Livelihood Support Through Distribution of Vegetable Kits in Kunar Province Afghanistan is today in one of the world’s most severe food security crises. The combined impact of an acute drought – the worst for more than three decades – and economic collapse in the second half of 2021 has generated a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions in Afghanistan, with some 22.8 million people projected to be facing acute food insecurity (IPCS and IPC4) by the start of 2022 (FSAC Cluster, April 2022). Over half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line, and food insecurity is on the rise, largely due to conflict and insecurity cutting off whole communities from livelihood opportunities. 22.8 million people are identified as acutely food insecure. Undernutrition is of particular concern in women, children, displaced people, returnees, households headed by women, people with disabilities, and the poor (WFP). The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report states that 22.8 million Afghans will be acutely food insecure by November. This is the highest number ever recorded in their 10 years of analysis. Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Half of all children under five years old — around 3.2 million — are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year (WFP).

The proposed project will be implemented in Shigal and Marawara districts. As per SEARCHO’s assessment, more than 75% of people cannot meet their basic needs of food, nearly 90% are jobless, 80% were unaware or could not afford to cultivate home gardening due to lack of resources in Marawara district while 89% of people were not able to meet their basic food seeds, 75% only understood the names of the vegetable seeds, but did not know how to properly cultivate them, females were responsible for home gardening, but due to poor economic condition and little resource they could not meet their needs, 80% of people hand lands to cultivate home gardens, and 80% people did not tools to cultivate home gardens. As a result of the assessment, the prominent needs and challenges are lack of enough food for daily consumption, less or no purchasing power, lack of state-of-the-art knowledge about the best practices of home gardening, high prices of food items, high prices of agriculture inputs, and drastic decline in household income. 

The project will respond to the most critical needs of food insecurity identified by the detailed assessment. The project will identify the most vulnerable food insecure people - a total of 4900 households (34,300) for livelihood support (vegetable kits distribution). Once the project participants are identified, SEARCHO will then organize and conduct 164 sessions on home gardening for 4900 individuals - one person per household will be selected for the session. Each session will be conducted for a group of 30 people - a total of 164 sessions for 4900 individuals (164x30). Each session will be a half-day session. The trained participants will receive livelihood support (vegetable kits - at least four types of vegetable seeds along with the required tools as per the FSAC Cluster standards) - a total of 4900 vegetable kits will be distributed to 4900 households (34,300 individuals) for home gardening. 

SEARCHO has been working in Kunar, Nuristan, Nangarhar, and Laghman provinces since its inception. The organization has however implemented projects in other provinces – currently implementing a project in Balkh province – but the major focus of our intervention is the eastern region because of the high needs, marginalization, and remoteness of the areas. SEARCHO has good access, good relations with community elders, and good relations with local authorities which will ensure the successful implementation of the project. In addition, SEARCHO has systems, policies, procedures, and competent human resources in place to ensure the successful implementation of the project.