Shelter Repairs and Transitional Shelter Support Afghanistan still remains one of the world’s most complex humanitarian emergencies, driven by escalating various natural and manmade disasters. Prolonged drought, displacement of population – due to various reasons including conflicts, extreme poverty caused by economic instability and COVID-19, are the driving factors worsening the humanitarian situation in the country. As per the joint assessments, shelter is one of the areas that is also affected very badly and that the affected population need urgent humanitarian assistance to deal with this crisis. Recurrent natural disasters, particularly seasonal floods from April to June, increase morbidity and mortality of vulnerable people, both directly and due to impacts on shelter, WASH and livelihoods. Homes are often destroyed, and basic household items lost or damaged. Considering the high cost of shelter repairs, and the already negative net income of households, reconstruction comes at a high cost that may not be affordable for most people. Most Afghan household must choose between meeting basic needs and repairing their shelters and are therefore unable to sustain any major shock that severely damages or destroys their shelter.

To address the crisis in Kohistan District of Faryab province, DAARTT is proposing a short-term project (six months) to be implemented in four settlements of the district. The identified settlements are: 1) Chashma-e-Sangin, 2) Qodoghak, 3) Qozzat and 4) Mollah Raofi. The settlements have been identified through the Rapid Assessment Mechanism (RAM) conducted through the joint assessment process. According to averaged HEAT assessments in 2020, 64% of immediately shock-affected households reported living in makeshift shelters (including both mud houses and tents). DAARTT Need Assessment further revealed that 66% of the people were displaced, due to conflicts, 14% due to natural disaster and 20% were returnees from Iran and Pakistan. Moreover, 41% of the houses are partially destroyed, 27% are fully destroyed and 32% are unharmed.

In line with ES/NFI Cluster priorities as detailed in the Allocation Strategy paper, DAARTT under this action will respond to the shelter needs identified under the AHF 1st Standard Allocation Strategy 2022, with the purpose to provide life-saving assistance to the most affected families in the priority settlements of Kohistan district of Faryab province. Under this action, DAARTT will provide shelter repair and translational shelter assistance to cover the needs of 456 families (3192 individuals) in the selected district (Kohistan). Among this, 30 families will be provided assistance under the Transitional Shelter, 91 families under the Major Repair and 335 families under the Minor Repair Categories. 

As the first step of the project implementation, DAARTT will conduct beneficiary selection process in the targeted settlements to identify the most vulnerable families. In the same time, a beneficiary selection and distribution committee will be established which will include representatives from local communities (e.g. Shura Members), Government departments e.g. ANDMA, ARCS and DoRR and DAARTT staff. Beneficiaries will be selected according to ESNFI vulnerability criteria to ensure the poorest and the most vulnerable are targeted, including displaced people, women-headed households, widows, orphaned families, elderly, people with a disability and families with a large number of dependent children. On the top of this, pregnant and lactating women will also be give high priority during the selection. According to nutrition cluster, 32% of the beneficiaries will be selected as the PLW, who are identified under the Acute Malnutrition Category. The unconditional cash for shelter repair and translational shelter will be provided according to the cluster standard unit cost as fowling: 1. Transitional shelter (Average sized household): USD. 1,472, 2) Shelter Repair (Minor): USD. 330 and 3) Shelter Repairs (Major): USD. 550.