AFGHANISTAN JOINT RESPONSE

About the crisis

With 5.5 million people in need, the revised Afghanistan 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is now targeting 4.2 million people, an increase of 600,000 people compared to 2017. The rise in number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has mainly been caused by the worst drought in nearly 20 years, affecting more than 2.2 million people and the increasing violence during the run up to the parliamentary elections this October. 2018 has been an increasingly violent year in Afghanistan, killing more than 8,000 people so far (Amnesty International). The (revised) 2018 HRP is budgeting US$ 547 million, an increase of more than 30% compared to the previous year and continues to be underfunded by 67%.

In response to the humanitarian crisis in country, the proposed Afghanistan Joint Response (AFJR) 2019 will target an estimated 59,760 conflict, natural disaster affected and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returning Afghans and their host community during a period of 12 months, starting 1 January, 2019. The five DRA AFJR partners including Cordaid, Oxfam Novib (Oxfam), Stichting Vluchteling (SV-IRC), Terre des Hommes (TdH) and ZOA will continue to provide life-saving and protection assistance, in line with HRP SO1 (save lives in the areas of highest needs) and SO3 (people stuck by sudden onset crises get the help they need, on time) in the sectors of Food Security / Livelihood, Shelter and WASH. Cash based interventions will be widely used by partners as the main modality to address the immediate needs of newly displaced and returning Afghans.

The total budget of the response amounts to EUR 4.31 million and will be implemented in 2 of the most conflict and returnee affected provinces; Kunduz and Nangarhar. More than half of the districts in both provinces are classified as Hard To Reach (HTR). Parts of both provinces are also severely affected by the on-going drought.

The DRA Response

The five Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) members participating in the Afghanistan Joint Response contribute to the life-saving protection and assistance needs of conflict, natural disaster affected and internally displaced persons, returning Afghans and their host community. Following on from successful first two phase of the Joint Response, the third (January-December 2018) yielded the following results:

In total the response assisted 143,322 extremely vulnerable conflict and natural disaster affected and internally displaced persons, returning Afghans and host communities:

• Access to food of 24,877 people was improved
• More than 2,690 vulnerable conflict-affected people, IDPs and returnees were provided with basic safe and dignified shelter solutions.
• Access to safe and sufficient water resources for domestic use and sanitation, including hygiene promotion was restored for 81,521 people.
• Information message of health nutrition was provided to some 2,900 people.
• And, 31,135 new displaced people were assisted with Multi-Purpose cash assistance.