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Overview
Despite the prospects of a favorable productive season, high levels of acute food insecurity persist in Afghanistan due to the impact of repeated shocks on a fragile socio-economic landscape, marked by deep-rooted economic, social, physical, and environmental vulnerabilities.
In the current period (March to April 2025), an estimated 12.6 million people (27 percent of the total population of 46 million people) faced high levels of acute food insecurity classified in IPC Phase 3 and above (Crisis or worse) and are in urgent need of humanitarian food assistance. Of these, about 1.95 million people (4% of the total population) are classified in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) and around 10.64 million people (23% of the total population) are in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis). Of the 45 analytical domains (34 rural provinces and 11 major urban areas) analysed, 43 are classified in IPC Phase 3, while only three - Kandahar, Khost, and Paktya – are classified in IPC Phase 2 (Stressed).
Food insecurity is mainly driven by a fragile economy¹ , a significant cut in humanitarian assistance and environmental disasters, notably flooding and drought. Endemic poverty and the limited job opportunities still leave many people in a highly vulnerable state. The global downward trend in funding for humanitarian food security assistance (HFSA) has impacted Afghanistan especially hard, with an estimated 40 percent cut in funding for the food security sector. This is exacerbated by cuts to all other humanitarian sectors and will have a significant negative impact on the most vulnerable families. Due to funding cuts, in the projection period, only 625,000 people on average, out of the almost 1.6 million expected to experience large food gaps (IPC Phase 4) will receive HFSA. The cuts will severely hinder the planned scale-up of assistance this coming winter—a time when snow will isolate communities and hunger will be at its peak. The impact will be especially devastating for the most vulnerable households and individuals, who rely entirely on