ReliefWeb

Summary of Final Report:

Majority of Afghanistan was hardly hit by drought and floods in 2018 and 2019. This disaster was an addition to the existing emergency and crisis situations in Afghanistan. The IFRC Afghanistan Country Office (CO) supported ARCS by launching an Emergency Appeal (EA) in order to provide relief and lifesaving assistance to households that were affected by drought and floods and that were amongst the poorest and financially most vulnerable. Hence, this final report reflects and cover all activities operationalized and achievements, challenges, and learning achieved in 2019 and 2020 from this operation.

Majority of health and livelihoods activities planned under Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) were implemented between April 2020 to September 2020. Afghanistan, like any other countries, is struggling with the spike of COVID-19 cases that affected the implementation of the activities. The pandemic hit Afghanistan when 72 per cent of its population were under poverty line (World Bank) and when 32 out of 34 provinces were in crisis and emergency phases of food insecurity (Afghanistan 2020 IPC report2 ). Fragile and very poor health system and services are further factors for the Afghan communities in not having meaningful access to health care services. The implementation of health and livelihoods activities, amongst others, have also contributed significantly to addressing some of the health and socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 in target provinces.

By the end of the original operation timeframe of 12 months (31 March 2020), the gap in funding notably resulted in operation reaching significantly less than the initial target of 674,686 people in 13 provinces. The EA was only roughly 48 per cent funded and had left some key sectoral areas of activities with significant funding gaps due to budget limitations - livelihoods and basic needs; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH); DRR and Protection, Gender and Inclusion (PGI). In March 2020, the operation was extended for another six months, with a revised end date of 30 September 2020 to enable the National Society reaching targeted people with the much-needed humanitarian assistance.

During the first 12 months of this operation, the ARCS and IFRC closely coordinated to reach over 181,000 people in 12 provinces from the following areas of focus: Shelter; Livelihoods and basic needs; Health and DRR. Meanwhile, in the subsequent six months, special focus was given to support the livelihoods of the affected people with multipurpose cash grants which can be utilized to meet their basic needs, early recovery effort and health needs in five targeted provinces.

This prioritization enabled the ARCS to continue providing life-saving assistance and early recovery effort that eventually meets the critical humanitarian needs of up to 205,437 people (approximately 29,348 households) affected by floods and drought in 12 provinces with a focus on the following areas: Health; Livelihoods and Basic Needs.