Emergency Food Assistance to Food Insecure Population Groups in Badakhshan The proposed project aims to provide life-saving assistance to address the immediate food needs of 6,500 households (45,500 beneficiaries) and will be implemented in five districts of Badakhshan province (Arghanj Khwah, Kohistan, Koran-wa-Monjan, Raghestan and Yawan), prioritized by the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC). Based on FSAC’s analysis and a rapid needs assessment conducted by the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), the majority of the population in these hard-to-reach districts are on the ranking of IPC phase 4 (emergency). Considering that the target population is rated as IPC phase 4, this proposed project will be implemented to improve the food security situation through, the distribution of food commodities, based on the cluster’s food basket. 

The chosen modality to deliver this assistance will be in-kind support (direct food commodities) to the most food-insecure households, which will enable target beneficiaries to access essential food items for three months. This project aligns with NAC’s current programs to add emergency food assistance to our “food and work program” for food security to ensure that families and their children have access to food of sufficient quality and quantity to meet daily basic needs. NAC will ensure a gender-sensitive selection process, accessible accountability mechanism and gender-balanced field team will ensure easy access by both genders.

All project beneficiaries will be eligible to receive three months of food assistance through direct food distribution. The value of each transfer will be 26.03 USD per month and will cover 50% of the cost of a monthly food basket for a household of seven (based on agreed FSAC standards).

NAC will contribute in two areas where we are currently implementing our Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) funded 3-year program. Using our knowledge, experience and trained personnel, NAC will target the beneficiaries of the AHF project with:

1. Nutrition training: beneficiaries will be encouraged through nutrition training, messages and posters on basic healthy cooking practices, using vegetables and child diet diversification, in addition to staple foods.
2. Health training: beneficiaries will be informed about how to prevent and respond to communicable diseases, reducing the risk for the spread of COVID-19, hepatitis, and other diseases that impacts the lives and wellbeing of community members.  
3. Responsible parenting: increased spacing between every childbirth will have direct positive effects on infant and maternal mortality rates, and on children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. Awareness raising sessions on nutrition (food safety) and responsible parenting will be reported to the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).

NAC will ensure coordination and cooperation with other stakeholders in proposed project target areas, to avoid any duplication or overlap. 

This proposed project will be implemented using in-kind support (food commodities based on the standard food basket of the FSAC cluster). In relation to this, NAC did a rapid market assessment, while developing the concept note and proposal, and found that the only market with the capacity of supplying the necessary food commodities is Faizabad market – the largest market, at the center of the province with daily connection of food supplies from Taloqan (Takhar) and Kunduz provincial markets and even with Mazar-i-Sharif (Balkh) provincial market and the Kabul market. Therefore, NAC will form a committee for purchasing the required food from the Faizabad market and will then distribute the food commodities based on the food distribution plan for the mentioned five districts.