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Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Humanitarian Access Snapshot (December 2024)

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Some 148[1] humanitarian access incidents, a record showing 52 per cent increase from same time last year, reported by humanitarian partners in December 2024. The access incidents in December resulted in the temporary suspension of 52 projects (43 INGOs, 4 UN, and 3 NNGOs) and the temporary closure of a health facility. Only one project was authored by community members, two projects were suspended due to weather hazards, and the rest were authored by the de facto authorities (DFAs). The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) and Department of Public Health (DoPH) were the two top authors of these incidents. The Southeastern region, followed by the Southern and Central regions, are the most affected regions, respectively.

In December, the majority of these incidents (92 percent) involved ‘interference in the implementation of humanitarian activities.’ Among these impediments, interference with programming (65 incidents), followed by pressure to restrict women humanitarian workers' participation in humanitarian action (21 incidents), request for staff list and sensitive data (19 incidents), delays in signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (17 incidents), interference with staff recruitment (6 incidents), interference with procurement (3 incidents), prevention of women to use service/assistance (3 incidents) and Interference or attempted interference into beneficiary selection (incidents) have been recorded.

Gender-related incidents increased significantly in December, with 31 reported incidents compared to 18 in November, thus having devastating consequences for women-affected beneficiaries who depend on the female aid workers' involvement to be able to access life-saving assistance and services. These incidents included restricting women from participating in distribution, restricting their access to health medical institutions, preventing registering women beneficiaries in the projects, visiting offices to search for women staff, and suspending the hiring process of women staff.

Humanitarian assistance was also adversely impacted by 7 incidents of ‘violence against humanitarian personnel, assets and facilities’ that resulted in the detention of 13 humanitarian staff, including women staff. These incidents have continued to impact the operational environment, where the safety and security of humanitarian staff are at risk.

In 2024, the De Facto Authorities (DfAs) issued a total of 135 directives, with 14 of them specifically focusing on female participation in humanitarian operations. These directives have had a direct impact on the humanitarian response in Afghanistan. In December alone, 11 directives, including a reminder letter on the female ban by the Ministry of Economy, were issued across various regions. The majority of these directives were aimed at reinforcing existing procedures. The authorities responsible for issuing the most directives include the Ministry/Directorate of Economy (51 directives), the Directorate of Public Health (25 directives), the Directorate of Monitoring and Supervision of Decrees and Orders (13 directives), and the General Directorate of Intelligence (9 directives).

[1] The access incidents are reported to the Access Monitoring and Reporting Framework (AMRF) either directly by humanitarian partners to OCHA or through the cluster coordinators and working group, and DSS.

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