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OVERVIEW
“People try to avoid unnecessary celebrations and traditions. They avoid paying for health and education services that are not essential. They try to eat less and lower quality food. People are just alive, not living.” (EI 04/02/2026)
Households in Behsud, Kot, and Surkh Rod districts, Nangarhar province, have faced steadily increasing challenges meeting basic needs since 2021. Shocks including the significant influx of returnees from Pakistan and Iran since 2023 and IDPs since 2021, along with recurrent flooding, drought in 2024–2025, and escalating fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan since 2025, have heightened the vulnerability of all community members to unmet needs. In this increasingly pressured context, households cite a lack of electricity, shelter (particularly for returnees from abroad), clean and accessible water, affordable and accessible healthcare, and high-quality and accessible education as their major concerns. In the face of unmet needs, many households increasingly rely on coping strategies with potentially harmful consequences, including food-related strategies and child labour. Both unmet needs and coping strategies impact households and individuals differently according to age, gender, displacement status, and other household and individuallevel characteristics; for example, women and girls may be more likely to skip meals and travel long distances to fetch water, impacting their safety, security, health, and wellbeing.