Afghanistan: UN Aid Office Warns Funding Shortfalls Are Forcing Health Facilities to Cut Services or Close
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on November 1 that funding shortages are forcing health facilities across Afghanistan to reduce services or close, with only about 33 percent of the UN's $1.71 billion humanitarian appeal for the country funded, leaving a shortfall of roughly $1.15 billion.
The UN estimates that nearly 22 million people in Afghanistan, almost half the population, will need humanitarian assistance in 2026. The $1.71 billion appeal aims to assist 17.5 million of the most vulnerable people, covering healthcare, food, nutrition support and shelter. OCHA said a third of Afghanistan's nutrition centres have closed because of funding shortages.
Olga Cherevko, OCHA's representative in Afghanistan, described the consequences during a visit to a hospital in Badakhshan, a northeastern province where reaching treatment can involve long and dangerous travel, leaving remote communities farther from care.
Aid agencies say funding that is both sufficient and predictable is needed to protect mothers and give children a healthier start in life, maintain vaccination and nutrition treatment, and sustain the ability to detect disease outbreaks. As winter approaches, the funding gap coincides with large-scale returnee inflows and worsening food insecurity and malnutrition, and Afghanistan's humanitarian needs remain among the most extensive in the world.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：阿富汗巴达赫尚省山区，Kimberly Lamb 军士（美国军方）摄，Wikimedia Commons，公共领域 / Photo: Mountains in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, by Sgt. Kimberly Lamb (U.S. Armed Forces), Wikimedia Commons, public domain
