April 2020 - European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid has furthered its generous funding to WHO Afghanistan with an additional €2.8 million to the WHO Health Emergencies Programme to support the country’s fight against COVID-19.

The European Union Humanitarian Aid has been a long-term partner to WHO Afghanistan and in January 2019, it pledged €4.5 million for a period of 2 years. The current funding comes in parallel with a pledge of €30 million in humanitarian aid to combat COVID-19 in Asia and Africa, from which Afghanistan will receive €2.5 million of the funding. This will amount to €5.3 million in EU humanitarian aid funding to WHO in Afghanistan this year.

The amount will be used for WHO Health Emergencies Programme to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to providing essential trauma care and addressing urgent humanitarian needs across the country.

“It is absolutely vital to have a robust, coordinated and united response to fight this pandemic,” said Luigi Pandolfi, who oversees EU humanitarian programmes in Afghanistan. “To mitigate the effects of a potential mass outbreak of coronavirus in Afghanistan, we have been working closely with the World Health Organization and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health since the very early stages of the outbreak.”

“WHO Afghanistan is grateful for the partnership and funding from ECHO for our COVID-19 response. Our partners, including ECHO, have taken timely initiatives and stepped-up to support the country’s efforts, during this global emergency. Without their support, Afghanistan’s efforts against COVID-19 would have not yielded the results we have had so far,” said Dr Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in Afghanistan.

The funding will be used during a period of 12 months to reach 400 000 vulnerable population in the country affected by COVID-19, including internally displaced population and returnees from Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan.

Contact for further information:
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it