IOM is pleased to share with you the Round 2 findings of the Afghanistan Climate Vulnerability Assessment (ACVA), Afghanistan’s first nationwide community-level assessment programme on the effects and risks of climate and disaster events. With Afghanistan facing significant, lasting environmental impacts and the rise in global greenhouse gas emissions intensifying, monitoring fluctuations in environmental hazards and keeping a current understanding of baseline vulnerabilities is critical. As such, following the implementation of the ACVA Round 1 in November and December 2024, DTM conducted the ACVA Round 2 to capture climate and disaster data during the first quarter of 2025.
The ACVA Round 2 provides a comprehensive picture of community needs and vulnerabilities, as well as shifts since 2024, through evaluation along six pillars: 1) Exposure History; 2) Infrastructure; 3) Population; 4) Shelter; 5) Livelihoods, and; 6) Adaptive Resilience. Data was collected by IOM DTM in all 34 provinces in Afghanistan and covered 62,658 villages in March and early April 2025.
KEY FINDINGS:
- Nearly five million individuals, roughly 10% of the country’s population, were impacted by environmental hazards in the first quarter of 2025.
- 79 per cent of internal displacements since the beginning of 2025 (out of nearly 175,000 individuals) were driven by environmental hazards.
- Climate and disaster events have directly triggered livelihood-based displacement, forcing nearly 396,000 people to leave their homes in the first quarter of 2025, including 171,926 people who migrated abroad.
- In the winter and early spring, drought, heavy rain, flood, and heavy snow were present in most of the country. Extreme cold weather was also common and accounted for the most injury and death during this period.
- 44 per cent of communities reported limited accessibility to safer drinking water while 39 per cent lacked access to health services. Essential water-related infrastructure was absent in over 80 per cent of communities, increasing vulnerability to drought, flood, and heavy rains.
- Food insecurity emerged as communities’ most prominent challenge in early 2025 because of environmental hazards, cited by nearly half of all communities (47%).