Outcome AFG_D_1.1

By the end of 2025, more people in Afghanistan, particularly the most marginalized, can equitably access essential services that meet minimum quality standards.

During 2024, women’s access to essential services in Afghanistan across all sectors continued to be constrained . This reduced access was driven by the dire conditions of the in-country environment – characterized by multiple overlapping crises and the cumulative effects of attrition, accrued over several years of social and infrastructural fragmentation arising from deepening crisis, and the impact of restrictions imposed by the DFA, impacting service providers’ ability to operate and women’s ability to freely seek and access services. This negative impact of this dynamic was exacerbated by the promulgation of the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV) Law , formally announced on 21 August 2024. This unprecedented ‘morality law’ codifies numerous restrictions previously set out in various edicts previously used by the DFA, while introducing or expanding the scope of areas of curtailment regarding women’s participation in public spaces and freedom of movement, impacting women’s access to services. The ongoing ban on secondary or tertiary education for girls/young women and the closure in late 2024 of women’s health sciences institutes further reduce the already limited economic opportunities for women, increasing the likelihood of many revering to negative coping strategies to survive. The challenging protection environment has heightened mental health crisis and psychosocial needs , particularly among women and girls, marked by increased prevalence among this group of feelings of hopelessness, anxiety and despair. [1] Women and girls continue to face heightened protection needs as a result of targeted policies which seek to restrict their movement and limit their involvement in life outside the domestic realm, with increased risks of gender-based violence . [2] Despite a decree in December 2021 prohibiting forced marriages in Afghanistan, reports show that such practices continue. 6 Women’s access to justice has also been drastically reduced , with almost no women judges, lawyers or shura members engaged in (formal and informal) dispute resolution processes, and reports of women prevented from entering courts or public offices dealing with legal affairs without a mahram , and having cases (of all types) dismissed or ignored due to perceived gender discrimination. [3] Projections for 2025 indicate that approximately 22.9 million people will require humanitarian assistance to survive (25 per cent of them women, 53 per cent children, 2 per cent elderly, and 11 per cent persons living with disabilities), due to limited capacity to meet both chronic and acute needs across Afghanistan. [4] While overall needs have decreased from those reported for 2023, needs in relation to GBV have risen – from 13.3 million people experiencing GBV-related need in 2023 to 14.2 million in 2024, reconfirming the continuing need for increased protection assistance in this regard. [5] Responding to the needs arising within this highly challenging operating context, UN Women Afghanistan continued to explore, create and expand entry points for provision of essential services to Afghan women and girls. Examples of key results achieved by the ACO under Outcome AFG_D_1.1 during 2024 are presented below. Expansion of 6 partnerships with UN entities (i.a. IOM, UNESCO, UNODC, WHO, ILO, UNOPS) and with various non-UN international organizations to leverage resources and entry points to reach more women and girls, including returnees and survivors of violence, with GBV services. Support for 75 community-based centres and non-static centres including outreach services, Women Protection Centers, Multi-Purpose Women Centers, and women-friendly spaces, an online platform, and a helpline, as well as through an integrated approach with women’s economic empowerment (WEE), moving beyond the traditional scope of Family Resources Centers, to strengthen women’s and girls’ access to services and information. Investment in 25 self-help groups providing support for those affected by GBV, increasing beneficiary access to vital support, especially in hard-to-reach areas, where groups were hosted directly in the houses of community leaders. Through these and other targeted ACO actions, a total 229,830 Afghan women and girls were supported during 2024 with mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services, safe accommodation, GBV case management, livelihoods and economic empowerment support, emergence response support, legal counselling, health services, vocational training, numeracy and literacy training. Delivery of this wide variety of interventions was made possible through ACO nourishment of strong partnerships – with sister UN agencies and a multitude of international and national organizations, especially women-led and women-focused organizations – and multi-layered advocacy with the DFA. Their organizational integrity, resources and (staff) capacity buttressed by tailored ACO support, UN Women partners could successfully leverage their unique access to and connections with Afghan women at community-level, continuing provision of life-saving and essential multi-sectoral services and information despite the restrictive operating environment. [1] Ibid. [2] OCHA. 2024. Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024 . [3] UN Women, UNAMA, IOM. 2024. Summary report of countrywide consultations with Afghan women: July 2024 . [4] OCHA. 2024. Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024 . [5] Ibid.

By the end of 2025, more people in Afghanistan, particularly the most marginalized, can equitably access essential services that meet minimum quality standards.

While UN Women has made some progress on the outcome, in 2023, women’s access to essential services in Afghanistan remained severely constrained by restrictions impacting service providers’ ability to operate on the one hand, and impacting women’s ability to freely seek and access services where they exist on the other hand. The de facto authorities (DFA) increasingly strengthened the monitoring of the implementation of various decrees issued to restrict women-led/women-focused organizations – who remain key providers of services for women, by women - , including through the creation of the de facto Grand Directorate for Monitoring and Implementation of Decrees and Orders. Simultaneously, Afghan women continued to experience restrictions on their freedom of movement. Afghanistan has faced long-standing challenges in providing widespread access to essential services, including health care, education, clean water, and sanitation, primarily due to ongoing conflicts, political instability, and economic difficulties. Against the backdrop of DFA restrictions, during 2023, progress on providing equitable access to essential services that meet the minimum quality standards – especially for Afghan women - was limited. In this context, UN Women Afghanistan and its partners were still able to successfully provide essential services for Afghan women where permitted, and advocated for spaces for the provision of services where they no longer existed. Assistance provided by UN agencies and local and international NGOs was critical to averting an even more devastating humanitarian and economic crisis from occurring in 2023. [1] UN Women and its partners have been consistent in monitoring restrictions and bans on women’s employment and participation in public life, and the impact which these have on women’s access to assistance, and their prospects for recovery. Through the provision of technical support and funding to civil society organization (CSO) partners, UN Women – in alignment with joint UN system approaches – continued to help women’s organizations navigate DFA restrictions, and the escalating infringements on women’s rights. UN Women further joined forces with other UN agencies and partners in the country, and engaged in strategic advocacy efforts with the DFA, to support CSO partners with the registration of their project interventions in support of women and girls. With UN Women support, in 2023, 9,368 individuals (8,587 women and girls, 781 men and boys) across Afghanistan received a range of violence against women and girls services through UN Women implemented projects; 24,564 women received information support through an interagency hotline operated with the support of UN Women and sister agencies; 6,170 women received emergency cash assistance; and 3,970 women who received multisectoral services at Multi-Purpose Women Centers (MPWCs) for internally displaced and crisis-affected women. For UN Women, the strategy for the achievement of this outcome incorporates an adaptive programming approach, that allows adjustments of programming interventions to contextual, often very localized developments. This strategy remained critical in 2023, whereby UN Women worked with partners to expand service delivery modalities beyond static service points (centers), to deliver services via businesses centers, community development centers, health facilities and established avenues, to support the most at-risk women (including women in drug treatment centers and female prisoners). This diversification of programming entry points for service provision, underpinned by UN Women’s advocacy and engagement – as part of UN Women’s overarching Country Programme in Afghanistan - , is deemed to remain key to address access barriers and operational challenges faced by women’s organizations, thus strengthening their ability to deliver for and with Afghan women and girls. [1] UNDP. Afghanistan: Socio-Economic Outlook . [2] United Nations Afghanistan. 2023. United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan 2023-2025 .