NFI Assistance for Conflict-Affected IDPs in Kunduz and Takhar (Taloqan) provinces The 2021 update3 to the Afghanistan HRP 2018 - 2021 seeks USD 1.3 billion to reach 15.7 million people with emergency life-saving humanitarian and protection assistance across the country. The strategic objectives of the HRP focus on "lives are saved in the areas of highest needs." The multiple challenges facing the people of Afghanistan in spring 2021, including La Niña-induced climatic anomalies, intensifying conflict, new and protracted internal displacement, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, are exacerbating the pre-existing needs and vulnerabilities of millions of Afghans already dealing with the consequences of 40 years of war.

The main purpose of the 3rd RA is to address and enable a timely, coordinated, urgent, and strictly needs-based humanitarian response. Further to respond to intersectoral potential needs holistically and calls for an integrated response with ES-NFI, FSAC, Nutrition, Education, Protection, Health, and WASH to mitigate the multiple and overlapping challenges facing the people of Afghanistan due to the intensifying conflict and ongoing COVID-19 challenges. The recent ‘Whole of Afghanistan Assessment’ (WoAA) revealed that 81% of Internally Displaced People(IDP) do not have adequate heating sources during winter, and 60% do not even have one blanket per person. In the 3rd Reserved Allocation, 18,389 families are in dire need of Emergency NFI Kits, particularly 5,143 families in Kunduz province and 583 families in Takhar province.

ORD intends to provide NFI standard kits for 2,221 conflict-affected IDPs in Kunduz (Kunduz) and 583 families in Takhar (Taloqan). ORD has had a strong presence since 2018 and has delivered emergency responses. Currently, ORD is delivering cash assistance for People with Specific Needs (PSN) and NFI for recently displaced people in the partnership of UNHCR. In the current RA3-2021, ORD submitted a proposal to FSAC for Agriculture support and cash for food as ORD is pre-selected by the FSAC cluster and is in the allocation strategy. With this RA3 ES-NFI, the response will be holistic and multi-cluster and will scale up and fill the ORD's current response gap.

ORD will ensure that the most vulnerable people in need are among the affected population groups prioritized for this action and 2,804 HHs (19,628 individuals) following ES-NFI cluster standards for conflict-affected people to respond to their NFI needs. ORD will use specific ES-NFI standard vulnerability criteria to identify the extremely vulnerable among the affected population. ORD will closely coordinate with the regional ES-NFI cluster, UNOCHA, and other partners for the identification of target communities and groups to avoid duplication. ORD project team will establish Beneficiary Selection Committees (BSCs) that will conduct a door-to-door assessment using the vulnerability assessment tool and select the beneficiaries based on the cluster standard criteria.

 In addition, ORD will provide this response in kind due to the NFI kit's standard item unavailability and market dysfunctionality. The beneficiary selection will be carried out using certain structured questionnaire/scorecard tools, which are usually being shared by the ES-NFI cluster for each modality. in case it is not available, ORD will develop a questionnaire and will coordinate it with the cluster and after their approval, we will use that tool for assessment and beneficiary selection. For the distribution of NFI Kits, ORD will provide a unique identification card to each eligible recipient, and in order to prevent any delay or problems in distribution, we will authorize an alternative person to receive the assistance. Furthermore, the project teams will carry out PDM, and ORD MEAL will perform additional verification by phone and as well share the beneficiary profile with AWAAZ Afghanistan for further accountability.