Emergency cash support for shelter construction and upgrade for natural disaster and conflict affected people in Kapisa Following over 40 years of conflict-driven displacement, natural disasters, and economic turmoil, Afghanistan remains one of the most vulnerable countries to shocks and emergency needs. The main emergency need has been the need for shelter and winterization assistance of displaced, host, and other shock-affected populations. According to the 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), 24.4 million people, over half of the country’s total population, were in need of humanitarian assistance, of which, 10.9 million were in need of Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items (ES/NFI) and 16.2 million were in need of protection assistance. The Whole of Afghanistan Assessment (WoAA) further noted that over half of both displaced and non-displaced households were in need of shelter repair/upgrade assistance (55%), mainly due to partial or significant damage to their shelters. 
The proposed project aims to provide shelter support (Shelter repair/upgrade and transitional shelter) assistance to address the shelter needs of 462 households (3,234 participants) in the Afghania settlement, Nijrab District, Kapisa Province. The participants (beneficiaries) will be prioritized based on the level of need for the three pre-determined areas of the intervention (Transitional shelter average-sized, shelter repair minor, and shelter repair major) by the Rapid Assessment Mechanism (RAM) data that is conducted by the cluster (ES/NFI cluster). The majority of the population in this area is facing shelter damaged by natural disasters which 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 are 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 households 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.

The chosen modality for this assistance will be through direct conditional cash transfers to the neediest 462 HHs, which will enable target participants to access USD 2003 for essential transitional shelter support along with USD 550 major shelter repair and USD 330 minor shelter repair for each project participants. Cash transfer gives people the authority over selecting local material and improves project participants' engagement and ownership. The cash for transitional shelter will be distributed in three installments (1st installment 40%, 2nd installment 40%, and 3rd installment 20%) and the cash for shelter repair will be in 2 installments (first installment 70% and 2nd installment 30%) after monitoring the progress of the work as per ES/NFI standard for shelter. This process is followed by a couple of capacity building (DRR, building earthquake-resistant constructions using local and low-cost materials, and BBB training) This project aligns with NAC’s current programs to add emergency assistance to existing responses in “emergency cash assistance” to ensure that families and their children have access to shelter materials to cope with the harsh winter season. NAC will ensure a gender-sensitive selection process and accessible accountability mechanisms, and the gender-balanced field team will ensure easy access by both genders. 

NAC will use Hawala over other modalities since the banking system is not established in the target settlement, communication networks are not fully functioning and some of people do not have access to mobile phone or their residences are not under network coverage.  Based on the ES/NFI cluster guidance on shelter and Non-food Items (NFIs) assistance the value of the transfer per HH will be:
 USD. 2,003 including labor costs for most vulnerable families, 
USD 330 for minor repair and 
USD 550 for major repair.