Aid organizations face much uncertainty surrounding the future of their work in Afghanistan under the new Taliban regime. Questions range from whether they will stay and continue programs — some of which have a strong focus on gender — to what the future of development funding will look like.
Afghanistan was the fourth-largest recipient of official development assistance in 2019 after Syria, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh. It received $4.1 billion — a 13% increase over 2018. From 2010 to 2019, the country received a total of about $50 billion in official development assistance from development donors — including the Development Assistance Committee, multilaterals, and non-DAC countries.
In this article, Devex takes a deep dive into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s historical data to unveil the top development aid donors to the country over the last 10 years. We also looked at how much the donors spent on gender equality and women’s empowerment — a key sector of concern, given that the country’s new rulers have a history of imposing strict rules on women.