KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The European Union has provided €15 million to strengthen climate resilience and local food systems across Afghanistan, the World Food Programme said on Friday, as the country grapples with a deepening humanitarian crisis and acute funding shortfalls.
In a post on X, WFP welcomed the contribution, saying the funds would support livelihoods, create economic opportunities for women and young people, and reinforce its school meals program.
The new contribution comes as millions of Afghans continue to struggle to meet basic needs amid prolonged economic hardship, recurring natural disasters, reduced international assistance and the return of large numbers of Afghans from neighboring countries.
Nearly 22 million people in Afghanistan are expected to need humanitarian assistance this year, according to the United Nations, with women and children among those most vulnerable.
The WFP has recently warned that child malnutrition has reached critical levels in several provinces. Funding shortages have limited its ability to provide food assistance. John Aylieff, the WFP’s country director for Afghanistan, said children were already dying as a result of cuts to humanitarian aid.
“We are bracing ourselves for a further increase in child mortality in the coming months,” Aylieff wrote in an article published by the British magazine Prospect, adding that the agency was struggling to secure sufficient funding to assist severely malnourished children.
The WFP’s appeal for Afghanistan this year was about 12% funded as of August, according to the agency. The broader U.N. humanitarian appeal of $1.71 billion was about 29% funded, leaving a funding gap of around $1.2 billion, U.N. agencies said.
The EU has remained one of Afghanistan’s major donors since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, directing assistance towards humanitarian needs and longer-term priorities including women’s economic empowerment, small-business support, alternative livelihoods and efforts to reduce reliance on poppy cultivation.
The bloc recently committed €20 million to support the International Organization for Migration’s efforts to reintegrate Afghan returnees and displaced people.
