Overview
Afghanistan faces enormous recovery needs after three decades of war, civil unrest and recurring natural disasters. Despite recent progress, millions of Afghans still live in severe poverty with a crumbling infrastructure and a landscape that is suffering from environmental damage. This rugged, landlocked country remains one of the poorest in the world, with more than half the population living below the poverty line.
Preliminary data from the 2007-2008 National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) indicate that 7.4 million people – nearly a third of the population – are unable to get enough food to live active, healthy lives. Another 8.5 million people, or 37 percent, are on the borderline of food insecurity. Around 400,000 people each year are seriously affected by natural disasters, such as droughts, floods, earthquakes or extreme weather conditions.
In 2008, Afghanistan was hit by both drought and globally high food prices, which saw the price of wheat and wheat products increase dramatically across the country. Despite prices beginning to fall in 2009, they remain higher than normal.
Insecurity is a major and growing concern. Insurgent activity and military operations have affected food security in some regions, undermined reconstruction efforts and restricted humanitarian interventions.
Environmental degradation is also a severe problem. War, uncontrolled grazing, pastureland encroachment, illegal logging and the loss of forest and grass cover have worsened drought conditions and reduced agricultural productivity.
While life expectancy has increased slightly to 44.5 years for men and 44 for women, many of the country’s health indicators are alarming. Along with a high infant mortality rate, Afghanistan suffers from one of the highest levels of maternal mortality in the world (1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births). More than half of children under the age of five are malnourished, and micronutrient deficiencies (particularly iodine and iron) are widespread.
The formal education sector is slowly improving, but progress is hampered by a shortage of qualified teachers, poor facilities and threats posed by insurgents. Even so, over two-thirds of school-age children attend school. Girls, banned from school under the Taliban regime, are gradually returning to the classroom, but 70 percent are still not enrolled. Adult literacy rates remain low, at 43 percent for men and 14 percent for women.
WFP Activities
WFP has been working continuously in Afghanistan since 1963, and is active in all 34 provinces. In recent years, WFP’s focus has shifted from emergency assistance to rehabilitation and recovery.
WFP plans to feed 8.8 million people in 2009, primarily in remote, food-insecure rural areas. WFP’s food assistance targets poor and vulnerable families, schoolchildren, teachers, illiterate people, tuberculosis patients and their families, returning refugees, internally displaced persons and disabled people – with an emphasis on vulnerable women and girls.
School Meals programmes aim to help the government rebuild the national education system. In 2009, WFP plans to provide a daily snack of micronutrient-enriched biscuits to more than 1.6 million children to alleviate short-term hunger and encourage school attendance. WFP also aims to provide 604,000 students with take-home rations of wheat, and to give 505,000 girls extra oil as an incentive to keep them in class. A new pilot programme provides children with a nutritious cooked meal at school every day.
Food for training helps the poor acquire new marketable skills so they can earn a better living. In 2009, WFP intends to provide 137,000 vulnerable people with rations when they attend classes in literacy, handicraft production, carpentry, plumbing skills, reproductive health or childcare.
In 2009, WFP plans to assist more than 800,000 people through Food-for-Work programmes, which provide food to vulnerable Afghans as they build or repair community assets, including roads, bridges, reservoirs and irrigation systems. These projects are agreed upon in consultation with the government and local communities.
WFP supports the national campaign against tuberculosis (TB) by providing family rations to patients as an incentive to complete their eight-month treatment course at clinics across the country. WFP is assisting more than 20,000 TB patients and their families every month.
WFP is also launching a pilot Mother and Child Health and Nutrition programme to fight malnutrition among pregnant women, new mothers and children under the age of 2. This helps prevent the life-long consequences of poor nutrition during those critical years of life.
WFP has been promoting flour fortification in Afghanistan since 2004. Adding vitamins and minerals to flour helps reduce deficiencies in iron and other micronutrients, particularly important among women of child-bearing age. Eight mills around the country are now producing a total of 500 metric tons of fortified flour every day.
In 2008, WFP relief operations supported over 3.4 million people affected by natural and man-made disasters. Food reached people affected by drought and floods, as well as returning refugees and people displaced by conflict.
A separate appeal spanning August 2008 to July 2009 was aimed at assisting another 5 million Afghans most severely affected by the dramatic increase in staple food prices and drought.
An expected bumper harvest in 2009 is allowing WFP to buy wheat directly from small-scale farmers for distribution elsewhere in the country. WFP plans to buy about 7,000 metric tons of wheat this year – or more, if conditions permit –strengthening Afghan grain markets and small-scale producers' access to them.
Under a separate WFP pilot project being launched in Kabul in 2009, beneficiaries receive vouchers instead of food rations, allowing them to buy their choice of food from participating retailers and avoiding distortion of functioning markets.
The Greening of Afghanistan Initiative (GAIN) is a joint UN programme aiming to improve Afghanistan’s devastated environment. Administered by WFP, the three-year project helps widows and other vulnerable groups build a sustainable livelihood by starting their own nurseries,. It also increases natural vegetation and forest cover, trains local officials in environmental protection, and boosts environmental awareness through education.
The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) provides safe and efficient air transport and cargo services for the humanitarian community around Afghanistan and to neighbouring countries. In the first six months of 2009, UNHAS carried more than 21,000 passengers and 39.4 metric tons of cargo.
