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Humanitarian Aid and Stabilisation
With average life expectancy of almost 63 years and persistently high rates of child and maternal mortality, Afghanistan has identified the expansion of the health system as a key priority in its National Development Strategy. The German Government is therefore assisting Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health to build properly functioning health facilities. The aim is to give communities in remote districts easier and faster access to health care and the benefits of adequate medical treatment.
Furthermore, over a third of the Afghan population lives in poverty. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have fled their homes and settled in other regions of Afghanistan face particular hardship. According to estimated figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there were more than 1,200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Afghanistan in 2016. The supply situation for IDPs is in some cases even worse than for local people. This has occasionally caused conflicts between host communities and IDPs.
Natural disasters, as well as conflicts, can force people out of their homes. Extreme events such as floods, mudslides, droughts and earthquakes pose real threats to people’s livelihoods in Afghanistan.
The German Government is working with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations, the Ministry of Finance and provincial and local authorities to improve the situation for IDPs and build communities’ resilience to natural disasters.
For more information about our work in the priority area of health and humanitarian services, please see the project descriptions and the ‘Stories’ section.
