KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced an allocation of $18 million to support humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.
OCHA said in a post on X on Tuesday, October 6, that the funding was allocated to Afghanistan through the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
The UN agency said the funding comes at a critical time, as 21.9 million people in Afghanistan require humanitarian assistance, while only around 31 percent of the country’s 2026 humanitarian plan has been funded.
Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said $160 million from CERF had been approved to address 12 underfunded crises around the world.
According to Fletcher, $10 million of the allocation will be used to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from humanitarian assistance.
“87m people to reach. No time to waste,” Fletcher said.
He stressed that the world’s most neglected crises should not become forgotten crises.
The latest funding comes as Afghanistan continues to face a severe humanitarian and economic crisis. The UN and aid agencies have repeatedly warned that declining international funding is limiting their ability to provide food, healthcare, shelter and other essential services to vulnerable Afghans.
Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis has been further exacerbated by widespread unemployment, restrictions on women’s participation in education and the workforce, and the return of millions of Afghan migrants from neighboring countries, placing additional pressure on already limited resources and services.
The situation has also been worsened by cuts in international humanitarian assistance, including significant reductions in U.S. funding, which had previously accounted for a substantial share of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Together, these factors have increased poverty and food insecurity and left humanitarian organizations struggling to meet the needs of millions of vulnerable Afghans.
Humanitarian agencies have said that insufficient funding could force them to reduce or suspend assistance at a time when millions of Afghans remain dependent on humanitarian support.
The Central Emergency Response Fund is a UN mechanism designed to provide rapid funding for life-saving humanitarian operations in crises that require immediate assistance or have received insufficient funding. It is managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and financed through contributions from UN member states and other donors.
