Afghanistan was tipped to the brink of economic crisis in 2021 as the Taliban took over and all development and security assistance to the country was frozen, with restrictions also placed on the banking sector. Since then humanitarian aid - aimed at funding urgent needs through non-profit organizations and bypassing government control - has filled some of the gap. But donors have been cutting steadily in recent years, concerned by Taliban restrictions on women, including their order that Afghan female NGO employees stop work, and competing global crises. Lee told Reuters shortly before finishing her three-year term in Afghanistan that funding cuts had meant that roughly half the 15 million Afghans in acute need of food were not receiving rations during this year’s harsh winter. “That’s over 6 million people who are probably eating one or two meals a day and it’s just bread and tea,” she said in an interview on Saturday. “Unfortunately this is what the situation looks like for so many that have been removed from assistance.” Afghanistan’s humanitarian plan was only just over half funded in 2024, according to United Nations data, and aid officials have flagged fears this could fall further this year.

The head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan has raised concerns about the agency's ability to provide food assistance to the millions of Afghans in need due to cuts in international aid and a freeze in US foreign funding. With limited resources, only half of the 15 million Afghans in acute need of food are currently receiving rations, leaving over 6 million people struggling to afford more than one or two meals a day, often consisting of just bread and tea.

The head of a major humanitarian organisation said U.S. President Donald Trump's order to halt foreign aid for 90 days would have immediate and disastrous consequences in Afghanistan where relief operations are already stretched thin. As he took office on Monday, Trump ordered a temporary pause in foreign development aid pending assessments of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy. The scope of the order was not clear, including whether it applied to Afghanistan's humanitarian funding, which is channelled through NGOs and United Nations agencies. Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters that the decision had left agencies reeling as they braced for further cuts from the biggest donor to Afghanistan. "A 90-day suspension of all aid, no new grants, no new transfer of funding, will have disastrous consequences immediately ... for an already starved aid operation for very poor and vulnerable girls and women and civilians in Afghanistan," he said during a video interview from Kabul late on Tuesday. The war-torn nation is home to more than 23 million people requiring humanitarian assistance - more than half the country's population - but aid has shrunk as donors face competing global crises and diplomats raise concerns about the Taliban's restrictions on women in most areas of public life, including education and health.