In 2025, Afghanistan will continue to face complex humanitarian challenges necessitating a strategic and comprehensive response. This plan prioritises response to the critical needs of 22.9 million people, considering factors such as a deteriorating protection environment for women and girls, continuous returnee inflows from Pakistan and Iran, climate change impacts – including the devastation that can be wrought by both floods and droughts - and high unemployment and debt rates. These compounding factors continue to erode the population’s resilience to shocks, exacerbating food insecurity for 14.8 million people and other underlying vulnerabilities. The primary focus of the response in 2025 will be to deliver life-saving assistance, including food, safe drinking water, essential healthcare and educational support. Moreover, ensuring the protection of vulnerable groups, especially women and children, remains central to the strategy. Despite operational challenges and funding constraints, humanitarian partners are committed to delivering critical support to the most vulnerable populations in Afghanistan.
Address immediate needs and deliver life-saving assistance
The 2025 HNRP will prioritize the most urgent needs of vulnerable populations, targeting 16.8 million people of the 22.9 million people in need, including children, young people, women, older persons, persons with disabilities, and displaced communities. Life- saving interventions will be rapidly deployed in areas experiencing acute crises, such as conflict, natural disasters and health emergencies, with particular emphasis on addressing malnutrition, disease outbreaks and lack of access to essential services. Real-time needs assessments and data analysis will guide humanitarian partners to prioritize the most affected areas and populations, ensuring resources are allocated where they are most needed to prevent further loss of life and reduce suffering. This approach not only provides immediate relief but also supports long-term recovery and resilience-building.
Ensure centrality of protection and gender- responsive assistance
Protection remains a top priority in the 2025 HNRP, particularly for women and girls, who face heightened risks of gender-based violence, exploitation and discrimination. The plan integrates gender-responsive programming to ensure access to safe spaces, healthcare, education, and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) across all sectors. A key focus will be increasing the participation of female humanitarian workers to ensure that the needs of women and girls are effectively addressed. Protection will be embedded across all sectors, including education, health, food security, and shelter, to safeguard human rights and dignity.
Efforts will focus on mitigating protection risks such as GBV, discrimination and exploitation. This includes strengthening case management, providing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) and ensuring access to critical services such as legal aid. Furthermore, efforts will be made to address restricted access to humanitarian services for women due to policies like mahram requirements and to ensure women can access critical resources safely and equitably. The HNRP underscores the importance of women’s participation in all stages of the response— from planning to implementation—to ensure their needs and voices are incorporated. Gender-responsive assistance will provide tailored support, including dignity kits, GBV services and economic empowerment programs, fostering gender equality and strengthening the humanitarian sector’s ability to deliver inclusive and sustainable outcomes.
Collaboration with Basic Human Needs (BHN) and capacity building
The 2025 HNRP emphasizes the importance of long-term solutions and capacity building alongside immediate humanitarian assistance. This strategy aims to address underlying vulnerabilities, promote sustainable livelihoods and collaborate with BHN partners to enhance education, infrastructure and economic recovery, fostering self-reliance and stability in Afghanistan.
To achieve this, the HNRP will combine emergency assistance with efforts to reduce long-term vulnerabilities and promote sustainable recovery. Priority will be given to transitional shelter solutions and long-term food security, with the Emergency Shelter/Non-Food Items (ES/NFI) and the Food Security and Agriculture (FSAC) clusters working together on initiatives like emergency agriculture and livelihood support. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) will play a critical role, especially in high-risk areas, with the ES/NFI Cluster focusing on early warning systems and strategic site selection to mitigate future risks.
The Health Cluster is aiming to strengthen essential maternal and reproductive health to ensure equitable access for women and girls of reproductive age. By addressing both immediate and long-term needs, this strategy will help communities recover and build resilience to future shocks.
Integrated multisectoral and cross-sectoral approach
An essential component of the 2025 HNRP is the adoption of an integrated multi-sectoral and cross-sectoral approach to address the complex, interconnected vulnerabilities faced by affected communities. Coordinating interventions across sectors like food security, nutrition, health, shelter and WASH will ensure efficient resource use and prevent duplication. For example, addressing malnutrition requires an integrated approach to food security measures with health and WASH interventions to achieve sustainable health outcomes.
With widespread food insecurity and inadequate healthcare infrastructure, the response will focus on maintaining and strengthening healthcare services, especially in remote areas, including maternal and child healthcare, vaccinations and targeted nutrition interventions like supplementary feeding programs for children and pregnant women.
Effective multi-sectoral coordination between clusters such as Education, Protection and Health will ensure children’s safety, well-being and access to education, ensuring lifesaving essential maternal and health services, while also addressing long-term needs related to livelihoods and shelter. Additionally, MHPSS services will be integrated at all levels of the response, particularly for survivors of GBV, as seen in the Protection and Health Clusters. Strengthening referrals between health, protection and nutrition services will ensure a holistic response to both the physical and psychological needs of the population, improving overall outcomes.
Localized and inclusive response
The localized and inclusive response will ensure that the humanitarian response is tailored to the specific needs of local communities and vulnerable populations. This includes empowering local partners, such as women-led and youth-led organizations and platforms, through technical and operational support, enabling them to play a central role in service delivery, particularly in the Education and ES/NFI Clusters. The response will prioritize the most vulnerable groups, such as women, children, returnees and those with specific protection needs. For example, the ES/NFI Cluster will focus on gender-sensitive shelter solutions, while the WASH Cluster will ensure that water and sanitation facilities are accessible to vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities. Additionally, promoting community-based protection initiatives and ensuring that marginalized groups are included in decision-making processes in assessment and response planning, e.g. through focused group discussions by the Regional-Inter-Cluster Coordination Groups and Accountability of Affected People (AAP) at sub-national level, will strengthen the overall response.
Anticipatory action for drought and climate adaptation
Given the frequent occurrence of climate-related disasters, such as droughts, the 2025 HNRP for the first time includes anticipatory action as part of the overall response strategy. This proactive approach aims to mitigate the impacts of droughts and other climate shocks before they escalate into full-scale crises. The strategy involves implementing early warning systems, preparing resources in advance and mobilizing support to vulnerable regions, initially focusing on the drought-prone areas in the northern and northeastern parts of the country. By anticipating and preparing for these shocks, the HNRP aims to reduce the need for large-scale emergency interventions and improve the resilience of affected communities to future climate-related disasters.
Advocacy and operational flexibility in a restrictive environment
The operational environment in Afghanistan remains highly challenging, with restrictions and bureaucratic barriers that complicate humanitarian efforts. In response, the HNRP will advocate for greater operational flexibility and access, engaging in negotiations with the authorities to preserve humanitarian space. Efforts will also be made to ensure that female humanitarian workers can safely and meaningfully participate in the response. By navigating these operational challenges, the response aims to maintain its focus on delivering critical assistance to those most in need while mitigating the risks faced by humanitarian workers, particularly in the face of ongoing conflict and insecurity.