Attachments
In Numbers
In October, WFP assisted 1,114,795 people in need with 9,978 metric tons of food.
WFP distributed US$772,522 in cash transfers to cover families’ food needs.
US$66 million is the net funding shortfall for the next six months (November 2019 – April 2020).
Operational Updates
• In October, WFP reached 1,114,795 girls, boys, women and men across 31 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, distributed 9,978 mt of food through its partners and transferred US$772,522 to food insecure families.
• This included emergency food assistance and cash trasfers to 522,599 people including 52,059 conflictaffected people in six provinces. WFP assisted 2,954 with cash-based transfers in Mazar Province after registration in SCOPE, WFP’s beneficiary information and transfer management system. In addition, 16,807 returnees from Iran and Pakistan, and 616 people affected by flooding received in-kind food assistance.
• WFP dispatched food to provide seasonal support to 453,117 highly vulnerable people in six provinces: Faizabad, Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar. With the end of the drought response in June 2019, WFP is now delivering in-kind food assistance to food insecure communities in remote provinces which were not selected for the drought response.
• In provinces with high rates of moderate acute malnutrition, WFP supplied health centres and partners with 610 mt of specialized nutritious foods for 184,040 children aged 6-59 months and 74,812 pregnant and lactating women. WFP also provided 5,635 children with specialized nutritious foods as part of general food distributions to prevent the deterioration of their nutritional status.
• Under WFP’s school feeding programme, 133,977 primary school students received high energy biscuits each day at school. Among them, 101,349 girls were also provided with vegetable oil to take home, to encourage school attendance and reduce gender disparity.
• The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) transported 2,665 passengers from 104 different agencies and organisations to 22 locations in Afghanistan. Since January, UNHAS has transported 21,170 passengers, a 10 percent increase compared to the same period in 2018.
• As part of its programme at the humanitariandevelopment-peace nexus, WFP completed construction of an irrigation canal of 275 m total length in Charkent District of Balkh Province. The canal will supply water to 60 ha of fields which will benefit 267 households.
Families of all participants have received food assistance for the past six months.
• WFP is continuing a food assistance-for-assets (FFA) project to rehabilitate 10 Karez irrigation systems in Daman District of Kandahar Province. Karez is an indigenous method of irrigation where groundwater is tapped by a tunnel. This project also includes construction of check dams in 150 m length with 189,000 m3 rainwater storage capacity. Together, these will provide an improved irrigation system for 865 ha of fields to increase crop yields and benefit 10 villages.
Throughout this project, WFP will assist 960 FFA participants with cash-based transfers for six months to cover the food needs of their 5,760 family members.
• Across all asset creation activities, WFP assisted 193,741 food insecure people with in-kind assistance in return for their participation, including the construction of a water intake in Daykundi and solar water pumps and irrigation canal in Ghor.