The head of the UN Development Programme in Afghanistan has called on the international community to help Afghan girls and women get education and work.

Abdallah Al Dardari told NHK Afghanistan has lost 5 billion dollars -- or a quarter of its GDP -- due to a sharp decline in grant aid from overseas after the Taliban seized power. He says the country has seen a dozen years' worth of economic development "completely wiped out."

The UNDP's resident representative in Afghanistan said the main impact of that loss was on women's share in the labor force, which tumbled by almost 28 percent.

Noting that the labor productivity of women in Afghanistan is higher than that of men of the same education level, Dardari said losing women from the workforce is "very upsetting" for medium and long-term productivity and consequently for chances of economic recovery.

Dardari also spoke about the Taliban's refusal to allow secondary school girls to resume classes. Calling education for girls "a human right," he said the United Nations and the UNDP will continue to "press very strongly for the return of girls to secondary education."

But Dardari pointed out some provincial officials allow girls' education, and an increasing number of local people are paying NGOs to provide unofficial schooling.

He said, "We need to support all these types of innovative ways of bringing education to the girls if the girls cannot go to education."

Dardari pointed out Afghanistan's economic growth in the past 20 years before the Taliban took over relied on grant aid from abroad and the foreign military presence, which was ineffective in creating jobs.

Dardari stressed it is important to strengthen the economy from the bottom up for mid- and long-term reconstruction by helping more ordinary people find ways to make a living.