Afghanistan

Even though Afghans today have better prospects for a semblance of peace than at any time in the past few years, immediate risks facing the country can seriously jeopardize progress and derail aspirations for a peaceful, secure and prosperous Afghanistan, a senior United Nations official warned on Friday.

Overview

So far in 2018, a total of 19,459 refugees and migrants arrived in Greece by sea. The majority are from Syria (32%), Iraq (20%) and Afghanistan (19%). More than half of the population are women (24%) and children (37%), while 39% are men.

Arrivals in August 2018, at 3,197 increased in comparison to July, when 2,545 people arrived on the islands. Arrivals during the first eight months of 2018 are 29% higher than those of the same period in 2017.

Today, on the International Day of Peace, we share the stories of three inspiring peace activists and Cordaid colleagues: Flora, Nasima and Chol. They rise above difference and promote dialogue in Central Africa, Afghanistan and South Sudan.

Nasima Omari (31) defends the rights of Afghan women in New York, in Europe and in Kabul. But the real center of her struggle are the Afghan villages. “In rural parts, women can do almost nothing. A male dominated culture keeps them voiceless. It robs them of everything: their dignity, their income, their safety”, she says.

**ECW provides its largest allocation to date to support quality education for 1.6 million crisis-affected children and youth in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Uganda **

20 September 2018, New York – The Education Cannot Wait fund (ECW) is allocating a total of US$35 million as seed funding to support the launch of three ground-breaking multi-year education programmes designed to deliver quality learning opportunities to 1.6 million children and youth affected by conflict and violence.

• Summary of newly-reported viruses this week: Afghanistan – one new case of wild poliovirus (WPV1). Democratic Republic of Congo – two new cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). See country sections below for more details.

• Featured on www.polioeradication.org: Coffee with Polio Experts – Darcy Levison of WHO talks about the logistical challenges of reaching every child in the Lake Chad subregion.

Highlights

• Some 120,000 people have newly displaced from rural areas of Badghis to Qala-e-Naw during the reporting period.

• The number of people displaced due to the drought is currently more than 250,000 in the Western Region.

• Assistance is being provided in the displacement sites in Badghis and Hirat provinces and efforts are ongoing to scale up assistance in rural areas of origin.

• Around 190,000 people have been reached with safe drinking water in areas of origin and of displacement in Hirat and Badghis provinces.

Conflicts and climatic shocks aggravate current food insecurity in many countries

Some 39 countries in need of food assistance - FAO expects slightly lower global cereal production

20 September 2018, Rome - Persistent conflicts and climate-related shocks are currently driving high levels of severe food insecurity, particularly in Southern African and Near East countries, which continue to require humanitarian assistance, according to a new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today.

Executive Summary

This research report mainly builds on data collected between June and October 2017 through the Mixed Migration Monitoring Mechanism Initiative (4Mi) including 1,062 surveys collected by 4Mi field monitors.

Despite insecurity and access problems, DACAAR achieved all its planned targets for 2017. We invite you to read this brief overview and the 2017 Annual Report here.

The goal of publishing this Annual Report is sharing DACAAR’s achievements and challenges with donors, governments, national and international partners and the humanitarian community.

BY PHILLIP CONNOR

Natural Disasters Update:

Drought IDP Overview:

Internal displacement is at an unprecedented global peak.

The number of people forcibly displaced within their own countries by armed conflict and other situations of violence has steadily risen in this century – resulting in more than 40 million internally displaced throughout the world in 2016.

NADALI - Government officials, elders, activists and other community leaders in the southern province of Helmand gathered at a UN-backed symposium to discuss local peace efforts and to strategize on ways to build national and sustainable peace.

More than 50 leaders from Helmand’s Nadali district, located west of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, gathered at the event to exchange ideas about the main drivers of instability in the province, such as corruption, underdevelopment and unemployment, especially among young people, and to chart out possible next steps toward peace.

By Fahad Chaudhry

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that he will consult all the political parties before taking a final decision on his recently made promises to grant citizenships to Afghan and Bengali families living in the country for many decades..

The prime minister, in his first official visit to Karachi over on Sunday, had vowed to end the Afghan and Bengali refugees' plight by issuing them passports and national identity cards.

*10,749 Afghan registered refugees (PoR cardholders) repatriated to Afghanistan from 1 March – 31 August 2018.

*16,835 Afghan refugee births registered from 1 January – 31 August 2018.

**83,310 IDP individuals (13,885 families) returned to their areas of origin in Pakistan since 1 January 2018.

Working with Partners

BACKGROUND

The Community‐Based Protection and Urban Outreach Strategy (2017‐2019) for Afghan Refugees in Pakistan was endorsed in July 2017. The overall goal of the strategy is for Afghan refugees living in Pakistan to be empowered and their resilient capacity strengthened, enabling them to minimize their exposure to protection risks and improve their overall protection environment, with a special focus on the most vulnerable.

The four key priorities of the strategy covers:

Key findings

Nine Advice and Legal Aid Centres (ALAC) are operational in the main refugeehosting areas of four provinces and provide free legal support to persons of concern: four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), one in Sindh and three in Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory through partnership agreements with SHARP and one in Balochistan run by SEHER.

Overview

Proof of Registration (PoR) card is an important protection tool that provides temporary legal stay and freedom of movement for the 1.39 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan. PoR cards which have expired at the end of 2015 have been extended through official notification until 30 September 2018*.