Wazir Khan Jam is a long-established settlement named after Wazir Khan, son of Shir Mohammad Khan, a respected landowner who helped shape the community. Residents, who settled permanently during the time of Zahir Shah, shifted from a nomadic lifestyle due to access to land and agriculture. The settlement now includes about 600 households: 381 local families, 150 returnees from nearby provinces, 40 IDP households, 29 returnees from Pakistan, and 33 women headed households.

Most returnees own land for housing and farming, while around 40 IDP families have land only for shelter. Agriculture is the main livelihood, with over 2,000 jeribs of irrigated and 600 jeribs of rainfed land producing wheat, sesame, corn, vegetables, fruit, and supporting small livestock. Unemployment is high, rising above 70% in winter, particularly affecting youth. Skilled workers in masonry, carpentry, and mobile repair lack tools, while women show interest in tailoring, pickle making, dairy processing, and poultry if provided training and support.
A newly established SubHealth Centre (SHC), supported by Bakhtar Development Network (BDN), offers OPD, gynecology, vaccinations, and basic care, but operates from three small rooms in a donated home and lacks adequate WASH facilities, electricity, staffing, and medical supplies.
Education access is limited to one overcrowded primary school with four teachers for about 300 students and insufficient WASH, heating, cooling, and electricity. Two madrassas serve roughly 200 learners. WASH conditions are critical: only 2 of 14 hand pumps installed under the NSP still function, forcing about 90% of households to rely on untreated canal water.
Most shelters are mud structures, with only 5% built of masonry or concrete. Around 40 households require new shelters or major repairs, and more than 30 need rehabilitation but lack financial means. The settlement is not connected to the electricity grid, roads remain unpaved and in poor condition, and Salam is the only reliable mobile network.
Overall, Wazir Khan Jam faces significant challenges in shelter, WASH, health, education, and livelihoods, yet remains socially cohesive and willing to participate in development initiatives if provided appropriate support.

Afghanistan has faced a major returnee crisis since September 2023, with more than 2.8 million people having returned to the country in 2025 only. The Integration of returnees is a major component - allowing them to advance towards durable solutions to displacement. In order to strengthen social cohesion with local communities, UN-Habitat fosters participatory and inclusive, community-driven processes. Listening to communities, including both local and displaced people, understanding their specific needs but also analysing climate-change related risks are first crucial steps for then programming for durable solutions that are tailored to the local context as well as based on people’s priorities.

UN-Habitat has implemented the “Participatory Hazard, Vulnerabilities, Capacity Assessment” (PHVCA) more many years, to ensure that people’s voices are heard and that local knowledge (on risks and opportunities) is captured. The findings of the PHVCA then informs Community Action Plans (CAPs) and allows programming and implementation of community projects that serve displaced people, returnees and local communities through an area-based approach.

Participatory processes foster integration and social cohesion, investments in community infrastructures and basic services, shelter and housing solutions and enabling livelihood opportunities are key for enabling returnees to become self-reliant and live in dignity.

Afghanistan’s rapid urbanization, fueled by internal displacement, forced returns, and a worsening economic crisis, continues to intensify gender inequalities in urban and  peri-urban informal settlements across the country. Data collected through UN-Habitat surveys conducted in communities with high representation of marginalized populations shows that the enabling environment potential of urban areas is not narrowing damaging gender gaps but, rather, widening them.   

Under current De Facto Authority (DFA) rule, nearly all traditional avenues for women’s and girls’ safety, dignity and empowerment in Afghanistan have been dismantled, from formal education, freedom of movement in public spaces and employment, to public participation and civic leadership. For women and girls in urban informal settlement areas in particular, these restrictions intersect with a unique set of vulnerabilities—including insecure housing and land rights, unsafe public spaces, limited access to WASH services, and shrinking livelihood opportunities—to compound the inequality. 

These findings complement recent reports from, amongst other partners, UN Women (see Gender Alert – August 2025 | Four Years of Taliban Rule: Afghan Women Resist as Restrictions Tighten ). In this factsheet, UN-Habitat Afghanistan presents findings informed by key trends in data collected from community-level project implementation between 2023 and 2025 in the cities of Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Nangarhar. The findings illustrate ten specific areas of widening inequality impacting women and girls living in urban and peri-urban informal settlement areas across the country and provide critical insights for future interventions and project design. 

Afghanistan’s rapid urbanization, fueled by internal displacement, forced returns, and a worsening economic crisis, continues to intensify gender inequalities in urban and  peri-urban informal settlements across the country. Data collected through UN-Habitat surveys conducted in communities with high representation of marginalized populations shows that the enabling environment potential of urban areas is not narrowing damaging gender gaps but, rather, widening them.   

Under current De Facto Authority (DFA) rule, nearly all traditional avenues for women’s and girls’ safety, dignity and empowerment in Afghanistan have been dismantled, from formal education, freedom of movement in public spaces and employment, to public participation and civic leadership. For women and girls in urban informal settlement areas in particular, these restrictions intersect with a unique set of vulnerabilities—including insecure housing and land rights, unsafe public spaces, limited access to WASH services, and shrinking livelihood opportunities—to compound the inequality. 

These findings complement recent reports from, amongst other partners, UN Women (see Gender Alert – August 2025 | Four Years of Taliban Rule: Afghan Women Resist as Restrictions Tighten ). In this factsheet, UN-Habitat Afghanistan presents findings informed by key trends in data collected from community-level project implementation between 2023 and 2025 in the cities of Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Nangarhar. The findings illustrate ten specific areas of widening inequality impacting women and girls living in urban and peri-urban informal settlement areas across the country and provide critical insights for future interventions and project design. 

Afghanistan’s rapid urbanization, fueled by internal displacement, forced returns, and a worsening economic crisis, continues to intensify gender inequalities in urban and  peri-urban informal settlements across the country. Data collected through UN-Habitat surveys conducted in communities with high representation of marginalized populations shows that the enabling environment potential of urban areas is not narrowing damaging gender gaps but, rather, widening them.   

Under current De Facto Authority (DFA) rule, nearly all traditional avenues for women’s and girls’ safety, dignity and empowerment in Afghanistan have been dismantled, from formal education, freedom of movement in public spaces and employment, to public participation and civic leadership. For women and girls in urban informal settlement areas in particular, these restrictions intersect with a unique set of vulnerabilities—including insecure housing and land rights, unsafe public spaces, limited access to WASH services, and shrinking livelihood opportunities—to compound the inequality. 

These findings complement recent reports from, amongst other partners, UN Women (see Gender Alert – August 2025 | Four Years of Taliban Rule: Afghan Women Resist as Restrictions Tighten ). In this factsheet, UN-Habitat Afghanistan presents findings informed by key trends in data collected from community-level project implementation between 2023 and 2025 in the cities of Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Nangarhar. The findings illustrate ten specific areas of widening inequality impacting women and girls living in urban and peri-urban informal settlement areas across the country and provide critical insights for future interventions and project design. 

Afghanistan’s rapid urbanization, fueled by internal displacement, forced returns, and a worsening economic crisis, continues to intensify gender inequalities in urban and  peri-urban informal settlements across the country. Data collected through UN-Habitat surveys conducted in communities with high representation of marginalized populations shows that the enabling environment potential of urban areas is not narrowing damaging gender gaps but, rather, widening them.   

Under current De Facto Authority (DFA) rule, nearly all traditional avenues for women’s and girls’ safety, dignity and empowerment in Afghanistan have been dismantled, from formal education, freedom of movement in public spaces and employment, to public participation and civic leadership. For women and girls in urban informal settlement areas in particular, these restrictions intersect with a unique set of vulnerabilities—including insecure housing and land rights, unsafe public spaces, limited access to WASH services, and shrinking livelihood opportunities—to compound the inequality. 

These findings complement recent reports from, amongst other partners, UN Women. In this factsheet, UN-Habitat Afghanistan presents findings informed by key trends in data collected from community-level project implementation between 2023 and 2025 in the cities of Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Nangarhar. The findings illustrate ten specific areas of widening inequality impacting women and girls living in urban and peri-urban informal settlement areas across the country and provide critical insights for future interventions and project design. 

Afghanistan’s rapid urbanization, fueled by internal displacement, forced returns, and a worsening economic crisis, continues to intensify gender inequalities in urban and  peri-urban informal settlements across the country. Data collected through UN-Habitat surveys conducted in communities with high representation of marginalized populations shows that the enabling environment potential of urban areas is not narrowing damaging gender gaps but, rather, widening them.   

Under current De Facto Authority (DFA) rule, nearly all traditional avenues for women’s and girls’ safety, dignity and empowerment in Afghanistan have been dismantled, from formal education, freedom of movement in public spaces and employment, to public participation and civic leadership. For women and girls in urban informal settlement areas in particular, these restrictions intersect with a unique set of vulnerabilities—including insecure housing and land rights, unsafe public spaces, limited access to WASH services, and shrinking livelihood opportunities—to compound the inequality. 

These findings complement recent reports from, amongst other partners, UN Women. In this factsheet, UN-Habitat Afghanistan presents findings informed by key trends in data collected from community-level project implementation between 2023 and 2025 in the cities of Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Nangarhar. The findings illustrate ten specific areas of widening inequality impacting women and girls living in urban and peri-urban informal settlement areas across the country and provide critical insights for future interventions and project design. 

Afghanistan faces complex displacement and reintegration challenges. Decades of conflict have resulted in a legacy of 6 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs), while an emerging post-conflict trend has seen a surge in cross-border returns – between 600,000 and 1.5 million people have been forcibly returned to Afghanistan since 2023. In this context, Afghanistan’s informal settlements are emerging as key sites of displacement, hosting large populations of both protracted IDPs and recent returnees.

Residents of informal settlement face severe HLP risks, including growing threats of eviction, which have limited investments in housing, critical infrastructure and services. Afghanistan’s climate breakdown exacerbates these challenges, exposing vulnerable residents to floods, droughts and associated disease. Women are disproportionately affected due to their roles in domestic labor and childcare, which increase during times of climate shocks. Strengthening HLP rights in such areas underpin investments in gender-sensitive, climate-resilient housing and community infrastructure, and are prerequisite to sustainable reintegration of displaced populations residing in informal settlements.

In response to these challenges, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) engaged UN-Habitat to implement a research and capacity-building project aimed at advancing sustainable solutions for displacement-affected communities in Afghanistan. Beginning in 2023, the Housing Land and Property (HLP) Rights of Displacement-affected Communities in Afghanistan project promotes data-driven, gender-responsive, and climate-resilient HLP programming. Focusing on six informal settlements in Jalalabad and Herat—key sites of internal displacement and hubs for returnees from Pakistan and Iran, respectively—the project addressed HLP insecurity, climate vulnerability, and gender inequality through an integrated HLP and climate resilience programmatic approach. Read more...

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.