Afghanistan | World Food Programme

Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most severe hunger crises, with one in five people not knowing where their next meal will come from.

Afghans continue to grapple with the  consequences of four decades of conflict, compounded by an economic crisis, entrenched poverty, frequent environmental disasters, and increasingly erratic weather patterns and recurrent drought.

The country is experiencing the sharpest surge in malnutrition ever recorded, with 3.5 million girls and boys under 5 expected to be malnourished in 2025 – half a million more than last year. This is in addition to 1.2 million malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, who urgently need treatment.

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the hunger crisis, as they are being pushed further to the fringes of society. The World Food Programme prioritizes women-headed families and continues to reach women and girls across the country with life-saving assistance.

What the World Food Programme is doing in Afghanistan

Emergency response: WFP delivers life-saving emergency food assistance to families facing multiple compounding vulnerabilities, many of whom have no other means of survival. Nine out of ten heads of households selected for assistance are illiterate, one in five are widows and one in ten are living with disabilities. Women and children make 80 percent of those reached. WFP further treats malnourished mothers and their children in clinics. We help prevent malnutrition and stunting, distributing specialized nutritious food to families with children and providing emergency food assistance to mothers.
School meals: WFP supports primary schools and community-based education centres in areas with chronic food insecurity, high malnutrition rates and low school enrolment. For many children, the nutritious school snack provided at school is often their only healthy and nutritious meal of the day. WFP delivers fortified biscuits produced in Afghanistan and nutritious snacks baked in village bakeries with local ingredients. Girls also receive fortified vegetable oil to take home. This approach encourages girls’ school enrolment and improves families’ nutrition.
Resilience and livelihoods: WFP partners with communities to put them on the path to self-sufficiency, boost their productivity and prepare them for the impact of environmental disasters. We do this by building community assets like water canals, reservoirs or flood protection walls. Alongside these physical assets, WFP offers vocational skills training such as mobile phone repair, fruit drying or tailoring, which empower food-insecure families to earn income and buy nutritious food. Training sessions for women and widows, often the sole breadwinners, have become crucial safe spaces for Afghan women to gather and learn.
Social protection: WFP provides a social safety net for women, children and youth, to help families live more healthily and boost their incomes. Pregnant women and mothers receive quarterly cash assistance alongside educational sessions on health and nutrition. Meanwhile, young people from the same families are trained in business skills and can get grants to start their own small businesses. WFP also delivers anticipatory cash assistance to food-insecure families, empowering them to act proactively and protect their livelihoods.
UNHAS: The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), managed by WFP, is vital for humanitarian access across Afghanistan – where insecurity, poor infrastructure and rugged terrain limit road travel. UNHAS provides reliable access to over a dozen hard-to-reach locations and provides regional links to Pakistan and Tajikistan. Often, UNHAS is the only reliable option to reach remote communities or to evacuate aid workers for medical or security reasons. It serves over 100 UN agencies, NGOs and partners, whose activities provide essential and critical assistance to more than 10 million people.
Additional support: WFP assists with the provision of assistance in beneficiary management, supply chain, information and communication technology, and facilities and information management.

Publications

In focus

Q&A: How Afghanistan’s hunger and nutrition crisis is affecting families, women and girls

Story | 4 June 2025

Explainer: How WFP’s supply chain works to tackle hunger

Story | 9 April 2025

Afghanistan: Funding cuts put lives at risk amid nutrition and hunger crisis

Story | 26 March 2025

Despite restrictions on women, a bakery blossoms in hungry Afghanistan

Story | 15 November 2024

As El Niño intensifies floods and droughts, early action pays off

Story | 22 May 2024

UNHAS at 20: Humanitarian response planes and helicopters touch down in tough places

Story | 16 February 2024

Operations in Afghanistan

Afghanistan country strategic plan (2018 - 2025)

AF01 - Country Strategic Plan (CSP)

View all operations

Contacts

Office

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Kabul
Afghanistan

Phone

If you wish to share feedback or report a problem related to food assistance, please call (tollfree): 0790555544 (Sun-Thu, 8 am-4 pm) or email us at wfp.afg@wfp.org

Fax

+8707 63 089563 / Sat 1331-2513 (7807)

Email

WFP.Kabul@wfp.org

For media inquiries

philippe.kropf@wfp.org

What the World Food Programme is doing in Afghanistan

Emergency response

School meals

Resilience and livelihoods

Social protection

UNHAS

Additional support

Publications

Annual Country Reports - Afghanistan

Situation Reports Afghanistan: 2021 - Present

Fill the Nutrient Gap - Asia and the Pacific

WFP in Asia and the Pacific: 2024 Year in Review

Summary of evaluation evidence: WFP's emergency response

WFP - Health Emergency Response Project - Afghanistan