Organizational Setting:
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. The UN-Habitat Afghanistan country office is part of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP). The position is in Herat provinces, Afghanistan.
Learning from the experience in the last 30 years and recognizing the realities of the current context in the country, UN-Habitat in Afghanistan designs and implements projects in settlements of all sizes, putting the needs of people first, targeting the most vulnerable and meeting local needs by focusing on area-based and community-driven outputs. The portfolio currently covers projects ranging from humanitarian responses to supporting recovery and meeting basic human needs. UN-Habitat collaborates closely with the UN country team as well as with technical and financial partners in Afghanistan, in alignment with the UN Strategic Framework for Afghanistan (UNSFA) and the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plans (HNRP). In alignment with those frameworks and the new UN-Habitat global strategic plan (2026-2029), UN-Habitat Afghanistan has recently published its strategic priorities for 2026-2027 for the office.
Afghanistan is experiencing a continuous humanitarian crisis, with over half a million people in the need of humanitarian assistance. Many people are displaced due to climate change, internal displacement or massive returns from neighboring countries, and many have sought refuge in the relative safety of cities, which are growing rapidly. The number of people living in unplanned, underserviced and informal settlements, including in risk prone areas, is increasing and living conditions as well as access to services is inadequate. The unfolding crisis in Afghan cities, which is accelerated by climate change impacts and natural disasters, is occurring in a context of underlying vulnerabilities, including infrastructure deficits, insecure livelihoods and pervasive tenure insecurity. Most at risk are displaced people in informal settlements, with women, disabled and ethnic minorities being particularly vulnerable.
UN-Habitat applies a participatory and community-driven approach, using participatory spatial planning and action planning processes to enable communities to identify and implement priority service and infrastructure investments to support their socioeconomic recovery processes and creating an enabling environment for durable solutions. UN-Habitat's community-cantered “People's Process” is a proven and effective approach to reduce vulnerability at scale in the Afghan context. UN-Habitat builds upon its long tradition of partnering with communities in informal settlements to create sustainable and safe settlements, improve living conditions and adequate livelihood opportunities to those most in need.
The position is located with the Afghanistan Office, as part of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the Regional Program Division and based in Herat, Afghanistan.
About the Project
The Western region of Afghanistan, more specifically, the provinces of Herat and Farah, are facing an exceptionally complex crisis, shaped by overlapping political, climatic, and humanitarian stressors.
The situation is compounded by high rates of forced returns, making it one of the most urgent displacement contexts in Afghanistan. Herat has become the main entry point, severely straining essential services and community structures.
Challenges of returnees, as revealed in an interagency assessments, include widespread unemployment, poor housing conditions, and extensive service shortfalls. Unemployment among returnees stands between 80 and 90 percent, and most households are heavily indebted. Approximately 70 to 90 percent of families live in unsafe or inadequate housing, with rent inflation ranging from 100 to 300 percent. Health facilities are overcrowded; child malnutrition rates range from 10 to 25 percent, and classrooms host between 70 and 100 students per teacher. Women and children often spend 30 to 45 minutes walking to access water, and sanitation coverage is critically low.
While early host community support eased some of the initial impact, continued resource scarcity has started to erode host community's solidarity. Women are disproportionately affected by this combination of stressors, having fewer economic opportunities and little recourse to legal or social protection.
To respond to the challenges, UN-Habitat, together with other UN agencies, is implementing a joint project, applying localized, integrated, whole-of-community and area-based approach approaches. Returnees, IDPs, and local communities in (dis)placement-affected communities across 12 manteqas/clusters will benefit from improved access to housing solutions, improved access to essential services, disaster resilience and more.
