The top United Nations envoy to Afghanistan is in Iran on Monday to explore further areas of cooperation between the neighbouring nations, UN officials said in United Nations.
Kai Eide, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative, addressed a high-level meeting of the 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
ECO is an inter-governmental group promoting mutual economic, technical and cultural support in Central Asia. The body's membership consists of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
His visit is part of efforts, mandated by the UN Security Council, of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to improve regional cooperation to build a stable and more prosperous nation, the officials said.
During his visit, the UN envoy is slated to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and other senior government officials.
Last month, the United Nations and its partners launched their 2009 Humanitarian Action Plan for Afghanistan and appealed for 604 million dollars to help meet the needs of Afghans made vulnerable by natural disasters, lack of access to basic social services, increasing food insecurity and the worsening security situation.
More than half of the funds will go to food aid, while almost 100 million dollars will be used to rid the strife-torn nation of landmines.
The plan, with a set of 112 projects from 39 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and eight UN agencies, also focuses on the delivery of education, water and sanitation, as well as on protection concerns amid growing insecurity in a country, where 42 per cent of the population lives on less than one dollar per day.