Afghanistan 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan: End-year Response Gap Analysis of Financing, Achievements and Response Challenges (January - December 2024)
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This analysis is based on information from the Afghanistan Inter-Cluster Coordination Team (ICCT) and examines the humanitarian response over the 2024 (January to December), looking at both reach and gaps, including challenges partners are experiencing in implementing their activities.
Overview
In 2024, humanitarian partners in Afghanistan reached 22.4 million people with at least one form of humanitarian assistance, surpassing the planned overall target of 17.3 million, particularly in severity four and severity three districts, where partners reached 129 per cent of the overall targeted populations.
However, food assistance continued to dominate the response, with 67 per cent (14.9 million) of the 22.4 million people reached overall receiving food aid, often through fewer rounds and reduced rations. While the coverage highlights a greater number of people being reached to address acute food insecurity, it also underscores the risk of overlooking the millions in need of sustained, multi-sectoral support to fully meet their basic needs throughout the year.
Despite these achievements, critical gaps remained in providing multisectoral assistance. Only 3.1 million people (41 per cent of the intersectoral target of 7.6 million) – 37 per cent in severity four districts and 54 per cent in severity three districts – received support across three different sectors in any given month. This shortfall highlights the urgent need for a more holistic and multi-sectoral response that goes beyond food assistance to address water, sanitation, healthcare, and emergency shelter needs.
By the end of 2024, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) had received only 47 per cent of its $3.06 billion appeal. Late reporting improved the figure to 53 per cent ($1.63 billion) as of May 2025, with an additional $412.5 million carried over from 2023. However, a significant funding gap of $1.43 billion (47 per cent of the total requirement) remained, severely limiting the ability to provide adequate support across multiple sectors. The underfunding of critical clusters such as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Health, each with targets of 10 million people or above, further exacerbated vulnerabilities, increasing the risks of disease outbreaks, malnutrition, and preventable deaths.