The United Nations World Food Programme announced that it provided more than 350,000 metric tons of food assistance to the people of Afghanistan in 2023. Despite various challenges, the World Food Programme stated today, on Sunday, through a post on its official social media platform, that it will continue to assist vulnerable individuals in Afghanistan.
The announcement from the World Food Programme comes at a time when results from an institute called the “Biruni Institute for Eastern Studies” indicate that unemployment and household debt have increased in Afghanistan over the past two years. According to the institute’s findings, the unemployment rate has risen to 31% among men and 8% among women in Afghanistan.
Reports from United Nations agencies in Afghanistan also reveal that more than 23.7 million people in the country are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, with 15.8 million facing food insecurity.
This comes at a time when Afghanistan is grappling with poverty and unemployment, in addition to recent earthquakes in the Herat region and the forced return of migrants from neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan, exacerbating the needs of the Afghan people.
Afghanistan has received substantial aid from various international sources over the years, especially from the United States. Since 2002, the U.S. has provided nearly $88 billion in security assistance and $36 billion in civilian assistance to Afghanistan. This includes specific allocations like $787 million to support Afghan women and girls, and nearly $3.9 billion in humanitarian assistance.
The Afghan economy, as estimated by the United Nations Development Program and the International Monetary Fund, contracted by 20–30% in 2021. The UN World Food Program estimated that 22.8 million Afghans faced acute malnutrition, with 8.7 million nearing famine. Only 17% of Afghanistan’s clinics and health facilities were fully functioning as of September 2021. Hospitals nationwide faced shortages of salaries, equipment, medicines, or supplies.
Approximately 75% of all Afghan government spending came from aid. With the collapse of the Islamic Republic, international aid, which contributed to around 40% of Afghanistan’s GDP and 75% of public expenditures, was significantly reduced. The absence of this aid severely impacted the Afghan economy and its people.
