Emergency food assistance to acutely food insecure people living in IPC Phase 4 and drought-affected areas In 2022, Afghanistan has swiftly turned into the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 24.4 million people – 58 percent of the population – in need of humanitarian assistance. The recurrent and successive shocks the people of Afghanistan have faced were exacerbated by unprecedented levels of conflict, the worst drought in decades, and a severe economic crisis. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, the main driver of the rise in humanitarian needs is an unprecedented increase in acute food insecurity since records began, with 22.8 million people – 55 percent of the population – estimated to be facing Emergency or Crisis levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 and 4), including 8.7 million people one step away from famine (IPC Phase 4). To complement WFP’s overall crisis response, WFP aims to use this funding to provide unconditional, nutrition-sensitive in-kind food or cash assistance to acutely food-insecure people in Badghis, Balkh, Faryab, Ghor, Parwan, Sar-e-Pul, Uruzgan, Badakhshan and Nuristan provinces. All of these provinces have been classified as facing IPC Phase 4 levels of acute food insecurity in the projected period. WFP plans to provide a total of 8,066 MT worth of emergency in-kind assistance to 102,347 acutely food-insecure people (14,621 households) in the abovementioned targeted provinces. Targeted households will receive a monthly in-kind nutritionally balanced food basket comprised of 75kg of fortified wheat flour, 6.83kg of fortified vegetable oil, 9.38kg of pulses, and 0.75 kg of iodized salt. Households will receive in-kind food assistance for 6 months. WFP’s in-kind assistance is aligned with the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster’s (FSAC) recommended guidelines on humanitarian response packages. With a view to provide immediate relief to households requiring time-critical assistance and to prevent pipeline shortfalls for food commodities with long procurement lead times, WFP will use existing food commodities from additional funding sources and AHF’s contribution will serve for pipeline replenishment purposes. In addition, WFP plans to provide a total of USD 7,478,751 worth of unconditional emergency cash assistance to 115,892 acutely food-insecure people (16,556 households) in the abovementioned targeted provinces. Households receiving cash-based assistance will receive 5,700 AFN (75% ration) per month for a period of 6 months in this contribution this is budgeted at USD 60. WFP’s cash-based assistance is also aligned with the FSAC and Afghanistan Cash and Voucher Working Group (CVWG) recommended guidelines on humanitarian response packages. This includes a regular review of transfer values to ensure sufficiency against possible shifts in purchasing power. Similar to in-kind food assistance, cash-based assistance amounts to 75 percent of WFP’s ration which is expected to help cover basic food gaps of acutely food insecure people living in IPC Phase 4 areas. The transfer value was calculated on the basis of the monthly market value of the food Minimum Expenditure Basket which was endorsed by the Cash and Voucher Working Group of which WFP is a co-chair. In addition, WFP will be monitoring the inflation of the food MEB basket to ensure participants’ purchasing power is maintained. WFP works with several financial service providers (FSPs) to provide cash to registered project participants with support and monitoring from WFP and implementing partners. WFP integrates community participation and consultation in its choice of delivery modalities, with post-distribution monitoring data suggesting that beneficiaries’ preference is primarily direct, unrestricted cash assistance, primarily in urban contexts. In accordance with its corporate policy on data protection and privacy, WFP takes stringent data protection and privacy measures to ensure project participants’ personal data is not shared without their prior informed consent.