Emergency Cash for Food Assistance to IPC 3 and 4 populations of Badakhshan Province This proposed project aims to provide life-saving assistance to address the immediate food needs of 3,050 households (21,350 beneficiaries) and will be implemented in four districts of Badakhshan Province (Argo, Kohistan, Yawan and Zibak). The beneficiaries will be prioritized based on the level of need determined by a rapid needs assessment that will be conducted by  the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC) this will be conducted on the first month of project immediately after initial coordination and selection of communities completed. Most of the population in these hard-to-reach districts are classified as IPC phase 4 (emergency). This proposed project will be implemented to improve the food security of those classified as IPC phase 4 through the distribution of cash for food commodities, based on the cluster’s food basket. 

The chosen modality to deliver this assistance will be cash-for-food for the most food-insecure households, which will enable target beneficiaries to access essential food items for two 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 their daily basic needs. NAC will ensure a gender-sensitive selection process, accessible accountability mechanism and gender-balanced field team to ensure easy access by both genders.

All project beneficiaries will be eligible to receive two months of cash assistance through the selected financial service providers (FSPs)/ local hawala dealers. The value of each of the two cash transfers will be USD 90 per month and will cover the full monthly food basket for a household of seven (based on FSAC standards).

NAC will contribute in 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 also provide the beneficiaries of the AHF project with:

1. Nutrition training: beneficiaries will learn about nutrition through messages and posters covering topics such as basic healthy cooking practices, how to best utilize vegetables, children’s diet diversification, and the use of staple foods.
2. Health training: beneficiaries will be informed about how to prevent and respond to communicable diseases, reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19, hepatitis, and other diseases that impact the lives of community members. 
3. Responsible parenting training: beneficiaries will learn how increased spacing between childbirths will have 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 NORAD.

The trainings will help beneficiary households to understand the diversification of food items, nutrition and effective use of cash to provide the food commodities.

NAC will ensure coordination and cooperation with other stakeholders in the proposed project target areas to avoid any duplication or overlap.
This proposed project will be implemented using cash-for-food based on the standard food basket of the FSAC cluster. NAC did a rapid market assessment before developing the concept note and proposal, and found that the markets with the capacity to supply the necessary food commodities are available both in the district centers and Faizabad provincial market – the largest market, with daily connections of food supplies from Taloqan (Takhar) and Kunduz provincial markets, as well as the Mazar-i-Sharif (Balkh) provincial market and Kabul market. NAC will form a committee to select the financial service provider(s) to deliver the cash to the target districts.
NAC assessment focused more on the availability/ capacity of the local market, in addition to the WFP and REACH/JMMI assessments findings