The US has been the largest donor to the Afghanistan humanitarian response since 2013, demonstrating unwavering dedication to assembly life-saving and life-sustaining wants countrywide. In 2024 alone, the US was the most important contributor to the Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP), offering $736.6 million (45 per cent of complete funding requested).
With US and different donors’ funding, humanitarian responders in Afghanistan had been capable of attain 20.4 million individuals in 2024 with a minimum of one type of humanitarian help. Among them, 3.4 million individuals acquired three several types of sectoral assist. Women represented 29 per cent of the entire variety of individuals reached.
Over the years, assist from all donors has been instrumental in strengthening emergency responses throughout vital moments, together with the escalation of battle in 2014, the devastating drought in 2018, and the political transition in 2021, all of which triggered widespread and escalating humanitarian wants. It has additionally performed a pivotal position in averting famine in 2021 and 2022 by way of strong assist for meals safety and diet interventions.
Additional assets are urgently required to allow humanitarian actors to mount an equally commensurate response to the returnee disaster. In 2025, some 1.6 million Afghans have returned from Iran (1.3 million) and Pakistan (348,000), together with 539,000 between 1 and 26 July, stretching aid efforts on the border to breaking level and putting additional stress on primary service provision in already over-strained host communities.
At the identical time, Afghanistan is going through the prospect of a extreme drought throughout the northern, northeastern, central highlands and western areas following below-average rainfall in almost all provinces – a pattern anticipated to persist by way of the top of 2025. Alarmingly, present situations are actually similar to these noticed through the extreme 2018 drought.¹ While $16.6 million in CERF and AHF funding was allotted in April to assist mitigate the affect of those dry spells by way of anticipatory motion, additional funding is required to forestall large-scale displacement and additional deterioration of meals and water safety.
The US suspension of international help is having far-reaching penalties on humanitarian operations, with the state of affairs persevering with to worsen following the 4 April resolution that every one remaining US help to Afghanistan – totaling $562 million – could be suspended. Moreover, the lately handed Rescissions Act might have additional implications on funding beforehand assigned and/or disbursed for Afghanistan for 2025.
In addition to US funding cuts, different donors – together with France, Sweden and the United Kingdom – have additionally lowered their official growth help and humanitarian budgets.
The implications of the cuts are already seen on the funding for the 2025 HNRP, which has acquired roughly $144 million much less for quick aid efforts as of August 2025 in comparison with the identical interval in 2024. At the identical time, round 800,000 individuals much less have been assisted as of May 2025 (10.2 million) in comparison with May 2024 (11 million).
In response to the funding disaster, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) has reprioritized the 2025 HNRP by specializing in 145 of Afghanistan’s 401 districts with the best severity of wants, in addition to probably the most pressing life-saving and protection-related actions. This train had led to an urgently prioritized HNRP goal of 12.5 million individuals and a monetary requirement of $1.63 billion.