Afghanistan Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Afghanistan snapshot
Appeal highlights
- In Afghanistan, 23.3 million people, including 12.6 million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024, mainly due to the residual impacts of a protracted conflict, extreme climate shocks and the country's severe economic decline, which is characterized by high unemployment and a fragile recovery.
- The exclusion of women and girls from most facets of life, including education and the workforce, has significantly increased their protection risks and worsened an already deeply challenging humanitarian situation.
- The lack of investment in public services has contributed to the deterioration of key basic service provision, particularly in the WASH and health sectors, hindering the ability of vulnerable communities to recover from shocks and build resilience.
- In response to the protracted, complex, multifaceted crises affecting Afghanistan, UNICEF is responding to acute humanitarian needs and meeting the basic, multidimensional needs of communities.
- UNICEF urgently requires $1.4 billion to meet the humanitarian and basic needs of 19.4 million people in Afghanistan.
Key planned targets
19.4 million people accessing primary health care in UNICEF-supported facilities
3.6 million children/caregivers accessing community-based mental health and psychosocial support
600,000 vulnerable school-aged girls and boys reached through community-based education initiatives
5.5 million people accessing a sufficient quantity and quality of water
Funding requirements for 2024
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
In the two years since the political transition in Afghanistan, the humanitarian response has largely prevented a catastrophe, yet the situation remains extremely difficult for Afghans. A staggering 23.3 million people require humanitarian assistance, 12.6 million of them children. The level of deprivation among Afghan households remains high and coping mechanisms have been exhausted: only 16 per cent of Afghans report being able to meet their basic needs. Drought and the lingering effects of economic instability remain the primary drivers of need. However, with little investment by the de-facto authorities in basic services, recovery and resilience building are unfeasible for many communities, so humanitarian needs and basic needs continue to be inextricably linked. Women and girls experience the worst effects of this crisis, through restrictions on their education, movement, employment and access to public services. The impact of these restrictions on women and girls is stark, with evidence showing deepening needs among female-headed households and subsequent employment of negative coping strategies. The restrictions and exclusions on women and girls have reinforced pre-existing gender inequalities and increased protection concerns, creating a cycle of escalating needs among women and girls that will impact generations to come. The operating space for humanitarian actors is shrinking. Access to affected populations is hindered by restrictions placed by the de fact authorities on female aid workers; significant and increasing bureaucratic impediments; and threats against humanitarian personnel and assets. The climate crises and such shocks as earthquakes, drought and floods, compound the complexities of this humanitarian environment.
Many areas of the country remain in an acute water crisis, with 67 per cent of households experiencing barriers to accessing safe water in 2023 compared with 48 per cent of households in 2021. Increased unpredictability of rainfall and changing climate patterns have reduced the ability of communities to adapt. Without adequate investment in new WASH infrastructure and the repair/rehabilitation of existing infrastructure, the acute water diarrhoea/cholera outbreaks that affect large numbers of children will continue. Limited coverage and functionality of water and sanitation services, and poor hygiene practices, play a considerable role in the risk of severe wasting among children under 5 years of age: nearly 900,000 will require life-saving treatment for severe wasting in 2024. More than 17.9 million people, particularly those in hard-to-reach/rural areas, have limited access to health care, mainly due to the lack of infrastructure; however, lack of essential medicines, equipment and qualified personnel also contributes to poor health services. Economic and infrastructural barriers to education have resulted in more than 8 million children requiring education support. Directives banning girls and the shrinking space for humanitarian actors will have long-lasting impacts on the sector.
UNICEF’s strategy
The protracted and complex nature of the crises in Afghanistan underscores how critical it is address acute humanitarian needs while simultaneously investing in basic services. In addition, because Afghanistan remains one of the top five at-risk countries worldwide for the effects of climate change, programmes will adopt a risk-informed approach with a focus on climate resilience and preparedness to address natural hazards. This approach is in line with the Humanitarian Response Plan and the United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan.
UNICEF will scale up life-saving interventions, including integrated nutrition services for the early detection and treatment of severe wasting in children. To prevent malnutrition, UNICEF will leverage its multisectoral capabilities through improved integration with food, health, WASH and social and behaviour change programmes.
UNICEF will increase access to life-saving and life-sustaining health services for the most vulnerable. This includes supporting maternal and reproductive health; preventing and managing non-communicable diseases; providing medicine, medical supplies, equipment and vaccines; strengthening communicable disease outbreak prevention, preparedness and response; and building the capacity of health-care workers.
UNICEF will provide an integrated package of WASH services to respond to acute humanitarian needs in areas of high severity. UNICEF will promote and invest in climate-resilient technologies using expanded solarization and optimization of water systems and other cost-effective solutions to address acute water scarcity, reduce disease outbreaks and address wasting.
UNICEF will focus on strengthening community-based education to reach the most vulnerable and shock-affected children. At-risk public schools will be provided with critical basic needs support through school environment improvements, distribution of supplies and teacher training, particularly for female teachers. UNICEF remains a staunch advocate for the reopening of secondary schools for girls.
UNICEF will provide comprehensive services to children with acute protection needs through the provision of mental health and psychosocial support, case management for unaccompanied and separated children, gender-based violence programming and targeted strengthening of the social workforce to improve quality of care. UNICEF will expand activities for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse by ensuring accessible reporting mechanisms and training humanitarian staff on key protocols.
To assist vulnerable families to meet their basic needs and prevent negative coping mechanisms, UNICEF will scale up multipurpose cash assistance programmes, including targeted support for winter. Shock-responsive cash transfers will be scaled up through the Rapid Response Mechanism to reach communities affected by rapid-onset emergencies.
UNICEF’s cluster leadership and extensive field presence through five zonal offices and eight outposts enable it to implement multisectoral, effective and scalable programmes to meet populations most in need.
Programme targets
Find out more about UNICEF's work
Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in Afghanistan; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.