8 October 2026
The statement of the forty-fifth meeting of the Polio IHR Emergency Committee was published by the World Health Organization on 25 August 2026.
It records three wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Afghanistan in 2026 to date, against 21 WPV1 cases in 2025.
Afghanistan had 17 WPV1-positive environmental samples in 2026 to date, against 94 in 2025, and the most recent WPV1 detection recorded was on 23 February 2026.
Cases came from the South and East Regions, and the Committee called the South Region the greatest concern, with intense transmission and evidence of prolonged undetected circulation.
No house-to-house campaigns have been held in Afghanistan since October 2024 because of security concerns, and the Committee urged the country to explore moving to house-to-house vaccination nationwide.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are treated as a single epidemiological bloc, with continued cross-border risk including from undocumented returnees.
WPV1 cases in Afghanistan, 2026 to date:
3
WPV1 cases in Afghanistan, 2025:
21
WPV1-positive environmental samples, 2026 to date:
17
Last house-to-house campaign:
October 2024
Why it matters for exams: Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last two countries with endemic wild poliovirus, so polio figures for them recur in health current affairs.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
WPV1 Wild poliovirus type 1 — The only wild poliovirus serotype still circulating, found in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
IHR International Health Regulations — The WHO legal framework under which the polio Emergency Committee meets.
8 October 2026
The World Food Programme records that 17.4 million people in Afghanistan are projected to be severely food insecure.
It expects 4.9 million mothers and children to be malnourished in 2026.
Twelve provinces are at critical levels of acute child malnutrition, the highest number on record.
WFP puts Afghanistan's population at 46 million, and says women and children make up 80 per cent of those reached by its emergency response.
The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) provides access to over a dozen hard-to-reach locations and serves over 100 UN agencies, NGOs and partners, whose work assists more than 10 million people.
WFP's country strategic plan for Afghanistan runs from 2018 to 2027, and the agency says its funding has declined sharply, severely hampering operations.
Projected severely food insecure:
17.4 million
Mothers and children expected malnourished in 2026:
4.9 million
Provinces at critical acute child malnutrition:
Twelve
Country strategic plan period:
2018 to 2027
Why it matters for exams: Afghanistan's hunger figures and the UNHAS air service are standard UN-agency facts in questions on humanitarian operations.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
WFP World Food Programme — The UN's food assistance agency, which runs the largest humanitarian operation in Afghanistan.
UNHAS United Nations Humanitarian Air Service — A WFP-managed air service that carries aid workers and cargo to hard-to-reach places.
8 October 2026
The World Bank's Afghanistan Development Update (Spring 2026) was released on 26 May 2026, with a special focus on private sector development.
It estimates real GDP growth at 4.8 per cent, with the outlook for 2026 at about 4 per cent.
GDP per capita fell 5.6 per cent, because the return of around 3.7 million Afghans outpaced economic expansion, with population growth of around 11 per cent in 2025.
Inflation averaged 3.6 per cent and then rose to 7.6 per cent by March 2026.
Domestic revenue was 19.8 per cent of GDP in 2025 and the current account deficit was an estimated 36.1 per cent of GDP.
Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan, said the economy 'is showing resilience in the face of significant headwinds, but growth alone is not enough'.
Real GDP growth:
4.8 percent
Change in GDP per capita:
Down 5.6 percent
Afghans returned:
Around 3.7 million
Inflation by March 2026:
7.6 percent
Domestic revenue, 2025:
19.8 percent of GDP
Why it matters for exams: The gap between headline growth and falling per capita income is a clean illustration of how population change can cancel out GDP gains.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
GDP per capita Gross domestic product divided by population — It can fall even when total output grows, if population grows faster.
Current account deficit Excess of payments abroad over receipts on current transactions — Estimated at 36.1 per cent of GDP for Afghanistan in 2025.
Background
The Food and Agriculture Organization's technical paper on fish and fisheries at higher altitudes records that Afghanistan is a landlocked country, nearly 75% of which is mountainous.
The same paper describes three great river basins. The Amu-Darya, also called the Oxus, forms the boundary with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the north. The Kabul lies in the northeast and enters Pakistan in the east where it has a confluence with the Indus. The Helmand lies in the southwest and ends in Iran in a desert lake immediately after crossing the border.
An Observer Research Foundation issue brief describes the Wakhan Corridor as a narrow strip of land in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, protruding from its eastern border and connecting it to China's Xinjiang province, with Tajikistan to its north.
The BBC country profile gives the capital as Kabul and the languages as Pashto and Dari.
Those five neighbours named by the river basins, together with China across the Wakhan, make six land neighbours in all, and the country has no sea coast of its own.
Capital:
Kabul
Land neighbours:
Six
Mountainous share:
nearly 75%
Corridor to China:
Wakhan Corridor, Badakhshan
Why it matters for exams: Which countries border Afghanistan, and which of them is reached only across the Wakhan Corridor, is a standard map question in Kerala PSC and UPSC prelims.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Landlocked No sea coast — A country with no coastline of its own, so its sea trade must cross a neighbour's territory.
Wakhan Corridor Badakhshan province, Afghanistan — A narrow eastward strip of Afghan territory that reaches China's Xinjiang.
Background
The Food and Agriculture Organization's technical paper on fish and fisheries at higher altitudes records that nearly 75% of Afghanistan is mountainous. The average elevation is 1300 m, and the northeast is sub-polar, with temperatures falling to -26 degrees Celsius or lower in the Hindu Kush range.
The paper traces the water in every Afghan river to precipitation and the snow melt that follows, over the central ranges running from the Pamir mountain knot at the western termination of the Karakoram, through the Hindu Kush and its outliers, to the ranges of Hazarajat.
The Amu Darya has its sources in the Pamirs, and it ends in the Aral Sea; the lower 1300 km of a total of 2500 km lies wholly outside Afghanistan.
The Hari Rud River, which starts in the centre of Afghanistan, flows directly west and eventually enters Turkmenistan where it is called Tedzhen, to be lost in the sands of the Kara Kum Desert.
The Helmand River has its source not far away from the source of the Kabul River. It flows southwest for about 1300 km before it empties into the Sistan lakes, and with its tributaries it drains about 40% of Afghanistan and has the largest drainage basin.
Because the supply is snow melt, maximum water flow is in the spring and early summer and minimum flow is in late summer to winter over much of the country.
Mountainous share:
nearly 75%
Average elevation:
1300 m
Largest drainage basin:
Helmand, about 40% of Afghanistan
Amu Darya total length:
a total of 2500 km
Hari Rud in Turkmenistan:
Tedzhen
Why it matters for exams: River-and-range questions on Afghanistan turn on which river has the largest basin, where each one ends, and which range feeds them all.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Hindu Kush Mountain range of Afghanistan and Pakistan — The range whose snow melt supplies most of Afghanistan's river water.
Drainage basin Catchment area of a river — The whole area whose rain and snow melt drain into one river and its tributaries.
Background
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre's State Party page for Afghanistan shows Cultural 2 and no natural or mixed property, so both inscribed properties are in the cultural category.
They are the Minaret and Archaeological Remains of Jam, inscribed in 2002, and the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley, inscribed in 2003.
The same page records Ratification of the Convention: Tuesday, 20 March 1979.
There are four Sites on the Tentative List, which UNESCO describes as an inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination: City of Herat and City of Balkh (antique Bactria), both listed in 2004, Band-E-Amir, also 2004, and Bagh-e Babur, listed in 2009.
The page carries 43 State of Conservation Reports for Afghanistan and records 8 International assistance requests approved, for a total amount of 323,670 US dollars. Among the news items it lists is one on efforts towards removing the Bamiyan Valley from the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Inscribed properties:
Cultural 2
Minaret of Jam inscribed:
2002
Bamiyan Valley inscribed:
2003
Convention ratified:
Tuesday, 20 March 1979
Tentative List entries:
4
International assistance approved:
323,670 USD
Why it matters for exams: Examiners ask how many World Heritage properties a country has, in which category, and which famous site is only on the Tentative List.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Tentative List Inventory held under the World Heritage Convention — A State Party's own inventory of properties it intends to consider for nomination later.
State of Conservation report Monitoring report to the World Heritage Committee — A report on the threats a listed property faces, placed before the World Heritage Committee.
Background
Two addresses published by the Prime Minister's Office set out the main pieces of India's development partnership with Afghanistan.
At the inauguration in Herat, the Indian Prime Minister thanked the Afghan side for naming this dam as Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam. The project had been carried out under the name Salma Dam, which an earlier address to the Parliament of Afghanistan referred to while it was still under construction.
The Herat address also records the inauguration of the Afghan Parliament Building in Kabul the previous December; roads built from Zaranj to Delaram; and transmission lines laid to carry power to Afghan homes.
On connectivity, the same address states that India's investment in the port at Chahbahar in Iran will give Afghanistan a new route to the world.
The address to the Parliament of Afghanistan sets out a scheme of 1000 scholarships every year for Afghan students in India, a special scholarship scheme in agriculture science, and the restoration of The Stor Palace in Kabul.
Dam inaugurated at:
Herat
Earlier project name:
Salma Dam
Parliament building:
Kabul
Road built:
Zaranj to Delaram
Scholarships a year:
1000
Why it matters for exams: India-Afghanistan questions almost always turn on the named projects: the Friendship Dam, the Parliament building, the Zaranj to Delaram road and the Chahbahar route.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Chahbahar Chabahar port, Iran — The Iranian port, written Chahbahar in this address, through which India offers Afghanistan a sea route.
Stor Palace Historic building in Kabul — A Kabul heritage building whose restoration the address names as part of the partnership.
Background
UN-OHRLLS, the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, publishes both of the lists on which Afghanistan appears.
The List of LDCs opens Afghanistan Angola Bangladesh and runs on through the alphabet.
On the List of LLDCs, Afghanistan is entry 1. Afghanistan and the numbering runs to 32. Zimbabwe. An asterisk stands against its name, and the page's legend reads Also Least Developed Country, so Afghanistan is counted in both groups at once.
The World Trade Organization recognizes as least-developed countries those countries which have been designated as such by the United Nations. Its page records that there are currently 44 least-developed countries on the UN list, 37 of which to date have become WTO members, and its own enumeration begins These are: Afghanistan Angola Bangladesh. Afghanistan is itself a WTO member, so it sits inside that group of LDC members.
Position on the LDC list:
First, ahead of Angola and Bangladesh
Position on the LLDC list:
1. Afghanistan
Entries on the LLDC list:
runs to 32. Zimbabwe
LDCs on the UN list:
44 least-developed countries on the UN list
LDCs that are WTO members:
37 of which to date have become WTO members
Why it matters for exams: Which countries are in the LDC category, which are landlocked developing countries, and which are in both, is standard ground for economy and reports questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCBank
In plain words
LDC Least developed country — A UN category for countries with the lowest income and human development indicators, carrying special support measures.
LLDC Landlocked developing country — A developing country with no sea coast, which must move its overseas trade across a neighbour.
Background
The United Nations list of Member States gives Afghanistan Date of Admission: 19-11-1946, which places it among the organisation's earliest members.
Afghanistan is not a founding member of SAARC. A Press Information Bureau release issued at the close of the 14th SAARC Summit, held in New Delhi, records that for the first time in its history, SAARC expanded its membership to welcome Afghanistan as its eighth member. The same release notes that five Observers from outside the region attended the Summit, which also decided to give a similar status to Iran; that the Summit adopted the New Delhi Declaration; that the leaders agreed to designate 2008 as the SAARC Year of Good Governance; and that agreements were signed to establish the SAARC Food Bank and the South Asian University.
The World Trade Organization's member information page states that Afghanistan has been a member of the WTO since 29 July 2016.
Afghanistan does not belong to ASEAN. The ASEAN member states page describes the eleven Member States of ASEAN, the most recent addition being Timor-Leste on 26 October 2025, and Afghanistan is not among them.
UN date of admission:
19-11-1946
Place in SAARC:
Eighth member
SAARC summit of admission:
14th SAARC Summit, New Delhi
WTO member since:
29 July 2016
ASEAN membership:
Not a member
Why it matters for exams: The SAARC founder-versus-eighth-member distinction is one of the most repeated traps in regional-organisation questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation — The South Asian regional grouping that Afghanistan entered as its eighth member.
Observer status Non-member participation in SAARC — A standing that lets a non-member state attend sessions without voting rights.
Background
Afghanistan joined the United Nations on 19 November 1946, when it was still the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
The UN's list of Member States records its date of admission as 19-11-1946.
The United Nations Country Team in Afghanistan comprises 24 agencies, funds and programmes.
Twenty of those 24 entities are located in Afghanistan itself.
Afghanistan's UN membership has run unbroken since 1946, through successive changes of government in Kabul.
Date of admission to the UN:
19 November 1946
Name at the time of joining:
Kingdom of Afghanistan
UN Country Team entities:
24 agencies, funds and programmes
Entities located in Afghanistan:
20
Why it matters for exams: The 1946 admission date and the size of the UN Country Team are the two facts most often asked about Afghanistan's place in the UN system.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
UN Country Team United Nations Country Team — All UN agencies, funds and programmes working in one country, under the Resident Coordinator.