Reducing vulnerabilities of GMR-affected households by increasing access to basic food needs and psychosocial support services In partnership with the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR) and the Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD), Action Against Hunger (AAH) proposes to reduce the vulnerability of poor and vulnerable households (HHs) residing in Gaza, North Gaza, Khan Younes, Middle Area and Rafah Governorates, through an integrated approach focused on increasing access to basic needs, especially food needs, and providing complementary structured psychosocial services, to reduce the use of negative coping mechanisms.
The project will target 400 vulnerable HHs with member(s) who got severely injured (and/or have a disability as a consequence) during the Great March of Return (GMR), following 4 key lines of intervention: 1)cash for basic needs, with a food security focus ensured by 2)nutrition and food safety awareness, 3)structured psychosocial support (PSS) services, 4)protection network strengthening. The team will access vulnerable HHs through cash distribution and nutrition promotion as an entry point to build the trust and acceptance required to meaningfully tackle sensitive protection and psychosocial issues.
Food security: the project will contribute to increase the purchasing power of HHs through the provision of up to 6 months of unconditional unrestricted cash assistance averaging $120 USD/HH/months to 400 GMR-affected HHs (2,240 individuals) with limited access to basic needs and with limited income opportunities. The project will integrate targeted messaging aimed at maximizing the nutritional impact, particularly for children under five, pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and injured people in need or under rehabilitation, as well for food safety, especially considering the power cuts and the limited access to safe water. While AAH will manage the cash assistance component, ACAD will provide for the nutrition and food safety awareness component.
The cash assistance complements the ongoing ECHO-funded project Gaza Partnership running until February 2020, that provides cash for basic needs to HHs whose breadwinner got injured during violent events (such as the GMR). The proposed project will create synergies with the ECHO-funded project, in order to maximize the use of resources, and speed up the selection of beneficiaries by using available waiting lists for GMR-affected people, developed based also on protection sensitive criteria. AAH will ensure that GMR-affected farmers are not the target for agricultural inputs by cross-checking the list of beneficiaries with the Food Security Sector, and including in the verification exercise questionnaire a specific question on aid received.
Protection: to complement the cash assistance component and produce a long-term positive impact on target HHs, the project will provide structured psychosocial support services (PSS) through partner PCDCR to target HH members severely injured during the GMR, including psychosocial group and individual counseling and referral pathway coordination. This community-based PSS intervention will provide participants with opportunities to express their feelings, strengthen their coping skills and re-integrate them to their families and the community, as well as to decrease future injuries among the surrounding people. Building or strengthening networks at community level will also play a relevant role as an exit strategy, whereby target beneficiaries will continue having support provided by their own communities. Protection awareness will also be ensured to beneficiaries and communities including community leaders, frontline workers, CBOs, and other service providers for them to be able to recognize protection risks and know how to prevent and respond to them in an appropriate way.
Overall, robust risk mitigation and monitoring measures will be applied to reduce and prevent potential protection risks, negative market impacts, and other unintended consequences of programming.