ReliefWeb

Purpose

The Afghanistan Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) was established in January 2014 under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC). The objective of the CHF is to promote needs based assistance in accordance with humanitarian principles, to respond to the most urgent needs, and strengthen coordination and leadership of the HC and the Clusters. OCHA’s country based pooled funding (CBPF) mechanism ensures timely and flexible funding is available in Afghanistan to address immediate needs while at the same time reinforcing coordinated humanitarian action.

All approved CHF funding is allocated in coordination with the Clusters and in alignment with the operational objectives articulated in the 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), which have been developed through a comprehensive consultative process to determine priorities based on inter-sectoral needs analysis.

Context

The continued deepening and geographic spread of the conflict, with increasingly constrained access to basic services and a massive return of refugees and undocumented Afghans in the second half of 2016, has prompted a 13% increase in the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2017 – approximately 9.3 million people. The 2017 HRP outlines the planned delivery of humanitarian assistance over the next 12 months that aims to reach at least 5.7 million of those in need at a cost of US$550 million.

Priorities

As of January 2017, CHF available funds amount to just 5% of the 2017 HRP funding requirement. With only a few donors as yet providing information regarding their 2017 Afghanistan funding intentions to the global Financial Tracking Service 1 the allocation strategy is unable to take into account other contributions in determining the most urgent and strategic allocation.

The interventions identified for support under this first CHF Standard Allocation have been determined in accordance with the prioritisation principles applied to the development of the HRP strategy, and drawing on cluster-led exercises to identify the most urgent priorities and gaps in assistance within their sectors.

The total amount of funding available for this allocation is c. $22 million. The funding will be allocated to address key priorities outlined under the following four allocation envelopes:

1. Increasing access to life saving basic health and nutrition services;

2. Addressing basic needs of undocumented returnees and their hosts;

3. Response to neglected needs exacerbated in a deteriorating humanitarian and protection environment;

4. Emergency Response Preparedness.

An Emergency Reserve of $7 million will be maintained to enable flexible response to new, unforeseen humanitarian emergencies, to be activated by the HC as and when need arises.