Highlights
With 70 per cent of Afghanistan being mountainous, many people living in high altitude areas remain susceptible to harsher weather conditions. Insufficient access to blankets and heating materials for the winter season is also a significant driver of need, with 64 per cent of households reportedly owning less than one blanket per household member – due to reduced ability to cope derived by interrupted livelihoods. These concerns disproportionately affect persons with specific needs, women girls, children and the elderly.
In 2020, The Emergency Shelter and Non- Food Items (ES-NFI) cluster aims to support 1.4 million vulnerable people affected by conflict and natural disaster with shelter, NFI and winterization assistance. The cluster prioritizes the provision of timely, targeted and appropriate emergency lifesaving assistance through the distribution and installation of emergency shelter kits and /or materials to displaced people, the rehabilitation, repair or upgrade of existing shelters that are in poor conditions. Standard NFI Kit will continue to be distributed where needed. Joint winterizaion strategy for 2020/2021plans to target 200,000 families with winterization assistance activities (such as warm clothing, heating materials and thermal blankets in winter as well as shelter repair/upgrade), to sustain lives and reduce the impact of winter. The Cluster will continue to assist the most vulnerable families with one-off winterization assistance to minimize the cost of heating and deter people from engaging in harmful coping mechanisms. Priority target populations include: IDPs, returnees and vulnerable host communities. ESNFI Cluster has received $20.78m out of $57.5m required, through Joint winterization strategy to assist 75,646 families with winterization assistances in most vulnerable provinces.
NFI
Shelter
Coverage against targets
Need analysis
Displacement due to ongoing conflict and natural disasters continued to drive humanitarian needs in Afghanistan. 380,482 individuals fled their homes due to conflict with total of 32 out of 34 provinces recording some level of forced displacement. In addition to this, close to 867,933 people returned from neighbouring countries to Afghanistan including 860,184 from Iran, and 7,076 from Pakistan.
In addition, due to the scale and spread of transmission, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which began in December 2019, more than 53,000 people across all provinces in Afghanistan are now confirmed to have COVID-19. Afghanistan is likely to be significantly affected due to its weak health system, Furthermore, more than four million people displaced since 2012 are estimated to remain displaced in 2020. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are also especially reliant on either humanitarian assistance or casual labour and any breaks to humanitarian supply pipelines or employment opportunities will hit these vulnerable groups hard. Partners hold fears for 100,000 people still living in displacements sites in Herat and Badghis after the drought and recent conflict. Assessments have shown these IDPs are in poor health, making them more vulnerable in the context of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 outbreak comes against the backdrop of the spring flood season which typically runs from March to June each year. As of December 2020, some 104,470 people were affected by natural disasters throughout Afghanistan. Humanitarian partners plan annually for this flood response but there is a risk that life-saving relief supplies may be stretched if a widescale COVID-19 response is required simultaneously and pipelines are interrupted.
Response
- From 01 January, to 31 December 2020, the cluster reached 836,175 with shelter assistance, NFIs and winterization assistance.
- Partners reached 325,588 individuals with emergency shelter, transitional shelter and shelter repair/ upgrade support.
- 336,738 individuals have been reached with core NFI packages and 286,183 individuals have been reached with supplemental shelter and NFI assistance.
- 410,216 vulnerable individuals received winterization support.
- The Shelter / NFI cluster continues to maintain emergency preparedness with contingency stocks and monitoring of gaps.
Gaps / challenges
- The scale, severity and complexity of needs for emergency and transitional shelter remains high, particularly among new and protracted IDPs with 72 per cent of displaced households reporting shelter needs as their second top priority need after food for survival (77%).
- The cluster remains heavily underfunded having received 29% of its annual requirements. Emergency responses to covid-19 may result in normal programming in existing response locations being compromised by new covid-19 needs.
- Based on post distribution monitoring, beneficiaries have reported concerns over the quality of shelter items, delayed distribution of seasonal items and varying standards. There is a desire throughout the population groups for long-term shelter solutions so shelter maintenance is no longer a burden.
- Security-related constraints may limit partner’s capacity to access affected people.
- The spread of COVID-19 has affected ability of humanitarians to go to the field and respond – including undertaking assessments, registration and monitoring.
- Delays in delivery of core relief items to affected regions has been experienced due to movement restrictions, COVID-19,border closures, as well as other factors including conflict and natural disasters.
