Restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment in Afghanistan could lead to a loss of over 25,000 female teachers and health workers by 2030 - UNICEF

KABUL/FLORENCE/NEW YORK, 28 April 2026 – Afghanistan risks losing up to 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 healthcare workers by 2030 as restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment continue, according to a new UNICEF analysis.

The Cost of Inaction on Girls’ Education and Women’s Labour Force Participation in Afghanistan found that female representation in the civil services fell from 21 per cent to 17.7 per cent between 2023 and 2025. It warns that the dwindling number of trained women professionals in schools and hospitals will devastate children’s learning, health outcomes and future opportunities. Restrictions on girls’ and women’s education and work are already costing the country US$84 million annually in lost economic output, with losses compounding over time as they remain blocked from education and employment.

The report warns that removing women from teaching and healthcare services – two sectors where they are permitted to work and critically needed – directly harms children as it will lead to fewer girls in schools and reduced care for women and children. The impact is particularly severe in healthcare, where societal context often prevents women from receiving medical services from men, meaning the declining number of female health workers will directly limit maternal, newborn, and child health services.

“Afghanistan cannot afford to lose future teachers, nurses, doctors, midwives, and social workers, who sustain essential services. This will be the reality if girls continue to be excluded from education,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “We urge the de facto authorities to lift the ban on secondary education for girls and call on the international community to remain committed to supporting girls’ rights to learn.”

Afghanistan faces a dual crisis: losing trained female professionals while preventing the next generation from replacing them. As experienced women retire or leave, girls are barred from continuing their education and stepping into these roles. Each year of delay costs Afghanistan another generation of skilled professionals.

Since the de facto authorities prevented girls from accessing secondary education in September 2021, one million girls have been denied their right to learn, in a country that already has one of the lowest female literacy rates in the world. The analysis indicates, if the ban persists until 2030, over two million girls will have been deprived of their right to education beyond primary school. Schools are already affected, with the number of female teachers in basic education declining by over 9 per cent – from nearly 73,000 in 2022 to around 66,000 in 2024.

Despite restrictions, UNICEF continues to support children’s education in Afghanistan. In 2025, over 3.7 million children in public schools received emergency support; 442,000 children – 66 per cent of whom are girls – benefited from community-based learning initiatives, and 232 schools were built or rehabilitated.

As another cohort of girls loses the chance to learn, UNICEF calls for urgent action to restore girls’ rights to secondary and higher education and sustain investment in primary education as a critical pathway to human capital development and proof of the positive impact inclusive learning has on girls. Together, these actions are essential to Afghanistan’s health, education, and economic future.

“Denying Afghan girls access to secondary education robs an entire nation of its potential – locking girls, their families, and their communities into poverty, weakening health outcomes, and silencing the economic engine that an educated generation of women could ignite,” said Russell.

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Notes for editors:

Download the Cost of Inaction analysis from UNICEF Afghanistan here.

Multimedia materials available here.
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