As of mid-October, the 2024 Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) is significantly underfunded, with just US$961.7 million received—which amounts to 31.4 per cent of the initial request. This shortfall comes as humanitarian needs in Afghanistan remain stubbornly high due to ongoing food insecurity and malnutrition, protracted displacement, widespread explosive ordnance contamination, recurrent natural disasters, communicable disease outbreaks, climate change effects and political estrangement. In addition, an increasingly restrictive environment continues to create challenges for partners to reach affected populations, particularly women and girls, and, in turn, affects their ability to access services.

Since the 2021 takeover, de facto authority (DfA) line ministries and provincial directorates have issued 392 directives directly affecting humanitarian operations, including 71 that specifically target Afghan women's involvement in the response. So far, in 2024, the DfA has issued 97 directives, six of which relate to female participation (including requirements such as adherence to hijab, restrictions on women working in the field and salary reductions for female government employees). In August, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MoPVPV) promulgated the Morality Law, which reinforces and expands existing discriminatory policies, such as mandatory dress codes (for all genders), the requirement for women to have a male guardian (mahram), and the segregation of men and women in public spaces, while also giving broad discretionary powers to inspectors. Humanitarian actors are closely monitoring the impact of the law on operations, including the safe, meaningful and comprehensive participation of Afghan women in all aspects of the response while trying to strengthen existing mitigation measures to ensure continued principled delivery.