Only 12.3 percent of the $2.42 billion in humanitarian funding required for Afghanistan in 2025 has been received, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). As of late February, the country faced a $2.12 billion shortfall, raising alarm over the future of essential relief operations.
In its latest bimonthly report, covering January through February 28, OCHA said that $296 million, primarily from the United States, has been received to date, leaving a shortfall of more than $2.12 billion.
Despite limited funding, humanitarian partners were able to assist 7.1 million people across the country in the first two months of the year. However, the report notes that 89 percent of recipients received only food assistance, underscoring a reliance on emergency rations and the unmet demand for broader, multi-sectoral aid.
The report emphasized that millions of Afghans require multiple rounds of aid annually to meet basic needs — a goal unlikely to be achieved without significant increases in flexible funding.
OCHA said the current funding data only partially reflects actual commitments, as some agencies report to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS) on a quarterly basis. Additionally, the impact of the U.S. humanitarian aid reductions announced in January will take time to appear in tracking systems.
In the face of persistent humanitarian needs and growing operational challenges, OCHA said the international aid community must continue delivering integrated support that reflects the scale and complexity of Afghanistan’s overlapping crises.
The agency also stressed the importance of ensuring that Afghan women have access to aid and that female humanitarian workers can operate safely and meaningfully throughout the country.
“Maintaining life-saving operations will require not only sufficient and flexible funding,” the report states, “but also functioning financial systems, the safety of aid workers, and principled humanitarian access.”
