UNICEF, with support from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has launched “First Foods Afghanistan,” an ambitious nationwide initiative aimed at reversing Afghanistan’s deepening child food poverty crisis.
The launch comes in response to alarming new data from UNICEF’s 2025 Child Food Poverty Report, which reveals that 90% of young children in Afghanistan are living in food poverty, and half of them are suffering from severe food poverty. These figures place Afghanistan fourth globally in rates of severe child food poverty.
Most critically affected are children under two years old. According to the report, 3.5mn Afghan children under the age of five suffer from wasting—a life-threatening form of malnutrition—and 1.4mn of them are at heightened risk of death. Over 85% of these children are under two years old. Additionally, 1.2mn children are trapped in severe food poverty, which increases their risk of stunted growth and developmental delays by 33%.
“This is a crisis of silent suffering. Children in Afghanistan are not just malnourished—they are chronically deprived of the most basic building blocks of growth and development,” said Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan. “Half of Afghan’s youngest children survive on just two food groups out of eight—day in and day out. This puts them at high risk of malnutrition and even death. To address this, we must deliberately focus on improving the diets of young children, in addition to expanding services.”
The First Foods Afghanistan initiative aims to reach 1.7mn children across all 34 provinces through a holistic, systems-based approach. It will promote homegrown and household-prepared complementary foods that are both nutritious and affordable. The initiative also supports the local manufacturing of fortified complementary and therapeutic foods for the prevention and treatment of malnutrition.
By integrating efforts across food, health, water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), social protection, and education, and by engaging local communities, youth, and entrepreneurs, the program seeks to create sustainable, locally led solutions to improve young children’s diets and break the cycle of malnutrition.
“Afghanistan should not only be growing food—it must now grow nutrition,” Dr. Oyewale added. “We are shifting the focus from calories to nourishment through child-sensitive food systems, and from addressing malnutrition solely through services to also prioritizing the actual foods young children consume. This integrated approach is the only sustainable path to breaking the cycle of malnutrition and poverty in Afghanistan.”
The United Kingdom, a key partner in the initiative, emphasized the need to address the root causes of child malnutrition in Afghanistan. UK envoy Robert Chatterton Dickson highlighted the importance of global collaboration and urged donors and communities to support UNICEF’s efforts to ensure Afghan children have access to nutritious, diverse foods during their early years.
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