Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan 2023 (March 2023)

Response Plan Overview

PEOPLE IN NEED 28.3M PLANNED REACH 23.7M REQUIREMENTS (US$) $4.6B OPERATIONAL PARTNERS 218

Note on the HRP planning process and impact of DFA decree on women in humanitarian work

The 2023 Afghanistan Humanitarian Response plan was developed during the period of August to December 2022, with the aim to publish in January 2023. However, on 24 December 2022, the de facto authorities (DFA) Ministry of Economy issued a decree banning Afghan women from working for NGOs. Following the ban, the Inter- Agency Standing Committee (IASC) principals instated a month-long partial operational pause of non-time critical humanitarian programmes. An IASC Mission was subsequently sent to Afghanistan from 22 to 26 January 2023 to support negotiations with the DFA and assess operational risks and opportunities.

Following an in-country mission, the IASC Mission recommended moving from an ‘operational pause’ to an ‘operational trial’ period supported by a related concept of operations. It was also decided to proceed with the issuance of the HRP for 2023 based on the baselines developed in the original planning period. Therefore, while references to the ban and changes to the context have been incorporated into this document, the strategy and planning have not been revised substantially.

The ban on female participation in humanitarian response will have devastating and long- lasting consequences for all people in need, but especially women and girls – already the most vulnerable members of society. Women have a right to work and are an integral part of humanitarian action, and their participation is essential (as in all aid operations) if we are to reach populations in need safely and effectively with principled and quality assistance – be they men, women, boys or girls. Furthermore, women beneficiaries depend on the involvement of female humanitarian workers not only to directly receive assistance and services, but also for the safeguarding, meaningful engagement and quality assurance that their presence ensures. These qualitative components of the response are vital to informing how assistance and services should be delivered, tailored and adjusted moving forward, and are critical to maintaining a principled, effective and accountable humanitarian response.

The Humanitarian Coordination Team (HCT), in collaboration with other humanitarian partners and basic human needs actors, have developed a related monitoring and reporting framework to report back to the IASC on the permissiveness of the access environment and sectoral and local authorisations, and humanitarian partners’ ability to operate within the IASC Mission recommendations / minimum criteria for operations under the impact of the ban. In the meantime, the humanitarian community continues to assess the impact of the ban across all sectors and engage with DFA at the national, regional and provincial levels to overturn the ban. Based on the outcomes of this monitoring and related advocacy efforts, at which point a comprehensive review of the operation and a revision of the HRP will be conducted as required.

Crisis, Context and Impact

Political, social, demographic, economic profile

The end of the 20 year armed conflict between the Taliban and the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces and International Military Forces in August 2021, and the simultaneous takeover of the country by the Taliban, has ushered in a new era characterized by the almost-total exclusion of half the population – women and girls – from public life, economic challenges, hunger and risk of malnutrition, inflation driven by global commodity shocks, drastic rises in both urban and rural poverty, a near-collapse of the national public health system, a stifling of the media and civil society sectors, and violations affecting former government personnel (including Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) in violation of a general amnesty.

The collapse of the previous government resulted in a suspension of direct international development assistance, which previously accounted for 75 per cent of public expenditures, including the maintenance of the public health system. In the absence of development activity, the Afghan people are experiencing a reversal of recent gains, as evidenced by the upsurge of humanitarian needs across the country.

Political, social and economic shocks continue to be felt through a massive deterioration in the humanitarian and protection situation in 2022, with the outlook for 2023 remaining profoundly uncertain. Limited political and administrative experience in governance, particularly at subnational levels, underpins the manifold challenges faced by humanitarian (and non-humanitarian) actors in meeting the needs of people around the country.

Afghanistan’s population was estimated to pass 43 million in 2022, with 49 per cent women and girls, and one of the highest youth populations in the world, with 47 per cent of the population under 15 years old.

The population is expected to grow at 2.3 per cent per annum, one of the steepest rates in the region, and so the intertwined environmental, economic and protection crises, particularly for women and girls, will have far-reaching and potentially catastrophic impacts far into the future.

Population growth, internal displacement and migration and continued high rates of cross-border return are contributing to increased strain on limited resources, livelihood opportunities and basic services, as well as an increase in protection risks, especially for most at-risk groups, including women and girls.

The Pakistan floods and the ongoing political and economic challenges in Iran also engender greater uncertainty, potentially reducing remittances and increasing the risk of further disruptions to markets and commodity access within the wider region.

While Afghanistan is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, several groups remain at risk of violence, repression, discrimination and marginalization, given previous patterns of serious violations and reports of killings and targeted attacks on religious sites, including instances of forced evictions, in recent months.