Afghanistan is a country of extremes: extreme beauty, an extremely strategic location, and a country with many natural resources and extremely resilient people but is still a country where people face extreme socio-economic and human rights challenges.

The Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HRNP) 2025 names climate change-induced and natural hazards, inadequate or lack of service provision, decades of conflict and geopolitical dynamics, a weak economy and the socio-political restrictions (among many others) reasons, why almost half of the population were estimated to require humanitarian assistance of any form.

UN-Habitat has been supporting the people of Afghanistan since 1992. As the agency has just launched a new strategic plan at global level for 2026-2029, this paper focuses on strategic priorities for UN-Habitat Afghanistan for 2026 and 2027. Those priorities have been defined through analysis of the agency’s (and other partners’) data and the consultations with the communities and people in Afghanistan and are in alignment with the agency’s overall mandate, the global priorities and the agency’s role in the United Nations family in Afghanistan and the agreed upon priorities at country level (UNSFA 2023-2027).

For our team at UN-Habitat Afghanistan, those priorities will be:
A.    Support the most vulnerable people by creating and enabling dignified living conditions and livelihood opportunities with a specific focus on those living in unplanned, underserviced and informal settlements 
B.    Enhance preparedness, response, recovery, and reconstruction
C.     Accelerate environmental and climate actions to save lives, livelihoods and assets

Acknowledging that women and girls, displaced people but also other marginalized groups are most at risk of being left behind in Afghanistan at the time of writing, we are committed to inclusive, participatory and gender-sensitive solutions and striving towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and based on the New Urban Agenda as a shared vision for a better and more sustainable future.
 

Afghanistan is a country of extremes: extreme beauty, an extremely strategic location,
and a country with many natural resources and extremely resilient people but is still a
country where people face extreme socio-economic and human rights challenges.

The Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HRNP) 2025 names climate
change-induced and natural hazards, inadequate or lack of service provision, decades of
conflict and geopolitical dynamics, a weak economy and the socio-political restrictions
(among many others) reasons, why almost half of the population were estimated to
require humanitarian assistance of any form.

UN-Habitat has been supporting the people of Afghanistan since 1992. As the agency
has just launched a new strategic plan at global level for 2026-2029, this paper focuses
on strategic priorities for UN-Habitat Afghanistan for 2026 and 2027. Those priorities
have been defined through analysis of the agency’s (and other partners’) data and the
consultations with the communities and people in Afghanistan and are in alignment with
the agency’s overall mandate, the global priorities and the agency’s role in the United
Nations family in Afghanistan and the agreed upon priorities at country level (UNSFA
2023-2027).

For our team at UN-Habitat Afghanistan, those priorities will be:
A.    Support the most vulnerable people by creating and enabling dignified living
conditions and livelihood opportunities with a specific focus on those living in
unplanned, underserviced and informal settlements 
B.    Enhance preparedness, response, recovery, and reconstruction
C.     Accelerate environmental and climate actions to save lives, livelihoods and assets

Acknowledging that women and girls, displaced people but also other marginalized
groups are most at risk of being left behind in Afghanistan at the time of writing, we are
committed to inclusive, participatory and gender-sensitive solutions and striving towards
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and based on the New Urban
Agenda as a shared vision for a better and more sustainable future.

Afghanistan is a country of extremes: extreme beauty, an extremely strategic location,
and a country with many natural resources and extremely resilient people but is still a
country where people face extreme socio-economic and human rights challenges.

The Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HRNP) 2025 names climate
change-induced and natural hazards, inadequate or lack of service provision, decades of
conflict and geopolitical dynamics, a weak economy and the socio-political restrictions
(among many others) reasons, why almost half of the population were estimated to
require humanitarian assistance of any form.

UN-Habitat has been supporting the people of Afghanistan since 1992. As the agency
has just launched a new strategic plan at global level for 2026-2029, this paper focuses
on strategic priorities for UN-Habitat Afghanistan for 2026 and 2027. Those priorities
have been defined through analysis of the agency’s (and other partners’) data and the
consultations with the communities and people in Afghanistan and are in alignment with
the agency’s overall mandate, the global priorities and the agency’s role in the United
Nations family in Afghanistan and the agreed upon priorities at country level (UNSFA
2023-2027).

For our team at UN-Habitat Afghanistan, those priorities will be:
A.    Support the most vulnerable people by creating and enabling dignified living
conditions and livelihood opportunities with a specific focus on those living in
unplanned, underserviced and informal settlements 
B.    Enhance preparedness, response, recovery, and reconstruction
C.     Accelerate environmental and climate actions to save lives, livelihoods and assets

Acknowledging that women and girls, displaced people but also other marginalized
groups are most at risk of being left behind in Afghanistan at the time of writing, we are
committed to inclusive, participatory and gender-sensitive solutions and striving towards
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and based on the New Urban
Agenda as a shared vision for a better and more sustainable future.
 

This report is an evaluation of the Clean and Green Cities Programme (CGC) implemented by UN-Habitat Afghanistan with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union (EU) between June 2016 and June 2019 with a total budget of USD 34. 8 million. It was implemented in 12 cities, three (Kabul, Kundooz, and Lashkar Gah) by the EU and ten (Bamyan, Charikar, Farah, Gardez, Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar, and Mehterlam) by USAID; Kabul being considered by both agencies. Its main objective was to improve state-society relations, urban stabilisation and job creation, where urban citizens see municipalities delivering basic neighbourhood services, thus leading to increased hope and government legitimacy.

The Habitat Country Programme Document (HCPD) sets out the strategic direction of UN-Habitat’s engagement in Afghanistan for the period 2016-19. Aligned with the national development goals and priorities of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), the Country Programme Document draws on lessons learned from UN-Habitat’s experience working hand-in-hand with communities across the nation over the past 24 years and on our understanding of the ongoing process of transformation in human settlements across the country.