WFP Afghanistan Country Brief, April 2017

Highlights

• Due to recent fighting in Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces, thousands of families are displaced. As per an inter-agency assessment, 344 families are identified for humanitarian assistance. WFP will provide food assistance to these displaced families. WFP has 177 mt of food in the Mazar-e-Sharif warehouse to be dispatched for distributions. In addition, in WFP Faizabad sub-office 1,400 mt food is available in case of additional displacement. In Kunduz province food distribution is ongoing to malnourished children and nursing mothers.

• WFP is seeking to extend the duration of the current EMOP until the end of 2017 to meet the immediate food needs of the second wave of returnees and new IDPs (starting in spring 2017) and to provide support to refugees from Pakistan while longer-term durable solutions are identified.

Operational Updates

• WFP and UNCHR are currently conducting a joint vulnerability assessment in Khost and Paktika, to identify livelihood options and prioritise assistance based on vulnerabilities – moving towards an integrated, sustainable response. Preliminary findings and recommendations are expected in June 2017.

• To ensure that protection is at the forefront of WFP’s and partners’ work, a series of protection trainings to staff and partners have taken place in various WFP sub-offices. Afghanistan is one of the four countries globally to host the evaluation of WFP’s Humanitarian Protection Policy. This is going to take place in May 2017 to better support the integration of protection in WFP operations.

• The WFP complaints and feedback mechanism (hotline) has been in place to ensure accountability to the affected population. In order to maximise resources and increase the response capacity of the current call centre, WFP is advocating for the development of an inter-agency complaint mechanism. The proposal has been set forward to the Humanitarian Country Team in order to leverage resources and advocate towards a common approach.

• Needs and inputs from particularly vulnerable groups are being collected through mobile vulnerability analysis and mapping (mVAM), including post distribution monitoring (PDM). Monitoring is being conducted via a call centre, where all the operators are women. As women operators are able to speak to both men and women respondents, this enables WFP to efficiently reach female beneficiaries, ensuring their inputs are reflected in WFP programmes. The first PDM report, with data collected through mVAM, will be finalised in May 2017.

• SCOPE registration is ongoing in the eastern part of the country and Kabul. Around 30,000 households have been registered so far in the SCOPE. WFP is conducting a series of SCOPE-related workshops for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (over 40 staff from the Ministry and the Department of Refugees and Repatriations, Kabul, have been trained). Discussions are ongoing on the integration of SCOPE and AIRS (the Ministry’s database for Returnees), to ensure single registration at the border points. The letter of agreement between WFP and the Ministry is ready for final review and signatures.