Provision of emergency food assistance through vouchers to most vulnerable protracted IDPs in Mazar-e-Sharif The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan continues to steadily decline, characterized by the United Nations declaring that Afghanistan was a country at war in 2017, as well as Afghanistan becoming the deadliest conflict on earth in 2019 according to the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) 2020. Approaching its 19th year of conflict, clashes between the Afghan National Army (backed by International Military Forces) and Armed Opposition Groups, continue to inflict high levels of civilian casualties and collateral damage on health and education facilities, as well as disrupting essential civilian infrastructures such as water, electricity and telecommunication systems, worsening the grave protection crisis and causing significant displacement. Additionally, lingering effects of the worst drought in decades (2018) accompanied by relentless natural disasters including floods, earthquakes, landslides and avalanches have exacerbated effects of the conflict, led to further displacement, and resulted in high multi-sector needs across the country. Populations are characterized by low resilience and high vulnerabilities and often fall into a state of acute emergency and need urgent support to meet their immediate basic needs. Within this context, food insecurity remains severe across Afghanistan, while the country is significantly affected by COVID-19. The socio-economic impact of COVID-19 is expected to have a devastating impact on people’s livelihoods. The lockdown and restrictions of mobility, will have a negative impact on both the supply chain for basic commodities as on the earning opportunities. Vulnerable people will be subjected to higher prices of food commodities, income losses, and experience reduced access to food due to supply chain disruptions and limited access to markets due to lockdown measures. Since the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19, disrupted livelihoods and reduced income, coupled with chronic underlying poverty, have already started to further challenge families’ capacity to purchase essential food supplies. The city of Mazar-e-Sharif, as well as the whole province of Balkh, is specifically facing this worsening situation. The latest IPC analysis classifies Balkh as being currently as of April-May 2020 in Phase 3 (Crisis), and it is projected to have 40% of its urban population either in Phase 3 (Crisis) or 4 (Emergency).
Through this project, ACTED will provide immediate life-saving food security assistance to 38,500 protracted IDPs (5,500 Households) in vulnerable employment status and facing significant decrease in purchasing power in Mazar-e-Sharif. ACTED will provide a full one-month food basket (6,500 AFN / 90 USD) through vouchers to most vulnerable beneficiaries who will redeem their vouchers against food items at local markets, with pre-identified shopkeepers.

In line with WHO recommended measures and MoPH’s official guidance, every activity implemented under the project will be strictly adapted in relation to COVID-19 context and mitigation measures and all staff involved will receive awareness sessions on COVID-19.