Supporting IDPs, Returnees and Vulnerable Host Communities to meet their emergency needs through Emergency Shelter and NFI needs in Helmand, and Nangarhar Provinces and through pre-positioning of NFIs in Uruzgan provinces of Afghanistan Responding to the 2018 CHF 1st Allocation and to the HRP 2018 Strategic Objective 1 (SO1): Save lives in the areas of highest need, CoAR will assist 21,000 direct beneficiaries in six to hard to access districts to provide emergency shelters (tents) and NFIs, but some of the beneficarieis might receive both tents and NFI assistance and thus actual number of beneficiaries will be calculated based on the reports, assessments and distribution lists. All proposed activities and locations were coordinated through relevant fora including cluster focal points and CHF partners in the target areas (Laskhar Gah, Nad Ali and Nawa e Barakzaiy of Helmand Province and Surkhrood, Muhmand Dara and Chaparhar districts of Nangarhar Province)  to avoid duplication of services. To respond to the need for emergency shelter and NFIs CoAR will target 60% IDPs, 20% returnees and 20% host communities and it is expected that 60% are women. 

CoAR will ensure that the most vulnerable people in need among any affected population group are prioritized for the emergency shelter and NFI interventions and use the seven specific vulnerability criteria for identifying the extremely vulnerable among the affected population that includes: female-headed household child-headed household disabled headed household elderly headed household very large family (8 members or more) very poor families families with chronically-ill members or having other pressing vulnerability. These seven criteria are adopted by the ES/NFI cluster and to a large extent are in line with vulnerabilities endorsed by the protection cluster in Afghanistan. CoAR will also pre-position NFI in Uruzgan province to ensure that immediate and emergency disasters are responded on a timely basis. CoAR will coordinate with other implementing partners about the number of emergency shelters pre-positioned and that could be released in case of an emergency following procurement and warehouse procedures

To ensure that the pre-positioned items are released and distributed by other partners including CoAR itself, it will use the SoPs developed for the ES/NFI Cluster Common Stocks Management Mechanisms.  NFIs that will be procured will be pre-positioned and stored in Uruzgan warehouse. A total of 300 NFI  are planned to be pre-positioned and the proposed project is for 6 months during which – as well as after – these stocks will be available for distribution by Partners allowing them to rapidly respond to an unpredictable humanitarian situation where increasing numbers of families are displaced by armed conflict and natural disaster. Upon release, this will assist 2,100 individuals based on an average household size of 7.

The project will also be undertaken in coordination with other Partners, the ES/NFI Cluster and OCHA. Speedy procurement, prepositioning and storage of NFIs will help to ensure emergency preparedness and to meet the NFI needs of newly displaced, either by armed conflict or natural disaster. This will be a good opportunity to complement existing processes and structures to ensure the continued support to more families likely to be displaced by armed conflict in the course of 2018 and likely to be affected by natural disaster, particularly during the spring months which are associated with seasonal flooding due to the melting of snow and onset of spring rains. Coordination with other Partners and Government departments involved in the pre-positioning of stocks will be undertaken in Uruzgan.