Afghanistan Accountability Index July 2024

The Afghanistan Accountability Index (AAI) aims to strengthen the humanitarian community’s commitment to ensure Afghan communities of all diversities affected by crises are central to humanitarian action. Building on the progress made by humanitarian partners in 2023, the AAI is designed to leverage the humanitarian community’s collective ambition to shift the decision-making power to the hands of crisis-affected communities to achieve safe, inclusive and accountable humanitarian action.

1. Background

Following the December 2022 de-facto authorities’ (DFA) ban on Afghan women working for national and international NGOs—later extended to the UN in April 2023—the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) conducted a mission to Afghanistan to support negotiations with the DFA and assess operational risks and opportunities for humanitarian partners. The mission led to the establishment of a monitoring framework designed to assess the permissiveness of the operating environment and humanitarian actors ability to continue delivering principled assistance. The monitoring framework entailed extensive efforts by partners to report on their outreach to women and girls, and the safe, meaningful and comprehensive participation of Afghan women humanitarian workers in the response. Following the decision of the IASC Principals in July 2023 to conclude the operational trial period, there is still a need to demonstrate principled delivery and the sustained involvement of Afghan women in the response. While humanitarian partners have demonstrated the ability to deliver in this context, challenges persist in the form of new directives and regulations that restrict the operational space and marginalize women and girls’ participation in the response, their workplace and public life, and limit their ability to access to services and assistance. Persons with disabilities are also disproportionately affected by the crisis, and the pause in renewal of licences for community-led organisations, such as organisations for persons with disabilities, in 2022, has created additional challenges. Against this backdrop, the Afghanistan Accountability Index (AAI) has been developed to systematically inform the existing reporting of the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) and show a strengthened commitment to donors and other stakeholders on the ability of partners to safeguard the quality and inclusivity of humanitarian action in Afghanistan.