Asia and the Pacific

Situation Report
Afghanistan — Feature
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Afghanistan: Humanitarian Update March 2023

AFGHANISTAN AT HIGHEST RISK OF FAMINE IN 25 YEARS AS FUNDING RUNS DRY With nearly 20 million people facing severe hunger – six million of them one step away from famine – Afghanistan faces a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe unless urgent funding is secured. The number of people facing potential famine is presently among the highest in the world.

Levels of moderate acute malnutrition are also the highest ever recorded in the country, with an estimated four million children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.

As of the end of the first quarter, the 2023 Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $4.6 billion, had received a mere $250 million – just over 5.4 per cent of the total funding required. Aid agencies’ ability to maintain current levels assistance are hanging in the balance with funding shortfalls forcing them to reduce their life-saving assistance to millions of people at a time when assistance provision needs to be scaled up. For example, on 20 March, the World Food Programme announced that at current funding levels, they can only provide crucial food assistance to four million out of the 13 million people planned to receive assistance in April. That means nine million vulnerable and hungry Afghans will not receive food assistance.

The reductions come at a time when rural families have exhausted their food stocks before the next harvest in May. In addition, between January to March 2023, some critical supplies for other sectors are also at risk of pipeline break due to funding gaps.

Aid agencies have called on the international community to urgently provide humanitarian funding and prioritize the basic needs of the most vulnerable people of Afghanistan. Humanitarian aid is the last lifeline for millions of people in Afghanistan.

In 2022, aid agencies assisted more than 26.1 million people with some form of assistance – that is almost two-thirds of the population. Unless humanitarian support is sustained, millions of people risk falling into acute and severe need.

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