Winter Assistance to the Kabul Informal Settlements 2014/2015 Report on the Post-Distribution Monitoring Survey, April 2015

1. Introduction and background

This report presents the results of a post-distribution monitoring survey that was conducted between 2 and 9 March 2015 to assess the effectiveness of winter assistance provided by six organisations (ADRA, DRC, Islamic Relief, VUSAF, Welthungerhilfe, WFP) to 51 Kabul Informal Settlements (KIS) during the winter 2014/2015. The survey was conducted under the auspices of the Kabul Informal Settlements Task Force.

1.1. Kabul Informal Settlements

Approximately 40,000 individuals live in the 51 Kabul Informal Settlements (KIS). Most of the KIS inhabitants are returnees from Pakistan and Iran, or internally-displaced people (IDPs) fleeing conflict, insecurity or human rights abuses in their provinces of origin. The KIS also host a number of Kuchi1 and other ethnic minorities, as well as economic migrants that came to Kabul in search of better job opportunities.

The 51 KIS are located on privately or government-owned land, and are under constant threat of evictions. The oldest settlements date back to 2002 and were established when Afghan started to return to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban regime. The most recent sites were formed in 2014 to shelter conflict-induced IDPs from Helmand.

Almost all shelter in the KIS can be classified as slum households, as per the UNHABITAT definition. 43 % of KIS inhabitants do not have access to safe drinking water and 67 % of households lack latrine facilities.

Most shelters in the KIS have only tarpaulin roofs providing inadequate protection against the climatic conditions prevalent in Kabul. KIS inhabitants have limited access to basic services such as schools, hospital and water, and household incomes are low and unpredictable, as the vast majority of households rely on irregular daily labour or informal work.

The availability of daily labour decreases significantly during the winter, leaving households with lower incomes at a time when more money is needed for heating. This vulnerability leaves households unable to fulfil their basic food or heating needs during the cold winter months, placing them at a higher risk of illness and death.