The Government of Japan, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has provided US$6.3 million to UNICEF to renew its partnership on polio eradication and strengthen routine immunization across all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The 12-month initiative aims to reach over 12 million children under five with lifesaving polio vaccines for supplementary immunization activities and routine immunization services.

Afghanistan is one of the last two countries where polio still threatens children’s lives. Progress is being made, with cases of wild poliovirus falling from 25 in 2024 to ten as of December 2025. But as long as the virus continues to circulate in high-risk areas, every missed vaccination leaves children vulnerable and puts hard-won gains at risk. Sustained, uninterrupted immunization is essential to protect every child and finally end polio in Afghanistan and globally.

This urgency has been further intensified by overlapping humanitarian pressures, including the August 2025 earthquakes, which damaged health facilities and disrupted essential systems and services. In addition, the return of millions of people to Afghanistan, many of them children with limited or interrupted access to essential healthcare, predisposes them to vaccine preventable diseases including polio, measles, whooping cough etc. Together, these shocks increase the risk of intense poliovirus transmission at a critical moment for global polio eradication, making a continuous and predictable vaccine supply essential to protect recent gains and prevent setbacks.