Afghanistan: Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024, Response Overview (1 Jan - 31 Mar 2024)

Between January and March 2024, humanitarian partners reached 9.9 million people with at least one form of humanitarian assistance and at least one million people with three different types of sectoral support. Although this represents a broad reach in absolute terms, 87 per cent of the 9.9 million people reached overall received food assistance, highlighting the extent to which food security and agriculture coverage continues to drive response figures, while also overshadowing the millions of people who will require multiple rounds of assistance throughout the year to ensure their needs are adequately met.

Response was enabled by a combination of new funding as of 31 March 2024 ($221.8 million) and funds carried over from 2023 ($412.5 million). However, $2.85 billion (93 per cent) of the $3.1 billion required to deliver humanitarian assistance in March 2024 remained unfunded. At the same time, new needs continue to be generated by sudden-onset crises while simultaneously exacerbating underlying vulnerabilities.

The large-scale provision of humanitarian assistance, particularly food distributions and seasonal support, has continued in the first quarter of 2024. Looking ahead, partners will focus efforts on providing more integrated support in line with the nature and scale of multi-sectoral needs that is informed by a quarterly gaps analysis exercise, enhanced inter-sectoral reach calculations and greater transparency in reach data, including disaggregation of food security and agriculture (FSAC) reach by rounds of assistance.

In a context of increasing humanitarian needs and simultaneous rise in operational complexities, the humanitarian community’s ability to continue to stay and deliver life-saving assistance will be contingent on flexible funding, enabling financial systems and assurances of aid worker safety and principled humanitarian response. This includes ensuring that women are able to access the assistance and services they require, as well as ensuring that Afghan women humanitarian workers can participate in the response safely, meaningfully and comprehensively