70% of Children in Afghanistan Live in Poverty, New Report Reveals

A recent report from the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) indicates that 70 percent of children under 18 in Afghanistan live in poverty, significantly surpassing the 57.8 percent rate for adults, Amu TV revealed yesterday.

Jointly published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), the report highlights that children make up 58.9 percent of the country’s poor, translating to approximately 15.5 million poor children compared to 10.8 million poor adults.

Key factors contributing to this crisis include inadequate school attendance and malnutrition, with 52.3 percent of households having at least one child not attending school and 44.2 percent with an undernourished child under five. The 2024 MPI report analyzes multidimensional poverty across 112 countries, revealing that Afghanistan has seen 5.3 million more people fall into poverty from 2015 to 2023, with 64.9 percent of the population living in poverty by 2022/2023.

Globally, 1.1 billion people are estimated to live in acute poverty, with 40 percent in conflict-affected regions. Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, emphasized the urgent need to address the cycle of crisis and poverty exacerbated by ongoing conflicts.