Attachments
This Wider Humanitarian Crises response, which seeks CHF 80 million, is currently 48 per cent funded. This funding has been crucial in enabling the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), with the support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to all groups of people in need affected by this crisis. Further funding contributions are needed to enable ARCS, with the continued support of IFRC, to continue to help meet the humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan. The country has seen an overall increase of people in need, now at 28.3 million people, many of them women and children. Continuing droughts have caused a dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in various sectors particularly water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health. By the end of March 2023, IFRC and its Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement partner network helped 3.5 million people in Afghanistan with some form of assistance, and they are reaching communities in all the country’s 34 provinces.
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the crisis
Key drivers of humanitarian need in 2023 are multidimensional: a protracted drought, climate-induced disasters, other hazards, protection concerns particularly for women and girls, economic hardship, and constrained access to essential services. Furthermore, while there is no more widespread conflict, the effects of a 40-year conflict and situations of violence continue to slow the move towards recovery and building resilience.
There are needs in every province of the country, with extreme need in 33 out of 34 provinces and 27 out of 34 major cities/provincial capitals with the rest in severe need, indicating how widespread the crisis is across the country. Even with two-thirds of the country already having humanitarian needs in 2023, further deterioration is highly possible unless the root causes and drivers of need are addressed. Substantial investments in water infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, alternative livelihoods, gender policy reform and macroeconomic stabilization are urgently needed, along with the stabilization of services supporting basic human needs – especially health care and social services – to reduce dependence on humanitarian actors to provide emergency care and transition to longer-term support.
The deteriorating economy has led to sharp declines in income and rising debt. The average household debt in Afghanistan has increased six-fold in recent years from AFN 9,770 (equivalent to CHF 99) in 2019 to AFN 59,492 (equivalent to CHF 602) in 2022 . Most of the needs are in urban areas; with 27 out of 34 provincial capitals being in extreme severity of need, including Kabul. Women and girls are usually more impacted by humanitarian crises, also in this case, where particularly, changes in the labour market affect women. According to Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population will need humanitarian assistance in 2023 as the country enters its third consecutive year of drought-like conditions and the second year of crippling economic decline. The number of people in need of assistance is estimated at a record 28.3 million in 2023, up from 24.4 million in 2022 and 18.4 million in 2021.