AFG_Joint Response Afghanistan Afghanistan is currently facing an escalating humanitarian crisis with the staggering influx of Afghan returnees from Pakistan. Over one million Afghans (documented and undocumented) are expected to return to Afghanistan by the end of 2016. Due to a change of dynamics in the Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, especially with an intensifying spread of terrorism, as well as Afghanistan’s deepening ties with India, the issue of returns is again at the forefront, this time with more pressure from the Government of Pakistan to speed up the process. The increasing number of returnees combined with the coming winter is likely to see increased needs of returnee and IDP families. Nangarhar province is located in East Afghanistan and includes Turkham, a major border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The majority of returnees crossing the Turkham border settle in Nangarhar province, which increases pressure on host communities as they compete for the already scarce resources and meagre economic and employment opportunities. The unstable security situation with both Islamic State and the Taliban fighting over control of territory further intensifies this humanitarian crisis . In the recent UNHCR led joint needs assessment of October 2016 , food security (FS), emergency shelter and NFI related support were identified as critical needs of these recent returnees. Over 50% of assessed households (approximately 2,500 families) reported to have used a food security coping mechanism such as skipping meals, taking smaller portions. 69% of the assessed returnee households reported to have no food stocks at all (over 2,700 families), and 26% reported to have less than a week of food stocks (over 1000 families). Furthermore, 332 returnee households were found to be staying in open areas, 206 households are using tents, and 3,201 households are renting. Almost all returnee households reported a need for non-food items and many households highlighted warm clothing and blankets in anticipation of winter2 Project objective 1: Provide life-saving assistance to address immediate food needs of conflict affected people, IDPs, returnees and refugees. Project objective 2: Provide conflict affected people, IDPs, returnees and refugees with basic NFIs and winterization NFIs. In collaboration with relevant stakeholders (Department of Refugees and Repatriations, district level authorities, UNOCHA, UNHCR, IOM, and community representatives) and potential DRA members under the AFJR, SC identifies the target beneficiaries based on selection criteria that allow for the selection of most vulnerable returnee and host community households with specific focus on; • female-headed households, • households headed by a person with disability, • households headed by an elderly person and do not have an able bodied family member to work • households of a larger size and are unemployed • households who have not received any NFIs and food security support. Using amongst others the FANTA HFIAS the next level of criteria incorporates factors such as; living conditions, food access, income levels, availability of assets and adoption of negative coping strategies. SC also targets returnees, who live with host communities in Nangarhar, to avoid any community-based conflict during the resource distribution. However this target group will be specific to host communities belonging to the most vulnerable households and not exceeding 10% of the total beneficiaries will be considered eligible during the beneficiary selection process.