Afghanistan: Humanitarian Update, March 2025

Afghanistan’s 2025 humanitarian needs and response plan reprioritized amid dramatic funding cuts

In 2025, an estimated 22.9 million people in Afghanistan ─ nearly half of the country’s 46 million population ─ require humanitarian assistance. Among them are 5.7 million women and 5 million men facing acute vulnerabilities.

Humanitarian actors initially aimed to reach 16.8 million people with critical, life-saving , including food assistance, emergency shelter, maternal and reproductive health care, nutrition services, education, safe drinking water, hygiene kits and multi-purpose cash assistance. Protection services for women, children, people with disabilities, and other at-risk groups remain central ─ delivered through safe spaces, legal aid, and psychosocial .

To deliver this multi-sectoral response, humanitarian organisations projected a funding requirement of US $2.42 billion for 2025. However, a sudden shift in the funding landscape in January ─ following the suspension of nearly all foreign aid by the United States, previously the largest donor to Afghanistan’s humanitarian response ─ has prompted an urgent reprioritization.

In 2024 alone, the United States contributed $735.7 million, covering 47 per cent of the total requirements for that year’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP). The loss of such a critical donor has created a significant gap in the 2025 humanitarian response, compelling the Afghanistan Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) to urgently reassess the most pressing priorities.

Reprioritising the 2025 response plan

In response to the funding crisis, humanitarian partners have identified 145 out of 401 districts across Afghanistan as priority areas for focused intervention. These areas were selected based on a tiered approach. Top priority includes 95 districts with the highest severity of needs, ranked at Level 4 in the inter-sectoral needs severity analysis. Secondary priority includes 50 districts with Level 3 severity, selected due to high planned reach across multiple clusters and core activities.

Where possible and if additional funds become available ─ humanitarian assistance may be extended beyond these priority areas, provided that core needs in Tiers 1 and 2 are first met or if funding is tied to specific donor agreements that remain unaffected by the US funding freeze.

As a result of this reprioritisation, 12.5 million people have been targeted for assistance, for which $1.62 billion is required.

The road ahead

While the reprioritized plan reflects financial realism, it also signals a stark truth: hard decisions will have to be made due to funding constraints about who will receive assistance and who will not. In the meantime, humanitarian actors continue to advocate for renewed donor to uphold the humanitarian imperative and prevent further erosion of critical services.

2025 Afghanistan humanitarian response plan faces severe funding gaps as first quarter ends

As the first quarter of 2025 concludes, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) remains critically underfunded with just US $322.4 million received against total requirements of $2.42 billion—reflecting 13 per cent of resources. This severe funding shortfall, which has been compounded by the suspension of US foreign assistance in January, is significantly hindering humanitarian efforts across the country.

Between January and March 2025, humanitarian partners reached 7.6 million people with at least one form of humanitarian assistance compared to 9.4 million people during the same period in 2024. As funding cuts from other traditional donors begin to take effect, the impact of the underfunding is expected to further negatively affect the humanitarian response.

Already, 220 health facilities have closed affecting 1.8 million people, 400 nutrition sites have been suspended affecting 80,000 children under five and pregnant and lactating women, and critical protection services, especially for survivors of gender-based violence, have been heavily disrupted. Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions have also been affected, increasing the risk of malnutrition and disease outbreaks.

Across the country, humanitarian operations have been scaled back or suspended in many areas. Humanitarian flight services have also been reduced, further limited access to remote and underserved regions, while a coordination capacity mapping undertaken in mid-March found that hundreds of humanitarian staff are being laid off or expected to be in the coming months. Of the total dedicated cluster capacity in Afghanistan, for example, 78 per cent of coordination positions at the national level and sub-national level are expected to be impacted by funding cuts over the coming months.

While the situation remains fluid, initial changes to the coordination set-up are beginning to emerge, including humanitarian partners closing offices or merging them with other regions, especially at the sub-national level. Over time, it is expected that there will be an increase in double- and triple-hatting, with technical sectoral experts expected to take on coordination roles as an additional responsibility.

Humanitarian partners are reassessing the impact of the funding shortfall on programmes and are being forced to reprioritize activities in order to continue delivering essential assistance. What is clear though is that without urgent and adequate funding, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan will only deepen further, putting millions of lives at risk.

How climate-driven flash floods are uprooting lives in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is facing more frequent and intense climate-related disasters, especially flash floods. These floods used to happen mainly in spring but now they strike all year round due to changing weather patterns and climate change. In 2024, flash floods hit all 34 provinces, affecting over 170,000 people.[1] They destroyed homes, took lives, ruined livelihoods and worsened an already serious humanitarian crisis.

In Tajik Elatan village, Sholgara district of Balkh Province, floodwaters struck with little warning. Siyah Moy, a 50-year-old widow raising eight children, was jolted awake in the early hours by cries from neighbors and the roar of water crashing through her home.

"One early morning, a heavy storm followed by intense rainfall caused a flash flood," she recalls. "I woke up to the screams of neighbours and the sound of water rushing into our house. We quickly ran outside, barely managing to escape."

Entire homes were reduced to rubble. Years of hard work vanished in a single night. Food stocks, livestock, and household essentials – everything was lost.

Humanitarian organisations responded quickly with temporary shelter, food and cash assistance. But for families like Siyah Moy’s, immediate relief is not enough. “We are hoping for more help to rebuild our home and start anew,” she says, her voice heavy with exhaustion.

Beyond the destruction of homes, flash floods have devastated sources of income. Agriculture, the backbone of rural Afghan communities, has been hit especially hard. "Farmers around us have also been affected and can no longer hire daily workers," Siyah Moy explains. With farmlands buried under mud and debris, rural economies have ground to a halt, worsening food insecurity and driving communities deeper into poverty. Without urgent action, Afghan families risk losing not just their homes, but their entire way of life.

Affected communities emphasise the need for early warning systems and disaster preparedness training. These are not luxuries – they are life-saving tools. Improved flood control infrastructure, reforestation and sustainable land management are urgently needed. Targeted funding should risk assessments, community-led disaster preparedness and climate-resilient housing and agriculture.

Afghanistan’s humanitarian and climate actors face a stark choice: continue providing short-term emergency relief year after year or invest in long-term solutions that reduce vulnerability before disaster strikes. The humanitarian imperative is clear – without coordinated, forward-looking action, climate change will continue to erase hard-won development gains, trapping Afghan families in recurrent cycles of crisis.

A call for immediate and sustained

Now is the time for decisive, climate-conscious investment. Donors, humanitarian agencies and climate partners must mobilise resources to integrate disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and resilient livelihoods into ongoing humanitarian work. Funding early warning systems, flood mitigation infrastructure and climate-smart agriculture will not only help prevent future disasters but also empower Afghan communities to rebuild and thrive.

Afghanistan Natural Disasters Dashboard | ReliefWeb Response