Afghan Red Crescent Society worked with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF, OCHA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other partner organizations actively involved in the operation in July, 2022. This year in August, IFRC issued the operation report of July 2022 Floods in Afghanistan.
Off-seasonal rainfall peaked between July and August 2022 in Afghanistan, causing the country's rivers to overflow. The flood affected 16 provinces, out of which 13 provinces (Ghazni, Kandahar, Kunar, Logar, Laghman, Maidan, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Paktia, Parwan, Wardak, Urozgan, and Zabul) were severely affected. A total of 156 people lost their lives and 124 people were injured, including women and children due to the floods. Over 35,700 houses were affected (16,000 houses destroyed and 19,700 partially damaged), which affected 249,900 people in the area.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee Cluster system is established as sectoral coordination mechanisms at national and regional levels to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each partner, including non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, public authorities and other stakeholders. Cluster meetings occur monthly at the national level, coordinated by the respective cluster lead agencies coordinated through UNOCHA and covering shelter, food security and agriculture, health, WASH, protection, and nutrition.
The DREF operation provided immediate support to the affected population in eight provinces: Kandahar, Urozgan and Zabul in the south, Logar, Maidan Wardak and Parwan in the central regions, and Laghman and Nangarhar in the east region of the country. Based on the ARCS needs assessment and analysis, multi-purpose cash was distributed to 5,449 households and hygiene kits were distributed to 2,000 households in four out of eight provinces. The multi-purpose cash assistance allowed opportunity to the target population to fulfil their needs based on their priorities. The health intervention, which includes mobile health teams' deployment was covered through longer-term programming (Country Operational Plan)
Cluster meetings occur monthly at the national level, coordinated by the respective cluster lead agencies coordinated through UNOCHA. Through its financial and administrative team, the ARCS assigned an accountant to support the preparation of the budget, the allocation of funds, and the monitoring of expenses incurred during the execution of the plan and the preparation of the financial report. In addition, the financial officer of the IFRC was supporting the operation.
ARCS was responsible for the day-to-day monitoring of the operation, primarily at the branch level. After the encashment, a post-distribution survey was conducted. The survey enabled the gathering of information about the use of the cash and other feedback from recipients of the cash support. An internal lesson learned workshop was conducted to reflect the achievements, challenges, and learnings from the operation.
IFRC Afghanistan Country Delegation Security team continued to actively support Afghanistan Delegation as well as National Society Security Managers and Focal Point through information gathering/sharing, providing security guidelines, security coordination, and cooperation within the Movement as well as with external partners and the humanitarian community.
Technical support was provided by the IFRC Information Management (IM) personnel in the IFRC Technical support was provided by the IFRC Information Management (IM) personnel in the IFRC.
Under this operation, IFRC and ARCS incorporated community engagement and accountability in all aspects of field implementation applying the Movement-wide commitments and minimum actions for community engagement and accountability. Affected communities engaged during assessments, during and after cash distribution.
Coordination mechanism should be further enhanced among the ARCS branch offices, regional offices, ARCS headquarters and IFRC country delegation. During the selection and registration process of deserving communities, the names and numbers of the identification cards should be written correctly. The list of eligible people should be classified based on the village names with allocated time, then the eligible people should be invited to collect their assistance within the specified time frame to avoid overcrowding and long waiting time on the distribution day. According to the interview conducted by the monitoring team with the aid recipients, it indicated that the demand for unconditional cash distribution is greater than for food because the aid recipients can prioritize their needs effectively.
Abstracted by Zhong Deping
National Institute of Natural Hazards, Ministry of Emergency Management, China
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