UNHCR’s advocacy for the enactment of the National Asylum Law continued throughout the year. In May 2018, UNHCR was informed that the 2013 draft refugee law had been reviewed by the Ministry of Justice, which removed a number of important provisions and greatly reduced the law’s compliance with Afghanistan’s commitments as a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. UNHCR reviewed the new draft and provided its observations to Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) and the Ministry of Justice. UNHCR also strongly advocated for considering the 2013 draft that which was more in line with the core elements of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

In 2018, Afghanistan continued to host 450 refugees and asylum-seekers of various nationalities in Kabul and other major urban centres, with 144 most vulnerable receiving financial assistance to cover their basic needs. With UNHCR’s support and advocacy, refugees and asylum-seekers in urban areas could access education in public schools and healthcare in public hospitals.

UNHCR continued to lead the protection of and assistance to 75,500 Pakistani refugees who lived in Khost and Paktika provinces. Around 12,000 refugees reside in the Gulan camp in Khost, while most live alongside Afghan host communities in various locations in the two provinces where they benefit from the generous hospitality of the host population. Due to the lack of documentation, access to education, WASH, healthcare and livelihoods remained a challenge for this group.

In order to support the self-reliance of the refugees, as well as promote peaceful co-existence, UNHCR implemented a series of community-based protection (CBP) projects, such as vocational trainings, shelter improvement and WASH projects with a cash for work component. A total of 2,062 households benefited from these projects directly and indirectly. In particular, 240 youth attended vocational skills training, including 125 female, and 200 PSN cases (including 10% from host communities) were assisted in Khost and Paktika provinces.

A total of 119 students (including 64 girls) attended the UNHCR funded temporary secondary school in different grades. Despite school enrolment campaigns, the secondary education project was not able to attract and retain as many students as planned. Conservative gender roles, early marriages, and the lack of female teachers, particularly affected the secondary education of girls. In the meantime, a high dropout rate was observed among boy students due to reasons such as engagement in labour, onward movements and return to their place of origin. During 2017, the participation of children at primary and secondary school age in Gulan Camp stood at 29.3% while in 2018 it further reduced to 12%.

In line with UNHCR’s strategy of handing over the coordination of the refugee response to the local authorities, as well as the whole-of-community approach, a transition plan was developed in coordination with the provincial Department of Education (DoE) to transfer students in UNHCR’s temporary secondary school to the public school near Gulan camp. In Khost, 2,681 households received core relief items including blankets (1,660), tents (22), UNIQLO used clothes (103), heaters (12) and standard NFI packages (1,760). In addition, UNHCR provided winterization support to all refugees in Khost and Paktika provinces. Due to the extreme vulnerability of this group, status-based winterization assistance was provided. In line with the whole-of-community approach, vulnerable host community members were also included through a vulnerability assessment. A total of 7,475 refugees and 1,074 host community members received winterization assistance in cash ($200 per household) in Khost. Winterization assistance was provided in-kind in Paktika due to security concerns. A total of 4,456 refugee families received heaters, blankets and firewood.

UNHCR continued to provide cash-based and in-kind assistance to the most vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers to help them cover their basic needs. Additional financial assistance was provided during the winter months to mitigate heightened protection risks and reduce reliance on negative coping mechanisms. An increasingly volatile security environment and limited livelihood opportunities further contribute to a challenging protection environment in Afghanistan, particularly as the country struggles to meet the reintegration needs of Afghan refugees returning from neighbouring countries and IDPs affected by natural disasters and armed conflict.

There are critical unmet needs in Khost and Paktika provinces, in particular individual documentation, birth registration, and access to education and livelihoods, etc. With the handover of the coordination of the refugee response to the local authorities, sustainable support in terms of capacity-building and resources is needed to ensure the protection of and assistance to refugees and the most vulnerable host community members. The Pakistan refugee situation has been an underfunded refugee situation in the past years. In 2018, three NGOs closed their projects in Khost. In the meantime, a number of other UN agencies and NGOs are considering phasing out. The caseload requires strengthened commitment and support from the international community.

The Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR) was revised and validated for 2018 and 2019 in close consultation with the Governments of the Islamic Republics of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan and UNHCR Offices in the region. In July 2018, Afghanistan officially announced its decision to join the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), and the application of the CRRF in Afghanistan will reinforce the alignment of national strategies with regional frameworks, including the SSAR, through a whole-of-society and whole-of-community approach.

At the request of the Displacement and Returnee Executive Committee (DiREC), UNHCR in close coordination with IOM and line ministries helped the Government to finalize a Return and Reintegration Response Plan for 2018, which was endorsed by the DiREC and the Office of the President. UNHCR played an instrumental role in taking forward the DiREC national level coordination mechanism, to the sub-national level by facilitating the establishment of an initial pilot Provincial DiREC (P-DiREC) forum in Herat in order to ensure government ownership and create synergies among all relevant actors.

Importantly, UNHCR and the World Bank signed a data-sharing agreement to enhance joint research on the return and reintegration for evidenced based programming. Further, UNHCR worked with the World Bank to reinforce the ongoing partnership by linking UNHCR programmes to the long-term development projects of the World Bank. Partnerships with other development actors were also strengthened.

In 2018, UNHCR facilitated the return of 15,699 Afghan refugees to Afghanistan, including 13,584 from Pakistan, 1,964 from Iran, and 151 from other countries. A total of 1,477 returnee households were interviewed upon arrival, including 746 male and 731 female respondents, to assess voluntariness of return, reasons for decisions to return, and to identify persons with specific needs. Additionally, an assessment of UNHCR’s repatriation cash grant was conducted with over 3,000 returnee households, which gauged the impact of the cash grant on returnees’ decision making and assessed its impact in the initial stages of return and re-integration.

In 2018 a total of 6,703 persons with specific needs were identified, of whom 5,574 were provided directly with cash and in-kind assistance, while 1,420 were referred to other agencies for specialized services (including some who were assisted directly by UNHCR and also referred to partners). UNHCR has progressively shifted its focus, both at the individual and community level, to build on the knowledge, skills and capacities of persons of concern and their communities through consultation and participation, engaging them meaningfully in all aspects of the programmes that affect them.

In order to promote community empowerment and peaceful co-existence UNHCR implemented 61 community-based protection (CBP) projects across the country over the course of 2018. Activities included a range of infrastructure development projects including: the rehabilitation and construction of irrigation canals, drainage channels, pipe schemes, water points, sanitation facilities, and bore wells; access roads, flood protection walls, and culverts; youth council buildings, community centres, schools, vocational training centres, health facilities, and a micro hydro power facility. In total, these activities benefited more than 439,000 refugees, returnees, IDPs and members of host communities directly and indirectly.

In addition, 374 people, mostly youth and women, were supported to establish Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). An additional 1,784 youth (men and women) benefited from multi-sector livelihoods support and market-based skills training, and 440 youth (mostly girls) learned ‘programming and coding’ and other computer skills in three Internet Café s established by UNHCR. Around 400 vulnerable households received shelter improvement support.

The absence of peace and stability in Afghanistan continues to obstruct the reintegration of returnees, resulting in the lack of jobs, business opportunities and market development. Access to education remains an important gap, especially at secondary education and higher grade, reducing the employability of the labour force. 2018 saw a rise in negative coping mechanisms and reinforced harmful traditional practices, such as early or forced marriages, irregular onward movements from Afghanistan, school dropouts, child labour, and more critically, youth being prone to recruitment by armed forces.

With millions of Afghans in need, the scale-up of UNHCR’s CBP programme is urgently needed, particularly those with the potential to foster longer-term integration among an increasingly mobile Afghan society. However, due to funding shortage, UNHCR was only able to implement 61 CBP projects, as opposed to the planned 100 across the country.

Similarly, the target for enrolling youth in certified livelihoods training was reduced from 60% to 40%. In addition, UNHCR’s PSN programme provides a limited response to a relatively small number of the most vulnerable people among populations of concern across Afghanistan. Due to the absence of a national social safety net, these interventions can rarely provide lasting solutions. The fragile security situation and continuing internal displacement continued to put additional strain on the existing PSN network. In many locations UNHCR is the only agency providing assistance to refugees, returnees, IDPs and host communities as government service providers do not have the capacity to assist.

SGBV issues are highly sensitive and some forms of SGBV are rooted in tradition, such as child/forced marriage and honour killing. In order to prevent SGBV, more awareness raising activities need to be conducted to change the behaviour of the communities. UNHCR provides SGBV response through its PSN projects; however, most of the PSN network members including the government entities do not have the capacity nor resources to respond. As Afghanistan is rolling out the CRRF, the GoIRA will require more support from the international community, at central and local levels to be able to implement the Provincial Action Plans (PAPs), which were already developed for some provinces such as Herat, Nangarhar, and Mazar.

In 2018, some 343,000 new IDPs were recorded due to the continuation of the conflict across Afghanistan. UNHCR estimates that at least 2 million Afghans were cumulatively displaced countrywide at end 2018. UNHCR continues to co-lead the Protection and Emergency Shelter/NFI Clusters. During 2018, the Afghanistan Protection Cluster continued to pursue its strategic objectives of strengthening the capacities and coverage of protection actors in the field, as well as cooperation with UNAMA on common advocacy and monitoring related to protection of civilians issues. The Protection Incident Monitoring System (PIMS) was rolled out in the western and central regions, with further roll out for the other regions planned for 2019.

The ES/NFI cluster’s strategic priorities were to support access to basic lifesaving assistance, and to ensure adequate coordination mechanisms and response capacities at national and regional levels. In support to the drought response in the western region and with support from the Global Shelter Cluster, UNHCR facilitated the deployment of a Site Coordinator and Site Planner to strengthen the coordination in the field. UNHCR further supported the Cluster coordination by regular deployment of national cluster coordinators to the regions on a rotating basis.

In 2018, UNHCR continued to use robust protection tools, strengthening strategic and operational protection framework to reduce the exposure of conflict-affected communities. To that end, UNHCR widely employed protection monitoring, including protection incident monitoring that was rolled out countrywide, with the support of the Protection Cluster. Overall, UNHCR reached 212,141 people through protection monitoring during the year, having identified core protection concerns in child protection, SGBV, physical safety and root causes of displacement.

To complement protection monitoring efforts, UNHCR conducted some 15,000 interviews with IDPs and members of host communities, along with returnees. Among notable findings of these protection monitoring exercises, 2018 saw a rise in the number of persons of concern resorting to negative coping mechanisms, particularly those that affect or involve children.

In 2018, UNHCR continued to provide emergency shelter and non-food items to people displaced from conflict and natural disasters. As part of the UN response to the drought in Herat and Badghis, UNHCR urgently procured and delivered (through air and road) a total of 15,100 tents. These tents were subsequently handed over to Shelter/NFI NGO Cluster members for distribution to the displaced families. In addition, UNHCR provided tents, kitchen sets, hygiene kits, and non-food items together with other humanitarian agencies to 13,936 families displaced due to the conflicts.

A total of 30,102 households received winterization assistance from UNHCR, which included 11,044 refugee households, 15,967 returnee and IDP households and 3,091 host community households. UNHCR’s winterization was fully planned in coordination with the Shelter/NFI Cluster, adopting the same approach for targeting and beneficiary selection, as well as the standard amount of assistance ($200 per household).

A number of measures were put in place to strengthen the oversight of the process, including: a) Mandatory use of the KoBo toolbox in conducting assessments; b) third-party monitoring during the distributions; c) an additional layer of reconciliation introduced and performed by the Country Office; and d) anti-fraud leaflets which were distributed to all beneficiaries during the assessment and distribution, complemented by a centralised anti-fraud hotline managed by the Protection Unit in the Country Office. UNHCR completed the winterization assessment by 31 December 2018, and the disbursement was completed in the first week of January 2019, ensuring vulnerable families to receive the assistance in a timely manner. 

The protection environment of people of concern in Afghanistan, irrespective of whether they are affected by conflict or natural disaster, has continued to deteriorate. IDPs consistently employ negative coping mechanisms (such as child marriage, children used as loan collaterals, begging, sale of assets, reduced food intake, etc.). A high percentage of the Afghan population suffer from extreme poverty, and their vulnerability is often exacerbated by insecurity and the lack of access to basic services. UNHCR’s resources are very limited in comparison to the overwhelming needs in Afghanistan.

UNHCR’s winterization assessment found that over 80% of the assessed families were facing economic hardship and having protection vulnerabilities. The national social safety net is largely absent, and the national resources and service providers in supporting vulnerable families are very limited. While UNHCR maintains a contingency stock of NFIs for 20,000 households, it is evident that the resources were insufficient to cover the needs of IDPs.

UNHCR is committed to shift its focus to CBIs whenever possible; however, during emergencies, NFI distribution remains one of the quickest and most effective means in addressing urgent needs, especially as areas hosting displaced population often do not have a market to supply the NFIs locally, making cash distribution a non-viable option. However apart from the 15,100 tents UNHCR provided for the drought response, the Operation did not receive any contribution for NFI distribution in 2018.

In the Protection Cluster, the drought response has greatly hindered the activities of protection actors throughout the country, as there were limited funding opportunities for the conflict situation beyond April 2018. This has greatly impacted protection services for conflict-related people of concern. While information-sharing and management have improved, key gaps still existed.

The lack of capacity for adequate information management impacted coordination efforts at regional and national level resulting in the lack of evidence-based and coherent inter-agency response.