Effective coordination and common services remain foundational to the delivery of principled, timely and accountable humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, particularly in the context of the Humanitarian Reset, ongoing access constraints, large-scale population movements, and declining humanitarian financing. In 2026, coordination and common services will be essential to sustain a coherent, shock-responsive system while enabling a more streamlined, localised and efficiency-focused humanitarian architecture.
Overall, coordination costs (OCHA and relevant working groups) account for less than one per cent of the total HNRP requirements ($$15.5 million), representing a modest but essential investment to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability across the response. Aviation (UNHAS) is critical to ensuring safe, reliable access to hard-to-reach locations and the rapid movement of humanitarian personnel and life-saving cargo. Assessments (REACH, DTM) represent around half of one per cent of the total HNRP ($9.2 million), providing the essential evidence base required for needs-based planning, precise targeting, and accountable delivery of assistance.
Strategic importance of coordination in the humanitarian reset
In 2026, coordination and common services are not only enabling functions but core drivers of the Humanitarian Reset. They underpin the transition to a leaner, more inter-sectoral, locally anchored coordination architecture; strengthen accountability and participation; sustain life-saving access; and ensure that operational decisions remain evidence-based, prioritised by severity and responsive to community feedback.
Without sustained investment in coordination and common services, the capacity of the humanitarian system to manage large-scale shocks, support principled access, uphold protection standards and enable responsible transition to BHN programming will be significantly weakened.
Coordination (OCHA)
OCHA will continue to lead the strategic and operational coordination of the humanitarian response in Afghanistan, ensuring that assistance is principled, needs-based and coherently delivered across one of the world’s most complex operating environments. Strategic leadership will be exercised through the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), while operational coordination will continue to be anchored in the ICCT at the national level and Operational Coordination Teams (OCTs) at sub-national levels. As part of the Humanitarian Reset, OCHA is supporting the transition to a revised coordination architecture, including the establishment of Regional Teams (RTs) that bring together humanitarian and BHN actors, while OCTs will remain to ensure flexible emergency coordination at the provincial level in response to sudden-onset shocks. This updated structure is designed to reduce duplication, strengthen inter-sectoral convergence, and support more effective transition pathways where appropriate.
OCHA through the ICCT, will continue to lead the HPC, including severity analysis, response planning, prioritisation, monitoring and joint advocacy. Through its neutral convening role, OCHA safeguards the integrity of needs-based decision-making, ensuring that priorities are driven by evidence rather than institutional mandates. OCHA’s information management capacity will support district-level response tracking, gap analysis, and operational presence and capacity mapping. Access engagement and operational advocacy, informed by real-time situational analysis, will remain core functions to help sustain humanitarian space in a challenging operating environment. In 2026, OCHA requires $8.2 million to sustain national and sub-national coordination, information management, access engagement, response monitoring and leadership functions that enables the entire humanitarian response to function effectively.
Accountability and Inclusion Working Group (AIWG)
The Accountability and Inclusion Working Group will continue to support a system-wide response that is informed by the priorities, preferences and feedback of crisis-affected people. In 2026, AIWG efforts will focus on consolidating the feedback-to-action loop, strengthening community-level validation, and ensuring that collective feedback directly informs strategic and operational decision-making. The Afghanistan Community Voices and Accountability Platform, implemented with Awaaz Afghanistan, will remain the core collective feedback mechanism, providing accessible, gender- and disability-inclusive channels for information-sharing, complaints and feedback. The Working Group will also strengthen cluster and partner capacity for disability inclusion, two-way communication using context-appropriate channels, languages and formats, including for persons with limited literacy, mobility or digital access. AIWG common services require $3.65 million in 2026 to sustain the helpline, community perception monitoring, disability inclusion training, sub-national engagement and system-wide feedback integration.
Gender Coordination Group
The Gender Coordination Group will continue to serve as the inter-agency technical platform supporting gender-responsive coordination and programming at both national and sub-national levels. In 2026, the GCG will prioritise support to the Humanitarian Reset by strengthening the integration of gender in inter-sectoral planning, localisation efforts, and operational coordination through the RTs and OCTs. The GCG will continue to monitor the operational impact of restrictions on women and girls, track women’s participation in the response, support clusters in applying gender minimum standards and strengthen the recruitment, retention and protection of female humanitarian staff. The Coordination Group will also continue thematic analysis on women-led organisations, women’s access to assistance, and the effects of access restrictions on response quality. GCG common services require $1.25 million in 2026.
Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Network
The PSEA Network will continue to provide coordinated leadership on SEAH risk mitigation, prevention, investigations, survivor assistance and partner capacity-building. In 2026, the Network will sustain quarterly community-based risk assessments, annual mapping, awareness campaigns and the strengthening of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and referral pathways across humanitarian partners. With access constraints and heightened protection risks persisting, collective, evidence-based PSEAH programming remains critical to safeguarding affected populations and humanitarian personnel. PSEAH support requires $700,000 in 2026.
Evidence-Based Response: Assessments and Data
IOM – DTM will continue its cross-border flow monitoring at formal and informal crossing points with Iran and Pakistan, providing critical data on returnee movements, displacement trends and vulnerabilities. DTM will also sustain rapid needs assessments and community-level mobility baseline analysis in high-risk areas. IOM-DTM requires $5.2 million in 2026.
REACH Initiative will continue to support the humanitarian community with the WoAA, JMMI and HSM. REACH analysis underpins rapid needs assessments, severity mapping, MEB revisions, shock monitoring and inter-sector planning. REACH Initiative assessments require $4 million in 2026.
Humanitarian Air Services (UNHAS)
UNHAS will remain a critical enabler of humanitarian access in 2026, providing safe, reliable and cost-efficient air transport for humanitarian personnel and cargo across Afghanistan. Given persistent security, terrain, and infrastructure constraints, UNHAS remains essential to reaching remote and high-risk locations where no viable commercial alternatives exist. UNHAS also provides medical and security evacuations for humanitarian staff.
For 2026, UNHAS requires $14.7 million to sustain domestic and regional connectivity.