70% of Afghan households can't meet basic needs: World Bank survey

A new survey shows that 70% of households in Afghanistan cannot meet their basic needs, a sharp spike from previous data putting that figure at 35% in May. The results, released by the World Bank on Tuesday, suggest that employment opportunities are limited in urban areas and that earnings have significantly decreased in all regions, contributing to the pressures on households.

“There has been a big increase in adults reducing the amounts that they eat, so children can eat,” said Ghazala Mansuri, a World Bank economist, adding that the quality of food was also in decline. The share of public sector employment, in particular, has dropped since the Taliban took over in August, when the United States left the country after 20 years.

The number of people in need of assistance has skyrocketed in recent months and now stands at 24.4 million, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. In January, the United Nations launched a $5 billion appeal for Afghanistan, its largest-ever request for a single country.

Schooling: Results from the survey, conducted late last year, show large gender gaps in education. But the number of girls in primary school was up compared with 2019, thanks to a boost in attendance in rural areas. This could be due to improved security. However, the share of households with girls attending both primary and secondary school declined in urban areas.

Health: There was good news on the health front, with survey respondents saying they were able to get medical attention when needed. Meanwhile, the U.N. and other organizations have been warning for months that the quality of health care in the country is collapsing, in part due to shortages of medicine.

Local groups: At a launch event for the survey results, Althea-Maria Rivas, a lecturer at SOAS University of London, said many international organizations no longer have a presence in Afghanistan, especially outside Kabul. Because chronic poverty in particular remains a key problem, she said it was vital that aid agencies engage with local groups to move from humanitarian aid to development assistance.