Official Statistics

FCDO Afghanistan Official Development Assistance results, April 2024 to March 2025

Published 7 August 2025

This factsheet summarises support delivered to the people of Afghanistan through FCDO bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes in financial year 2024 to 2025. Afghanistan faces severe humanitarian challenges, with widespread food insecurity, limited access to healthcare, vulnerability to climate shocks and inadequate water and sanitation.

In Afghanistan:

• 22.9 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Source: OCHA, 2025
• 12.6 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity. Source: IPC, March to April 2025
• 4.2 million internally displaced persons. Source: IDMC, end of 2024

How to use the data

FCDO Afghanistan results are collected on a unique beneficiary basis, which means each beneficiary is only counted once per result, regardless of how many times they receive assistance. Figures are rounded down to the nearest thousand.

These results represent a conservative estimate and should be interpreted as an “at least” estimate. To avoid double-counting, only the delivery partner with the largest reach in each province is included in the aggregated total (i.e. the results presented in this publication).

Results must not be summed together; there is overlap between the results. For instance, if someone receives food aid and receives access to safe drinking water, they would be captured in both results.

These statistics are a snapshot of the results achieved; they do not capture the full breadth of UK government support in Afghanistan.

Headline results

Number of people reached with humanitarian assistance

• at least: 2,715,000
• of which: 1,782,000 women and girls

Includes: WASH, food, nutrition, health, and cash. Therefore, there is an overlap between this result and the other results presented.

Number of people reached with essential health services

• at least 1,247,000
• of which: 885,000 women and girls

Includes: essential health support, reproductive health services and maternal and child health.

Number of people reached with humanitarian cash and voucher transfers

• at least 1,274,000
• of which: 615,000 women and girls

Includes: cash and vouchers for food, health, shelter repair, essential household items (eg blankets) and winterisation.

Humanitarian

Humanitarian aid is the provision of emergency assistance or preventative support with the aim to save lives and alleviate suffering. It can be in the form of in-kind support, such as food ration packages, or cash/vouchers, enabling recipients to choose what their family needs most such as food, shelter and blankets. Essential health, nutrition and water and sanitation in a protracted humanitarian crisis such as Afghanistan are also described as humanitarian assistance and are included in the headline result.

People reached

These indicators capture unique beneficiaries reached with FCDO humanitarian programmes, see methodology section for detailed method.

In 2024 to 2025, through FCDO funding, at least:

• 2,715,000 people received humanitarian assistance, including water & sanitation, food, nutrition, health, and cash/voucher transfers, of which 1,782,000 were women and girls
• 1,274,000 people received cash or voucher transfers, of which 615,000 were women and girls. This includes cash for food, health, shelter repair, agricultural inputs, essential household items (eg blankets) and winterisation
• 324,000 people received food assistance to prevent malnutrition, of which 159,000 were women and girls
• 136,000 children received School Meals, to improve nutrition and development, of which 63,000 were girls

Items and transfers distributed

These figures capture all items/transfers from across all our partners activities and are therefore not comparable to the people reached figures.

In 2024 to 2025:

• 672,000 cash grants and/or vouchers were distributed
• 12,000 metric tonnes of food was distributed

Disability disaggregation

It is estimated at least 0.4 million people with disabilities (PWD) were reached with humanitarian assistance through FCDO funding.

According to the Asia Foundation’s 2019 Model Disability Survey ^{[footnote 1]}, the estimated prevalence of severe disability among adults was 13.9%.

Where possible, FCDO requires partners to provide results disaggregated by disability (as well as sex and age). Partners take different approaches to collecting and estimating the number of people with disabilities reached, for detailed information see methodology note.

Health and nutrition

Essential health services can include emergency health kits, medical consultations, birth attendance, maternal and newborn care and reproductive health services. FCDO support also provides psychosocial support that addresses the psychological and mental health needs of persons affected by conflict and trauma. These interventions contribute to humanitarian outcomes and are included in the headline humanitarian result (page 2).

People reached

These indicators capture unique beneficiaries reached with FCDO humanitarian and basic human needs programmes, see methodology section for detailed method.

In 2024 to 2025, through FCDO funding, at least:

• 1,247,000 people were reached with essential health services, of which 885,000 were women and girls
• 513,000 children under 5 and pregnant and lactating women were reached with nutrition related interventions, of which 377,000 were women and girls
• 616,000 people received health education and awareness information sessions, of which 413,000 were women and girls
• 221,000 people were reached with psychosocial support (PSS) activities. Examples of PSS delivered through FCDO support included counselling and Psychological First Aid

Items and services delivered

In 2024 to 2025:

• 754,000 medical consultations were provided
• 17,000 emergency health kits were distributed
• 3,000 births were attended
• 4,000 metric tonnes of food supplements were distributed through nutrition related interventions

Age and sex disaggregation  

The majority of people reached through essential health services were women and girls (71%), in particular women and girls that were over 18 (49% of people reached through essential health services).

People reached with essential health services by age and sex

Data in image:

Category of people	%
Female under 18	22%
Female 18+	49%
Male under 18	15%
Male 18+	14%
Total	100%

*Age not available for approximately 6,000 beneficiaries (<1%)

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

WASH interventions are focused on improving access to clean and safe water, safe disposal of waste and minimising environmental contamination and personal hygiene, all contributing towards preventing illness. These interventions contribute to humanitarian outcomes and are included in the headline humanitarian result. 

In 2024 to 2025, through FCDO funding, it is estimated that at least:

• 59,000 people accessed a sufficient quantity of safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene, of which 35,000 were women and girls
• 124,000 accessed improved sanitation/hygiene facilities, of which 63,000 were women and girls

Demining

Demining involves identifying, removing and safely disposing of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) to make land safe for civilians and suitable for use (eg agriculture). In 2024, there were 549 reported civilian casualties related to landmines and UXO in Afghanistan, of which 432 were children ^{[footnote 2]}.  

In 2024 to 2025, through FCDO funding, it is estimated that at least:

• 165,000 people were reached with awareness sessions on the risk of harm from explosive ordnance, of which 75,000 were women and girls
• 6.9 million square metres of land has been safely released from a risk of explosive ordnance – the equivalent of approximately 960 football pitches

Women and girls

FCDO has made a commitment that 50% of beneficiaries reached with UK ODA in Afghanistan are women and girls.

FCDO has met the commitment in financial year 2024 to 2025, with women and girls accounting for at least 50% of beneficiaries reached.

This is assessed by calculating the proportion of total people reached that were women and girls for each individual partner. This proportion was calculated based on the result with the largest reach, to minimise double counting. An average is then calculated across partners weighted by the size of the partners reach; this means that the partners with the largest number of beneficiaries have the largest influence on the average. For an example of this calculation see the detailed methodology note.

Sex disaggregation is a requirement for FCDO Afghanistan results which count the number of people reached. This enables us to understand our women and girls reach.

In 2024 to 2025, through FCDO funding, at least:

• 1,782,000 women and girls were reached with humanitarian assistance including water and sanitation, food, nutrition, health and cash/voucher transfers
• 615,000 women and girls received cash or voucher transfers
• 159,000 women and girls received food assistance to prevent malnutrition
• 63,000 girls received school meals
• 885,000 women and girls were reached with essential health services
• 377,000 girls under 5 and pregnant and lactating women were reached with dietary supplements
• 3,000 births were attended
• 413,000 women and girls received health education and awareness information sessions
• 35,000 women and girls accessed a sufficient quantity of safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene
• 63,000 women and girls accessed improved sanitation/hygiene facilities
• 75,000 women and girls attended awareness sessions on the risk of harm from explosive ordnance

Appeals, pooled and trust funds: calendar year 2024    

FCDO also contributes to Afghanistan focused appeals, pooled and trust funds such as the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund (AHF - OCHA), Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Appeals, pooled and trust funds are financial contributions from multiple donors combined into a single fund and aim to improve the coordination of humanitarian and basic human needs assistance. These funds currently do not report against FCDO result indicators and report on a calendar year (compared to UK financial year). To calculate the UK share of results, the UK share of total funding in 2024 was applied to the funds results.

Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund (AHF)

AHF is a country pooled fund co-ordinated by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In 2024, the UK share of AHF funding was 14%.

Applying the UK share to AHF results for 2024, we can estimate that the UK contribution helped reach 291,000 people with humanitarian assistance, of which 164,000 were women and girls.

• 92,700 people were reached with health assistance
• 50,100 people were reached with nutrition interventions
• 50,800 people were reached with protection support
• 35,400 people were reached with water, sanitation and hygiene assistance
• 28,800 people were reached with emergency shelter and non-food items
• 26,600 people were reached with food security and agriculture support
• 4,200 people were reached with multi-purpose cash
• 2,800 people were reached with education assistance

To see AHF full results, see the Annual Report 2024.

Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF)

The ARTF is a multi-donor trust fund managed by the World Bank designed to coordinate international development assistance for the people of Afghanistan. ARTF programmes focus on basic services, including interventions in health, education, food security, and livelihoods.

Since the establishment of ARTF in 2002 the UK share of total funding is approximately 16%.

The UK has contributed to the results achieved through ARTF programmes, which are available in the recently published ARTF Annual Progress Report (PDF, 4.5 MB).

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

ICRC is a neutral and independent humanitarian organisation that protects and assists people in need and victims of armed conflict. In 2024, the UK share of the total ICRC Afghanistan expenditure was 19%.

Applying the UK share to a subset of ICRC Afghanistan published results for 2024, it can be estimated that the UK contribution helped reach:

• 334,400 people with a reliable supply of electricity and clean water, through Water and Habitat activities
• 14,700 people with assistance to protect, restore or increase household income, through livelihood activities such as cash for work projects
• 306,200 people with consultations at health centres and hospitals
• 9,400 people with support for food production activities such as crop cultivation, animal health and breeding

“People” includes civilians, people deprived of their liberty and the wounded and sick, for ICRC definitions and more detailed results see their Annual Report (PDF, 23.3 MB), page 216.

Methodology

• results data was sourced from our implementing partners’ management information and monitoring and evaluation processes. As part of an annual results commission, partners were requested to provide data on a set of pre-defined indicators via standardised templates and guidance (to ensure consistency)
• the list of indicators reflects the common types of interventions in a humanitarian and basic human needs context such as food, cash and health. The full list of indicators can be found in the detailed methodology note
• disaggregation by sex, disability, age and province was requested from partners where appropriate and relevant. Partners take different approaches to collecting disaggregated data, such as using a representative sample of a post-distribution survey or asking each individual beneficiary. See methodology note for further detail
• FCDO Afghanistan results are collected on a unique beneficiary basis, which means each beneficiary is only counted once per result, regardless of how many times they received assistance

• implementing partners data was aggregated together to obtain estimates of FCDO’s total reach. To ensure that each beneficiary was only counted once in a result, different approaches were used:

  • people reached results – more than one partner reporting: the data (including sex disaggregation) from the implementing partner with the largest reach in each province was included in the aggregated total. Province totals are then summed together. For example, total people reached through humanitarian assistance was calculated in this way
  • people reached results – just one partner reporting: result definitions already require partners to adjust for double counting within their own beneficiaries; therefore a single partners data can be used without adjustment
  • distribution of items and services results: these results aim to capture all items/transfers distributed; therefore, partner data is summed together with no double counting considerations needed eg number of births attended or number of cash transfers

For more detail including key definitions, please see the separate methodology note which includes a glossary.

Strengths and limitations

• these statistics give us an overview of the impact and reach of FCDO’s Afghanistan ODA in 2024 to 2025, including understanding our reach to vulnerable groups such as women and girls and people with disabilities
• these results represent a conservative estimate – an ‘at least’ measure – due to precautions implemented to avoid double counting beneficiaries (see methodology section). As a result, the total number of FCDO Afghanistan beneficiaries cannot be fully captured
• due to the operating context in Afghanistan, it is not always possible to collect or quality assure all data and disaggregated data to the desired standards. FCDO is working with partners with a view to improve the quality and the availability of disaggregated data over time
• the annual results commission is a recent development, as implementing partners continue to become more familiar with the definitions and methodology, we will see continued improvement in the confidence and granularity of data provided and used in results publications

Contact

We are keen to enhance the value of these statistics and welcome your feedback or questions via email: statistics@fcdo.gov.uk

1. Asia Foundation, 2019 Model Disability Survey (PDF, 3.4MB), page 19. ↩

2. United Nations Mine Action Service, Annual Report (PDF, 27.7 MB), page 30. ↩