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Factors associated with Afghan household food security pre- and post-Taliban regime

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Abstract

To determine multifaceted determinants of household vulnerability to food insecurity in Afghanistan before and after the Taliban takeover, we randomly selected 555 households from 13 provinces, conducted in-person surveys, and applied the Household Food Insecurity Assess Scale (HFIAS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). We collected data from January to April 2022. We observed an increase in both prevalence and severity of food insecurity among Afghan households after the Taliban takeover. Approximately, 98% and 70% of interviewed households were food insecure after and before the Taliban takeover, respectively. Similarly, households were more likely to be severely food insecure (81%) than before (40%). Our results showed that policy and political conditions contributed substantially to the food insecurity of Afghan households after the Taliban takeover. We recommend that the Taliban forces facilitate the presence of humanitarian organizations and NGOs to improve low-income households' food security, especially for women and children. We also recommend that international organizations enhance their attempts to negotiate with the Taliban to ensure freedom for women.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran. We also thank Fawad Naseri, Jumakhan Saifnijat, Mohammad Khaled Sharifi, Sayed Abdurahman Adili, Sayed Amin Allah Sadat, Sayed Nooragha Tawhedi, Abdul Basir Noori, Noor Allah Sadat, Yusuf Jalili, Humaira Sadat, and Amira Haidari as our interviewers for their contribution to fill out the questionnaire at the critical and war zones. Also, we express our gratitude and appreciation to Mr. Fawad Naseri, as Instructure in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, Ghazni University, Ghazni, as our co-investigator in Afghanistan. Moreover, we would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Fatemeh Mohammadi-Nasrabadi, as faculty members of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Iran, for her helpful contributions in the primary steps in designing the present study and finalizing the used questionnaire. We finally thank Lorestan Medical Science University for issuing ethical approval for research. This project is partially supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [Canada].

Funding

This project is partially supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Lorestan University, Falakol’ Aflak St, PO Box 465, Khorramabad, Lorestan, Iran

    Seyyed Amin Allah Sadat, Mohammad Reza Pakravan-Charvadeh, Saeed Gholamrezai & Mehdi Rahimian

  2. College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

    Ginny Lane

  3. Department of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Daniel Béland

  4. Department of Sociology, Centre for Studies in Food Security, Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Known As Ryerson University), Toronto, ON, Canada

    Mustafa Koc

  5. Faculty of Human and Social Development, School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Nancy Clark

  6. Department of Community Nutrition, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute (NNFTRI), Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Nasrin Omidvar

  7. Faculty of Social Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Rasoul Sadeghi

  8. College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, 107 Wiggins Rd, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E5, Canada

    Hassan Vatanparast

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  1. Seyyed Amin Allah Sadat
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  4. Mehdi Rahimian
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mohammad Reza Pakravan-Charvadeh or Hassan Vatanparast.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This research was performed according to the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki and with the approval of the research ethics committee of the Medical Sciences University of Lorestan (IR.LUMS.REC.1401.237).

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants after being informed of the nature of the research.

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Sadat, S.A.A., Pakravan-Charvadeh, M.R., Gholamrezai, S. et al. Factors associated with Afghan household food security pre- and post-Taliban regime. J Public Health Pol 44, 551–565 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-023-00439-0

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