CONTEXT
In Afghanistan, decades of conflict (which escalated in early May 2021 and culminated in the takeover of the capital by the Taliban on 15 August 2021) and its consequential political and economic upheaval have converged with deeprooted poverty, natural disasters, including the recently-declared drought in June 2021, and Covid-19 to generate different types and layers of need within the country. As the estimated number of people in need has grown year on year (6.3M in 2019 to 18.4M in 2021), the necessity of evidence-based decision making and prioritization through joint inter-sectoral analysis has only become clearer.
To ensure this evidence base, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)-led Inter-Cluster Coordination Team (ICCT) implemented the fourth round of the WoAA, facilitated by REACH Initiative (REACH). First conducted in 2018, the assessment, timed with key milestones in the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC), aims to provide high-quality, representative data to humanitarian decisionmakers and implementers to inform the annual Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). For more information, please consult the WoAA 2021 Terms of Reference (ToR).