Despite restrictions on women, a bakery blossoms in hungry Afghanistan
Story | 15 November 2024
Emergency
Afghanistan
- 14.8 million
- people have acute food insecurity
- 3.5 million
- children are malnourished
- US$555 million
- urgently needed for WFP operations up to August 2025
Hunger threatens one in three Afghans. Without immediate funding, millions of people will go without the food they need.
Three years after the Taliban takeover and the economy's near-collapse, poverty remains widespread.
Two-thirds of female-headed families struggle to afford basic nutrition, with restrictions on women’s access to education, work, and public spaces.
At the same time, the climate crisis is destroying Afghanistan’s farms and people’s homes. With flash floods on top of years of drought, millions are left without the means to grow food or earn a living.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is only able to support 6 million people in need of food assistance, due to lack of funding, leaving more than 8 million people without life-saving food and specialized nutrition.
WFP requires US$555 million to support Afghanistan’s most vulnerable families up to August 2025.
What the World Food Programme is doing to respond to the Afghanistan emergency
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Food and nutrition assistance
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Funding shortages mean that WFP can only provide emergency food assistance to just over 6 million people of the nearly 15 million people in need. WFP reaches Afghan women and girls across the country, prioritizing women-headed families with food, cash, and nutrition assistance. However, the lifeline is fraying as funding dwindles.
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Climate resilience
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WFP supports people in adapting to the effects the climate crisis through work on climate-resilient infrastructure such as irrigation canals, dams, and flood protection walls. WFP’s vocational training programmes empower Afghan women by teaching marketable skills including tailoring, carpet weaving, jam making and food preservation, to help support their families.
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Common services
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The WFP-managed United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is providing a regional air bridge linking Pakistan and Tajikistan to Kabul, and domestic services across the country to transport humanitarian responders to the frontlines of the crisis.
How you can help
Please donate today and help life-saving food reach those families who need it most.
Donate now