KABUL, Afghanistan — The UN World Food Program (WFP) announced Monday that Sweden’s International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has contributed $2.2 million to support nutrition efforts in Afghanistan, where malnutrition rates have reached record highs.
The WFP said the new funding will allow the agency to provide more than 550 metric tons of specialized nutritious food to approximately 125,000 Afghan mothers and children over the next three months to prevent malnutrition.
“This year, in Afghanistan, 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are suffering from malnutrition, while 3.5 million young children are expected to be malnourished — the sharpest surge ever recorded in the country,” said Mutinta Chimuka, WFP’s acting country director for Afghanistan. “It is critical to support mothers and their young children to stay healthy and well-nourished, for their own futures and that of their families.”
Last year, WFP reported assisting over 2.3 million pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children with specialized food supplements designed to prevent severe malnutrition. Among those helped, more than 1.5 million were children and nearly 800,000 were mothers.
The agency also noted that two-thirds of women-headed households in Afghanistan cannot afford basic nutrition — a rate nearly 20 percent higher than that of men-headed families.
In 2024, WFP reached nearly 12 million people across Afghanistan through its various programs, with women and girls comprising more than half of those assisted.
SIDA has been a consistent partner for WFP’s operations in Afghanistan. Between 2021 and 2024, Sweden contributed more than $30 million, making it one of the agency’s top ten donors in the country for 2025.
The funding comes amid warnings from the United Nations that nearly 23 million people in Afghanistan will require humanitarian assistance this year, as economic collapse, food insecurity, and health crises continue to grip the country.
