The just-published 2024 Global Hunger Index categorizes Afghanistan’s hunger situation as “serious” and ranks Afghanistan 116th out of 127 countries, a decline from its previous position of 114th last year. According to the GHI, 30.4% of Afghanistan’s population is malnourished, and 5.8% of children die before reaching the age of 5.
The Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) 2024 shows that an estimated 23.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, 52% of whom are children and 25% women. Food insecurity is rampant, 6.3 million people are internally displaced (IDP), and unemployment has doubled over the past year.
For the period between July and December 2024, the World Food Program (WFP) says “a severe funding crisis puts at risk gains made since 2021. The WFP can only support 1 million hungry people, leaving a gap of 11 million in need who do not receive emergency food assistance due to lack of funding.” The WFP needs $617 million to sustain all its programs up to December 2024, including pre-positioning food for next winter.
In August, a group of NGOs put out the alarm via the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) website. The call underscores that “the humanitarian funding appeal for 2024 has received only 25% of requested funds as of 13 August 2024.” For lack of funding, “already this year, 343 mobile health teams have shut down, which equals 52% of all mobile health teams. This has had a significant impact on the health and nutrition response, as populations are not able to access essential lifesaving services. With 12.4 million people facing acute food insecurity that is expected to worsen, which could leave more than half a million malnourished children deprived of lifesaving nutrition. Mothers are also disproportionately affected; typically, they are the last to eat and eat the least.”
