Provision of emergency cash assistance for undocumented returnees in Nangarhar province. Recent months have seen a rise in hostility toward Afghans living in Pakistan with detention, police abuse and harassment increasing. This crackdown has triggered an influx of Afghans to return, although after living in Pakistan for years many have no home or family to return to. With over 600,000 returnees expected to cross the border by the end of the year, and with winter approaching, a significant humanitarian crisis is looming. An underwhelming government response has increased the urgency for already stretched NGOs and international organisations to provide food, shelter and health care to vulnerable people.

In response to this impending crisis, Afghanaid proposes to provide 3,500 of the most vulnerable undocumented returnees (households) with emergency cash assistance of $95 to spend on their most pressing needs, transferred via M-PAISA facilitated by Roshan telecommunication company. M-PAISA (M for mobile, Pesa is Swahili for money) is a mobile phone-based money transfer and financing service launched in Kenya in 2007, now widely available in Afghanistan as M-PAISA through Roshan. Customers register to M-PAISA at an authorised agent - often a small mobile phone store or retailer - and then deposit cash in exchange for electronic money which they can send to their contacts or retailers who are also registered, or withdraw in cash. All transactions are completed securely by entering a PIN number and both parties receive an SMS confirming the amount that has been transferred, which then happens in real time. 
Beneficiaries will be provided with a phone SIM and be inducted in a comprehensive training on the MPAISA system. Afghanaid will pay a fee of AFN750 (roughly $11) to register their SIM, after which the sum of $95 dollars will be transferred to them. The $95 rate is based WFP SCOPE card rate for similar assistance. The cash can then be withdrawn from Roshan agents and kiosks, widely present throughout the province and elsewhere. Roshan partnered with Afghanaid in its previous M-PAISA project, and have agreed to partner with Afghanaid on this programme and provide the SIM cards free of charge.
The emergency cash assistance will allow each beneficiary to buy food, NFIs, medicine, winterization items, and contribute towards travel and shelter costs. This vital assistance will help ward off hunger and infirmity in the winter, giving protection and dignity. The added value of the SIM over cash hand-outs is the recipient can access information on the unfolding returnee situation and public directives on where to go and how to get help, and communicate with family to access information through personal networks. Once they are trained in the M-PAISA system, they will be able to use it indefinitely, and therefore be able to access more funds from Afghanaid or other organisations once further anticipated funding becomes available.
IOM will be assisting Afghanaid in identification of the beneficiaries at Torkham centre (See supporting document as Annex-2). Afghanaid is aware that Torkham is not the final destination of the returnees, but we will assist them without discrimination. Torkham centre processes up to 100 people a day, in accordance with IOM’s screening criteria. IOM will further refer returnees they determine to be the most vulnerable in need of cash assistance to Afghanaid. We will further screen and select 3,500 returnees families based on vulnerability criteria such as households headed by women, widows, children, the disabled, chronically ill and families with many children. Undocumented returnees are considered the most vulnerable as they do not receive the same level of assistance from UNHCR, IOM and other agencies.
We  have extensive experience in cash programming, including a previous project using the M-PAISA system to transfer emergency cash assistance to drought-affected populations in Samangan and using Smart card (through Pass machine) for transferring WFP food packages to beneficiaries in Ghor.