The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)
Today I am updating the House on UK efforts to support those most in need in Afghanistan. The situation continues to matter to the UK due to both the terrible humanitarian and human rights situation, in particular its impact on women and girls, and national security concerns, given risks related to terrorism and irregular migration.
Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with 23 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2025. Women and girls continue to bear the brunt of this crisis due to systematic Taliban oppression. The challenging global context for aid financing means that the most vulnerable people in Afghanistan risk not receiving assistance that they desperately need. Over 298 nutrition centres and 420 health facilities have closed this year, jeopardising access to lifesaving assistance for over 3 million people, including pregnant mothers, infants and young children. The World Food Programme currently projects having enough funding to cover just 10% of the 12.6 million people assessed to be food insecure this year. Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Afghans continue to return from Iran and Pakistan into a context where the economy remains stagnant and access to essential services and jobs is limited.
The UK Government continue to play a leading role in supporting the people of Afghanistan in this challenging context. Afghanistan remains one of the FCDO’s largest bilateral aid programmes. In financial year 2024-25, we allocated £171 million to provide vital support for vulnerable people. In 2023-24 we reached 2.7 million people with humanitarian assistance, including over 1.3 million women.
Despite an increasingly complex operating context, our independent monitoring shows that our assistance continues to reach vulnerable people, including women and girls. The UK Government remain committed to ensuring that at least 50% of people reached by UK aid are women and girls. Our results for financial year 2024-25 will be published in the summer.
We have adapted how we work to ensure we are providing early, flexible funding to partners to sustain lifesaving activities, while moving to an approach that can also support essential services and livelihoods for the Afghan people in the medium term. We have pivoted our portfolio towards lifesaving health services and malnutrition treatment and prevention for mothers and their young children. We are engaging with other donors and the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to protect health system capacity, including routine childhood immunisation and surveillance systems. As Afghanistan is the sixth most vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change, climate adaptation will be critical to addressing Afghanistan’s food crisis. We are launching new programming supporting Afghans to grow their own food, strengthen their resilience to climate shocks and water stress, improve their livelihoods, and reduce dependence on emergency aid.
Alongside our funding, we are using our technical and diplomatic capacity to shape and strengthen the international response and protect operating space for partners. We are leading a dialogue, bringing together key partners and donors to strengthen our collective approach to tackling food insecurity and malnutrition in Afghanistan. We lobby the Taliban on aid and human rights issues and speak directly with Afghans and civil society to inform our policy and programming. We also carry out visits to Afghanistan to see UK-funded projects at first hand. We continue to use our representation to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to lobby for increased coherence and prioritisation of these essential funding streams.
We have repeatedly condemned the Taliban’s abhorrent policies towards women and girls, and remain united with the international community in our firm opposition to continued restrictions. Upholding human rights and gender equality is not only a moral imperative, but essential for building a stable, inclusive and prosperous country for all Afghans.
On 20 January, I convened a meeting in New York with senior representatives from the UN and influential countries to underline the importance of collectively addressing Afghanistan’s challenges. On 28 January, I hosted a roundtable with country representatives from WFP and the United Nations Population Fund to discuss the gendered impacts of the crisis in Afghanistan. At the UN in New York on 12 March, the UK’s special envoy for women and girls, Baroness Harriet Harman, jointly hosted an event reiterating support for girls’ education in Afghanistan with the United Arab Emirates, Norway, and UN Women.
In a renewed commitment to the people of Afghanistan, Mr Richard Lindsay has today been appointed special envoy to Afghanistan. Mr Lindsay will lead a new Afghanistan department from the UK, taking on the duties of the current chargé d’affaires, whose assignment concludes at the end of this month. The UK mission to Afghanistan in Doha will close on 30 June 2025. This new model will allow the UK to actively engage with a broader range of Afghans beyond Doha, particularly those calling for peaceful political change towards a more inclusive political settlement. Our resolve to support the people of Afghanistan for the long term is unwavering.
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