As the year 2022 comes to an end, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Afghanistan would like to extend our warmest season greetings to you and your loved ones.

It has been an extremely challenging year for Afghanistan with the isolation of the economy, regression in human rights, especially for women and girls, and erasing development gains achieved over the past two decades. Regardless of these challenging circumstances, the UNDP Afghanistan team has stayed and delivered to support millions of Afghans, who have demonstrated incredible resiliency in the face of extreme hardships. 

In 2022, UNDP delivered critical livelihood support directly to communities and small businesses to save local economies from collapse and to avoid an exponential increase in the humanitarian caseload, with priority given to women and girls' rights. UNDP, through its flagship programme, the Area Based Approach to Development Emergency Initiatives (ABADEI), and strengthened regional presence, has provided primary sources of income and temporary work for Afghan men and women; market access for small farmers and traders; access to clean and affordable energy to poor households and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). UNDP has also supported improving health services by providing access to primary healthcare and supporting health facilities.

The Special Trust Funds for Afghanistan (STFA) has been able to encourage 17 UN agencies, including UNDP, to come together into a unified response at the regional level, ensuring a linked-up, cohesive action to support the basic human needs and essential service in the country, complementing the critical humanitarian response. All this has been made possible by our staff's hard work and dedication and our partners' unwavering support and contribution.

In the new year 2023, UNDP Afghanistan, as a leading development agency, intention scale up its assistance to Afghan communities by restoring the banking sector and the private sector, improving access of MSMEs (particularly women-led MSMEs) to finance, continuing the support for technical and vocational education for women and girls; supporting NGOs/CSOs in delivering essential services despite a shrinking operational environment;  and empowering communities' voice and agency. We will continue to work in solidarity with the Afghan communities and national and international partners to pave the way for sustainable and innovative solutions and build bridges to tackle our challenges. This way, we can make our collective ambition to support Afghan people in creating a future they want a reality.