Living conditions in Afghanistan have gotten worse in recent years, according to a Pentagon report released Sunday.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction quarterly report found that many of the improvements made when there were more American and coalition troops in the country are also slipping away.
“Past gains are eroding: poverty, unemployment, underemployment, violence, outmigration, internal displacement, and the education gender gap have all increased, while services and private investment have decreased,” the report says.
The report also found that unemployment is up. About a quarter of the labor force was unemployed between 2013 and 2014, almost three times higher than it was in 2011 and 2012.
Efforts to increase women’s equality have also been hampered in recent years. In 2006, only 8 percent of those polled by the Asia Foundation strongly or somewhat disagreed that women should have the same education opportunities as men. In 2015, that number had risen to 21 percent.
The number of people who believe political positions should be held mostly by men has also increased over that time period, from 36.8 percent in 2006 to 42.3 percent in 2015.
The Afghan government lost control of some land during the third quarter of 2016, according to the report. The government controlled or influenced 63.4 percent of the country’s districts as of Aug. 28, a decrease from 65.6 percent on May 28. Thirty-three of the 407 districts are still under Taliban control, while another 116 are contested.
About 9,800 American troops are in Afghanistan. The number is set to shrink to 8,400 by the beginning of 2017, though officials have said they don’t expect to lose any capabilities since administration staff are simply being moved out of the country and coalition or contractor employees will be used to fill any gaps.
