Shelter support to natural-disaster affected households in Balkh, Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces in Afghanistan ACTED’s proposed action aims to respond to the emergency shelter and lifesaving needs of some of the most vulnerable natural disaster affected category A (232 HHs) and category B (90HHs) HHs without the capacity to rebuild on their own in the provinces of Balkh (Khulm district), Baghlan (Anderab district) and Badakhshan (Kishem and Argo districts). A proportion of emergency winter NFI needs will be met through the provision of cash for fuel for four months to a total of 70 of the most vulnerable HHs with limited coping capacity in Badakhshan (66 HH) and Baghlan (4 HH) provinces. The amount for cash for fuel will be in line with ES/NFI cluster standards. Additionally, cash for rent will be provided to 23HHs (14 in Balkh and 9 in Badakhshan) for 6 months who are currently living in tents, out in the open and/or paying for rent. The amount for cash for rent will be based on the current average cost. Beneficiary caseloads have been identified following ACTED conducting a statistically significant assessment of natural disaster affected HHs in project target areas (August 2016). Results revealed that 62% of those assessed in Badakhshan, 72% of those assessed in Baghlan and 71% of those assessed in Balkh have a completely destroyed house (confirmed by ACTED field team viewing of the shelter). The majority of the remaining HHs still have repairs ongoing or started repairs but had to put them on hold. The caseload identified will be confirmed by a household verification assessment at the start of the project. 
Based on this gap, this action will support category A and category B HHs without the capacity to reconstruct or repair their houses, contributing to more sustainable solutions and limiting the future risk to predictable and recurring disaster hazards such as floods, landslides and earthquakes - therefore reducing the requirement for further short term interventions of emergency assistance in the future. This will be achieved by supporting 232 HHs living in completely destroyed homes and 90 HHs who are living in damaged shelters and are unable to build back/repair on their own with the provision of shelter construction materials coupled with shelter cash grants to support reconstruction. The construction work plan for each province will vary depending on the severity of winter conditions. In Baghlan and Badakhshan, construction will begin in November, but is expected to be put on hold during the months of December – February/March due to winter conditions hampering construction progress. Construction will resume in April. In Balkh, construction will continue through the winter months, though some short delays are anticipated linked to weather. Ten percent (10%) of particularly vulnerable households such as female headed households and those with disabled members will be specifically targeted by this action and will receive an additional cash grant to ensure the inclusion of the most vulnerable in this action. 
ACTED will also provide DRR training to each beneficiary household by applying the Participatory Approach to Safe Shelter Awareness (PASSA) methodology. A representative from each beneficiary household will be trained on community mapping for hazard awareness and safe community shelter design, thereby building community knowledge on good and bad building techniques. This community sensitization component is essential for building communities’ long-term resilience to the repeated seasonal disasters they face. ACTED will establish a complaints mechanism to ensure that beneficiaries can quickly report any problems with project implementation. In order to measure the impact of the provision of shelter and latrine construction materials/cash cash for fuel and rent beneficiaries’ satisfaction and the quality of construction, a baseline and endline survey as well as post-distribution monitoring will be done with a sample of targeted households.