Townships in Afghanistan: Lessons Learned for Advancing Durable Solutions and Re-integration
This document summarises more than a decade of lessons learned from Afghanistan’s experience with land-allocation and township developments, with a particular focus on UN-Habitat’s projects and role before and after the 2021 takeover. It synthesises evidence from the EU-funded project Sustainable Human Settlements in Urban Areas to support Reintegration in Afghanistan (SHURA; 2018–2021), alongside from UN-Habitat’s broader work and research on housing and community infrastructure; recent settlement analyses using the Participatory Hazard Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (PHVCA) in existing settlements in Eastern Afghanistan, and the MoRR township assessments (2022). The document also includes reference to projects/programmes implemented by other organisations. Together, these findings aim to inform ongoing discussions on investments in townships for (re-)integration of unprecedented numbers of returnees in Afghanistan at this point in time.
As Afghanistan continues to receive hundreds of thousands of returnees, with 2.8 million people returning in 2025 alone, and another 2 million expected in 2026, the pressure on urban, peri-urban, and rural areas of return has significantly intensified, and there is an urgent need for practical, scalable, and community-driven solutions to support sustainable reintegration.
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