Aid watchdog visits Afghanistan to examine UK’s aid programmes

11 Jul 2024

•  Afghanistan remains UK’s second-largest bilateral aid programme, funding vital support such as nutrition clinics for mothers and children.
• Delivery of aid remains difficult, partly due to restrictions on women working for the UN and other humanitarian organisations.
• UK officials need to visit Afghanistan regularly to manage such a large aid programme.
• Reports of ‘donor fatigue’ and other crises around the world are shifting focus away from Afghanistan.
• UK diplomacy supports UN processes to engage Taliban in negotiations.

UK aid has made a meaningful difference in Afghanistan but the amount of assistance from the UK and other donors is falling, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) reports today (Thursday 11 July).

The UK has helped deliver vital healthcare, educational and sanitation assistance to Afghan communities in the face of multiple obstacles, as well as using its influence to help strengthen the international humanitarian response to crises, the aid watchdog outlines in a new information note.

However, some interviewees reported that Afghanistan was being deprioritised by donors amid wider global turmoil, as international humanitarian assistance budgets for the country have been cut and focus has shifted towards other crises such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Many regions of Afghanistan face acute malnutrition, internal displacement, economic stagnation, clampdowns on the rights of women and girls and crises linked to climate change such as drought, ICAI reports.

Visiting Kabul in May 2024, ICAI saw UK-funded initiatives making an impact on people’s lives, such as a helpline run by Afghan midwives, and nutrition centres which support children, as well as women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. ICAI also visited projects supporting people’s livelihoods including a centre training Afghans to design and market jewellery and offering business skills.

However, UK aid for Afghanistan has now fallen from the level it was at in the first two years following the 2021

Taliban takeover, when the UK announced the doubling of its support to £286 million for each of the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years. In March 2023, the then development minister Andrew Mitchell announced a combined official development assistance (ODA) budget for Afghanistan and Pakistan for the financial year 2023-24 of £141.9 million, including £113.5 million for Afghanistan. The UK’s planned bilateral support for Afghanistan for 2024-25 is £151 million.

Sir Hugh Bayley, former ICAI Commissioner who led the report and visited Afghanistan in May this year, said:

“In Kabul I saw how UK aid is helping to reduce hunger through nutrition clinics, and supporting unemployed people to get training and work. I met NGOs, who are receiving a growing share of UK assistance, and learnt how UK-funded mine clearance is reducing the risk of injuries and making more land available to grow food.

“However, we were told that donor fatigue means that precious aid funding is being diverted to other humanitarian crises around the world. Many are fearful that shifting the humanitarian focus away from Afghanistan could undermine the modest gains that are being made and mean that long-term instability is more likely.”

Around 23.7 million people in Afghanistan are projected to need humanitarian assistance in 2024, down from 28.3 million in 2023, ICAI reports. This slight improvement mainly reflects the improved food-security situation, due in part to aid, improved cereal harvests and lower food prices. The share of people categorised as acutely food insecure fell from 40% in April 2023 to 32% in March 2024.

In 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) recorded a drop in contributions from donors by 64% in comparison with the previous year for its work in Afghanistan. It was forced to reduce rations from 75% to 50% of recommended daily calorie intake in communities in emergency states of hunger, while food assistance was delayed for ten million people because of funding gaps. Financial constraints are likely to continue over the next year, ICAI heard, leaving humanitarian organisations facing difficult choices.

ICAI was told by those on the ground that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) support to Afghanistan is well-coordinated, clear in its objectives and uses the UK’s influence to strengthen an increasingly fatigued international response to the crisis. FCDO has also made efforts to improve coordination and informationsharing between those delivering aid in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. ICAI noted the importance of FCDO officials visiting the country regularly to ensure the aid programme is effectively managed, given the UK does not currently have a permanent base there.

However, the UK government and its partners acknowledge they need to improve how they enable local organisations to respond to crises and deliver assistance, ICAI found. Local organisations understand the humanitarian context, can operate flexibly and prevent worsening conditions. In 2023-24, FCDO reduced its funding to UN agencies and gave more to smaller non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Providing aid to local women-led organisations also helps support inclusion following the Taliban’s ban on women working at NGOs and the UN, the report said.

However, ICAI noted that mounting bureaucracy and threats against humanitarian workers continue to make delivering assistance challenging, noting examples of female aid workers being stopped, questioned and detained for several hours.

The report also found that while the international community remains uncertain about whether and how to engage with the Taliban, FCDO has ensured assistance goes to those in need, and not to the Taliban, through initiatives such as cash assistance to enable people to buy food, sometimes in exchange for work on community infrastructure projects or upskilling opportunities.

ICAI said the UK continues to support the Doha conferences – UN-sponsored meetings on the Afghanistan crisis that take place in the Qatari capital – as part of international diplomatic efforts. The third Doha meeting took place on 30 June and 1 July 2024, which the Taliban attended, but insisted that Afghan women and NGOs could not be present in meetings they participated in.