Improving the food security, nutrition and livelihoods of vulnerable households affected by the COVID-19. The proposed project supplements and strengthens Government of Pakistan and Balochistan’s effort for the fight against COVID-19 through the provision of livelihood support and increasing the food security of vulnerable HHs in three districts of Balochistan. The overall objective of the project is to assist the poor households in improving their overall food security, nutritional status and livelihoods of vulnerable households in five (05) most vulnerable Union Councils (UCs) three (03) most affected districts i.e. Pishin, Jhal Magsi and Washuk of Balochistan province. The target UCs include 1. Kazha Viala 2. Narain (tehsil Barshor, district Pishin) 3. Hathyari 4. Jhal Magsi (of tehsil and district Jhal Magsi) 5. Palantak (tehsil and district Washuk)  The selected UCs for the proposed project had been identified as priority UCs under Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) for Food Security Analysis. While, the proposed interventions such as the provision of cash grants, crop production support to the small farmers and provision of livestock assets are also aligned with the food security cluster’s priorities for this grant. The emergency livelihood restoration support planned under this project include: 

- 1,680 Ultra and Vulnerable Poor households identified and selected for the planned support:
This activity will provide the basis for the distribution of planned packages to the vulnerable households in VAM prioritised target UCs. For the identification and selection purpose, the poverty scorecard (PSC) data will be used. This data has been collected under an EU funded on-going programme by applying recognised poverty scorecard tool, which is widely used for the household targeting purpose for livelihood and social safety net programmes. However, to further validate and ensure the identification of target households FGDs will be held in the villages of target UC and BRSP fostered community institutions will be engaged for the endorsement of selected beneficiaries for the following packages.

a. 700 Ultra and Vulnerable Poor HHs provided with Unconditional Cash Grants:
This activity will primarily focus on the women, persons with disability (PWD), child-headed households and/or the households with unemployed head.

b. 280 Agriculture farmers provided with Crops Production Support. 
This activity will focus the small agriculture farmers with cultivable lands up to 5-6 acres, whose livelihood activities have been affected by the recent pandemic and/or disasters such as drought, heavy rains and flash-floods.

c. 700 Smallholder livestock farmers are provided with Livestock assets/other support 
This support is planned for the smallholder livestock farmers or households with the capacity to manage livestock. This will be a women-focused activity, as in rural settings usually, women are responsible to manage this activity. 

Besides, the provision of livelihood support to the vulnerable HHs the proposed project also integrates to reaching out the population with a mass awareness on Risk Communication during training sessions and awareness-raising through masajid in all target UCs. As far as the breakdown of planned deliverables for each target area is concerned, the activity “crop production support to agri-farmers” will only be carried out in two union councils of Jhal Magsi district as these both UCs are mostly agri-dependents while at the initial stage targets of other two activities i.e. unconditional cash grants and livestock are equally being planned for each target UCs. However, the actual distribution of the planned support is highly dependent on the validation of PSC data and the results of focus group discussions for the identification and selection of beneficiaries. The project will be implemented through the participation of Community Institutions fostered at Village amp UC level by BRSP and the cadre CRPs at each UC which will be a key in ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.