Procurement and Prepositioning of Core Supplies for WASH Response The COVID 19 Pandemic has significantly affected Afghanistan due to its weak health system and limited capacity to prevent the spread of the virus. High internal displacement and a weak water and sanitation infrastructure worsen the situation. A new wave of the virus feared to come during the winter of 2020 could add significantly to the agony of an Afghan population already grappling with the economic impact of the virus. According to the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan (June 2020 update) as many as 35 million Afghans are in need of a social safety net,  14 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, while 7.2 million of those are in need of water, sanitation and hygiene assistance specifically.

 DACAAR directly contributes to this plan and to the containment of the COVID-19 outbreak as well as to improving the overall WASH condition of at risk populations  by procuring, prepositioning and making available handwashing soap as a core WASH pipeline supply in support of WASH Cluster partner response projects. 

Handwashing with soap is considered as one of the most effective containment strategies for COVID 19 available to at risk populations. Procuring and supplying soap as a standalone hygiene item will be swift and will add to the agility of response by WASH partners.  Given that this is a stockpiling project and the distribution of the supplies will be undertaken by other WASH partners, the target beneficiaries will not be assisted by DACAAR but by partners. DACAAR will report on the beneficiaries based on reports from WASH partners who accessed the stockpiles.  Distribution by WASH partners to at risk families will be based on the Sphere Standard of a minimum of 250grams of soap per person per month.  DACAAR will procure and preposition 651,000 bars of 130gram high quality anti-septic soap sufficient for 3 months use for 15,500 at risk families (108,500 individuals).

The soap supplies will be stocked in the following strategic geographical hubs: Kabul, Kandahar city Herat city Mazar-e-Sharif city Kunduz city Maimana city (Faryab) and in Talugan city (Takhar), with the potential of being moved to locations where need is greatest. These locations are central enough to be accessed by partners implementing WASH projects in the provinces prioritized in the AHF 5th reserve allocation strategy namely Badghis, Herat, Faryab, Zabul, Badakhshan, Nimroz, Kunduz and Jawzjan as well as from other provinces of the country. DACAAR will maintain sufficient flexibility to transfer supplies among the warehouses. Partners can readily access available stock of soap for use in their response projects based on approval from the WASH Cluster.  


Procurement of the soap will be performed as part of a comprehensive Invitation to Bed (ITB) process following DACAAR procurement procedures (attached) which is line with AHF procurement regulations.  The ITB process will include a market assessment enabling DACAAR to identify and contract the cheapest bidder who can deliver the highest quality soap.  Procured soap will be checked stringently to ensure highest anti-septic quality  (given recent lessons learned from the sector on fake Dettol soap in the market). The following will be performed during the ITB to ensure quality of soap procured
-	Physical Description : - Based on experience and technical knowhow , the assigned technical colleagues know the physical attribute of the quality soap required and check the delivered soap accordingly.

-	Industrial Standards Certificate/ Proving Documents: - The bidders are usually asked for  the required documents. A Sample is attached.

-	Legal Import: -  DACAAR buys legally imported Antiseptic Dettol Soap having proper custom clearance documents. 


In addition to the above, DACAAR will reserve the right to perform laboratory examiniation of the soap with the help of Afghanistan National Standards Authority (ANSA).