shipments, each containing dozens of tons of humanitarian assistance, to Afghanistan. China has said it will provide about $7 million in aid. The European Union has said it approved 1 million euros in humanitarian emergency funding and was also donating 130 tons of relief supplies to Afghanistan.
But Tom Fletcher, the U.N.’s relief chief, said that the relief supplies provided so far and critical initial funding isn’t enough to deal with the quake’s massive destruction and displacement of large numbers of people.
“Failing to rally resources now will mean deeper suffering and more lives lost, with winter fast approaching,” Fletcher said on Friday.
The Taliban government has imposed rules making it difficult for female aid workers to help with quake relief efforts, according to the Human Rights Watch group.
However, Dr. Abdul Mateen Sahak, a local leader of the U.N. World Health Organization in Afghanistan, said women as well as men were involved in rescuing people in the first few days after the earthquake, indicating that the disaster “briefly broke down barriers,” according to a U.N. account.
Sahak said he did not see female patients being denied care. But he said a big problem is the exodus from the country of female specialist doctors and other professional women since the Taliban took power again in 2021, making it hard to find staff to help with such disasters.
Courtesy of David Shelley
- David Shelley is the CEO of Hachette Book Group & Hachette UK.
- He started hosting “ask me anything” sessions eight years ago.
- He says Americans are more willing to ask uncomfortable questions than Brits.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with David Shelley, CEO of Hachette Book Group. It has been edited for length and clarity.
As the CEO of a global company, I aim to create a culture built on friendly and trusting challenges. The best business results happen when people are able to challenge themselves and others, including senior leadership.
To accomplish that, I take an untraditional approach, hosting “ask me anything ” (AMA) sessions with employees. These small group talks help foster trust and ultimately benefit the company.
The sessions started after the UK required pay transparency
The idea started about eight years ago, when I was CEO of Hachette UK. The British government required us to publish data about our gender pay gap. Like many companies, our results weren’t great, to put it mildly. Lots of women had very strong feelings about that.
My intuition told me it would be much better to talk about it out in the open. I started hosting sessions with small groups. During 15-hour sessions, women told me about the impact having a child had on their careers and the micro-aggressions they experienced at work.
I heard information I wouldn’t otherwise have had as a CEO. It helped me understand the issue a lot better and formulate a plan to fix it. I think it was helpful for the staff to feel that I was really listening to them. I decided to do these sessions whenever a major issue came up in business.
I brought the idea to New York City to build trust
About 18 months ago, I started working in New York as CEO of Hachette Book Group. Anytime there’s a transition in business leadership, trust needs to be rebuilt. People need to know I truly encourage transparency, challenge, and critique; I’m not just saying it.
Courtesy of David Shelley
To reinforce that, I hosted about 25 hourlong listening sessions over three months. I’d sit around the table with 10 to 12 employees, often over lunch, and ask them to tell me what’s on their mind. It was very helpful. When those wrapped up, I started hosting AMA sessions.
Americans are willing to ask hard questions
I sometimes get hard questions — about running a for-profit company, about capitalism, or why certain titles are published and others aren’t. There hasn’t been a question that I’ve shied away from (though sometimes I genuinely don’t know the answer and have to go ask the experts in that niche).
It’s a cultural cliché, but I’ve noticed Americans don’t hold back. They’re a lot more willing to have hard conversations face-to-face. In the UK, people often emailed me after to ask things they weren’t comfortable asking in front of the room. Here, people are refreshingly to the point.
Listening sessions led to a change in how we discuss pay
The listening sessions and AMAs build trust and transparency at the company — something I care deeply about. They also impact policy. When I started in New York, I heard again and again from employees that they were frustrated with merit-based raises. The process felt arbitrary and mysterious. I must have heard that 50 times.
In response, we created a pay rubric that outlines the pay range for a job and the skills needed to be at the high end of the range. Managers can now turn to that, and employees actually understand what’s going into their wage calculation. There’s more work to be done, but that moved us to more honest conversations.
This approach fits my personality
Common business advice says to lean in. I love to do that. I have a natural curiosity about people, and can be quite an honest, oversharing person.
My business coach once gave me advice she’d never given anyone else: she said while most people need to lean in more, I might need to lean out a bit. I laughed, but there’s some truth to it. I have a tendency to try to engage with everyone.
An open, conversation-driven approach to leadership works with my personality, but it doesn’t work for everyone. In general, when it’s modeled at the top, people get on board. However, there have been times when senior leaders aren’t comfortable with my approach, and it doesn’t make sense to keep them on.
The more I’m challenged as a leader, the better my results will be. That’s true at every level of the business, so I strive for open communication throughout.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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