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Housing Needs in Afghanistan
According to the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, an estimated 6.6 million persons are in need of shelter assistance in Afghanistan in 2024. The need for shelter assistance continues to be widely reported across Afghanistan, driven by high numbers of returns, natural crises including earthquakes and floods, and compounded by soaring levels of poverty and unemployment.
The Herat Earthquakes, in October 2023, left over 48,000 homes damaged or destroyed, while flooding across Afghanistan in 2024 left over 18,460 homes damaged or destroyed. Natural and climate-induced disasters exacerbate the erosion of communities’ resilience following over 40 years of war, creating dire shelter needs across the country.
Shelter continues to be a thematic priority for UNHCR in 2024, through the provision of permanent shelter solutions, shelter repair assistance, emergency shelter, and non-food item (NFIs) to ensure access to dignified solutions to families facing crisis. To promote long-term solutions, UNHCR’s natural disaster-resilient shelters are developed to be earthquake resilient, underpinning the durability of assistance in earthquake-prone regions. Moreover, UNHCR supports families with one-off cash payments in winter months to help offset rising energy costs and ensure access to sufficient heating.
Access to adequate housing solutions has significant impact on positive protection outcomes, as Shelter assistance helps to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety, and decreases reliance on harmful coping mechanisms. Adequate housing further underpins dignity, safety, and privacy for families.
UNHCR Shelter Response
UNHCR aims to deliver shelter assistance to the most vulnerable families living in inadequate shelter solutions across the country, ensuring access to adequate, safe, and dignified housing solutions. UNHCR prioritises the provision of permanent and natural disaster resilient shelters, promoting access to durable housing and contributing to sustainable protection and resilience outcomes. UNHCR’s shelter assistance is delivered in consultation with the Shelter Cluster, ensuring alignment with technical standards and cluster guidance, and is delivered via cash-based or in-kind modality. Cash-based modalities are applied where local market capacities are able to sustain local procurement of goods by beneficiaries, promoting stimulation of local economies and supporting local businesses and trade. UNHCR ensures strong technical guidance is provided to beneficiaries receiving cash for shelter construction or repair, ensuring shelter assistance leads to durable housing solutions.
How does it work?
All shelter interventions are initiated with thorough needs assessments in coordination with local stakeholders, and complimented with the development of selection criteria in line with standard operating procedures (SOPs), as well as market assessment surveys in the instance of cash assistance.
Target beneficiaries are most often identified through UNHCR’s Rapid Household Assessment Form (RHAF), a pre-developed kobo tool used to assess and select beneficiaries based on vulnerability criteria and housing needs.
In the provision of permanent shelter and shelter repair assistance, the primary target beneficiaries include refugee returnees, returned internally displaced persons (IDPs) and vulnerable members of host communities in UNHCR’s designated Priority Areas of Return and Reintegration (PARRs). Shelter assistance beneficiaries are identified through assessment of housing needs and household vulnerabilities, ensuring that aid reaches those in most need and is suitable for the recipient. Interventions take into consideration feasibility of implementation, notwithstanding weather and geographical conditions, as well as access to land, shelter gaps and vulnerabilities.
Eligibility scores are applied to ensure transparent and accountable selection processes, enforced further through beneficiary advisory committees, to ensure targeting of those most vulnerable. Eligible households are then registered to receive shelter assistance. In case of cash for shelter, cash is distributed to each beneficiary following a technical training, enabling recipients to purchase needed materials and to conduct shelter works.
Following the completion of work and inspection by UNHCR and partners, a post distribution monitoring exercise is conducted by UNHCR Multi-Functional Teams to assess beneficiary satisfaction with the assistance received, to monitor quality and effectiveness of aid, and to inform future programming.