Afghanistan: UN's World Food Programme cuts aids to 8 million people due to funding shortfall

Kabul: Amid the alarming malnutrition and hunger situation in Afghanistan, United Nations World Food Programme had to cut its aid to 8 million food-insecure people due to the funding shortfall, Khaama Press reported.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report revealed that Afghanistan's most remote areas would be at risk from the significant financing gaps endangering crucial humanitarian aid. To counter hunger and malnutrition rising rates, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that at least USD 1.2 billion is needed.

“Additionally, 1.4 million new and expecting mothers, toddlers, and preschoolers are no longer receiving foods designed to prevent malnutrition,” the Khaama Pres report stressed.
Moreover, the report stated that “From July onwards, only 5 million people will receive emergency food assistance when 15 million people in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 and 4 do not know where their next meal will come from.”

Meanwhile, “Nutrition partners also reported that 25 mobile health and nutrition teams (MHNTs) in four provinces have been shut down due to funding shortfalls. The affected provinces include Nuristan, Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar.”

Closing these teams means more than 1,00,000 people will not have access to essential health and nutrition care services across the Eastern region, according to Khaama Press.
The financial gaps will affect more than 31,500 households with severely undernourished children. the children would be denied access to vital integrated cash packages for nutrition due to a lack of financing.

Additionally, the Taliban’s string of restrictive bans on education could result in the closure of 2,800 community-based classrooms, affecting 83,000 kids, 59 per cent of whom are girls, and preventing them from continuing their education beyond the sixth grade.

Additionally, about 2.6 million individuals need access to clean drinking water, 1.5 million miss out on hygiene education, 1.6 million lack necessary nonfood items, and 844,000 are exposed to poor sanitation.

Just 9 per cent of the USD 4.6 billion needed for Afghanistan’s initial Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) had been received as of June of this year.

However, if funding shortfalls are not filled, WFP has warned that the organisation’s budget for food assistance will end by the end of October, reported Khaama Press.