The humanitarian programmes in Afghanistan supported by DANIDA during the period 1992 – 8 involve a wide range of agencies and activities. This study concentrates on the areas of health, mine action and coordination.

Conditions for the people of Afghanistan are typified by underlying chronic poverty, insecurity, ill health and population displacements. Subsistence takes place within an economy dominated by war and with vestigial health and education services. Afghanistan has some of the worst human development indicators in the world, ranking 170 out of 174 in UNDP’s 1995 Human Development Index. The human rights situation has been very poor throughout the 1990s. Health indicators for women are bleak. Human rights, particularly for urban women, have worsened since the advent of the Taliban, with draconian restrictions on employment, education, movement and dress.