REACH Support to Information Management in Hard to Reach Areas and Protection Cluster assessments Through the proposed action, REACH will aim to collect information in areas identified as ‘hard to reach’ in the 2nd CHF allocation, assessing cluster-specific needs and vulnerabilities of residents of 45 districts in Afghanistan. In addition, REACH will launch two separate assessments to address protection-related information gaps, in close collaboration with the Afghanistan Protection Cluster (APC). One of these assessments will focus on the issue of fragmented families and the other will present a broader, nationwide assessment of protection needs and vulnerabilities of displaced populations (Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), prolonged IDPs (PIDPs), returnees, etc.). 

More specifically, REACH, a joint initiative of ACTED and IMPACT Initiatives, ACTED’s global partner, will work in close accordance with current Cluster and CHF priorities to carry out: 

1) a two-fold ‘Hard to Reach’ Assessment (HTRA), as part of which an initial Basic Service Unit (BSU) mapping will be conducted in 45 ‘hard to reach’ districts across Faryab, Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, Kunar, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Paktika, Takhar, Uruzgan, and Zabul provinces. This will be followed by monthly monitoring of these locations, through a network of key informants. This approach will provide a wide-scale basic needs overviews of these areas to facilitate effective programme planning of humanitarian partners. 

2) a nationwide, quantitative household-level Protection Assessment of Displaced Populations (PADP) to identify the key humanitarian needs and vulnerabilities of displaced populations, specifically focusing on concerns relevant for the APC.

3) a ‘Fragmented Families’ Assessment (FFA), consisting of a qualitative survey profiling the characteristics of outlining their key needs and vulnerabilities, to inform the APC of the profile of targeted populations. 

The assessments will be conducted in line with UNOCHA and/or Cluster endorsed Terms of Reference (ToRs), tools and indicators. Assessment reports produced as part of each assessment, as well as maps and factsheets produced as part of the HTR assessment, will be available to all humanitarian stakeholders and disseminated by REACH to inform humanitarian decision making and programming. The project will directly benefit the members of the APC, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items (ESNFI) and Food Security and Agriculture (FSAC) Clusters, as well as the Humanitarian Access Group (HAG). Information collected as part of the action will support the development of life-saving WASH, ESNFI, FSAC and Protection interventions. They will also inform the Clusters specifically on populations that are, at present, insufficiently understood and poorly included in humanitarian planning, thus contributing to the development of the next Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). 

The project will indirectly benefit the population living in the 45 mentioned districts, and displaced populations nationally. The project will also aim to reach the most vulnerable populations (e.g. female-, disabled- or elderly-headed households, etc.) to ensure their voices and specific vulnerabilities are captured through the various assessments.