Northern – Humanitarian Regional Team Meeting

UNICEF Mazar-e-Sharif on 30 July 2015

Draft Minutes

Participants: ACBAR, ACF, ADEO, DAIL, DACAAR, FAO, IOM, Johanniter, NRC, NRDOAW, OCHA, PIN, SCI, SHA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, WHH, and WHO. Apologies from Actionaid and ZOA.

Agenda: Welcome and introductions, review of previous action points, UNHCR conflict displacement update, IOM flood update, Cluster updates, pooled funding updates, and humanitarian planning dates.

# Agenda Item Issues Action Points 1 Welcome and OCHA welcomed participants and participants introduced themselves. introductions 2 Review of action points Action points addressed by Clusters and IDP Task Force. from previous meeting 3 UNHCR update on UNHCR update: Faryab, Kunduz and Takhar provinces face a new wave of conflict- UNHCR to conflict displacement induced displacement. The rate of new displacement exceeds contingency planning. To follow up with give an example, shows a 2015 contingency planning figure of 300 IDP national families, whereas confirmed displacement in July amounts to 706 families. In Kunduz Protection province, fighting in Khanabad district has led to major new displacement. UNHCR has Cluster on alerted the Humanitarian Country Team to this new displacement and is following up on funding for resource mobilization. The regional displacement figures are as follows: new large scale conflict Confirmed conflict displacement in Northern Afghanistan displacement Date: 29 July 2015. Source: UNHCR in northern Province Confirmed conflict IDP families Afghanistan. Badakhshan 885 Baghlan 10 143 Faryab 2,033 Jawzjan 66

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Kunduz 5,840 Samangan 43 Sar-e-Pul 194 Takhar 706 Total 9,920

UNHCR further informed about a forthcoming change in IDP Task Force management, involving a change over from UNHCR to OCHA. The modalities are being defined and the change is likely to be effective January 2016.

NRC update: In July, NRC and SCI assisted 32 conflict IDP families in Sar-e-Pul province with cash and NFIs. DoRR Sar-e-Pul reported displacement of 682 families from Kohestanat and Sayad districts to Sar-e-Pul city. This was triggered by the AOG take-over of Kohestanat district. Assessments have started. NRC can provide unconditional cash assistance to about 300 IDP families in the region. NRC is following up with its country office to see if the number can be increased.

The following organizations provide assistance to conflict IDPs: UNHCR (NFIs), WFP (food), NRC (cash), ECHO funded ERM partners, ICRC and ARCS (food and NFIs). 4 IOM flood update IOM update: Snow melt flooding is resulting in severe riverbank erosion and IOM and flooding in Kaldar and Shortepa districts of and in Qarqin and Khamayab OCHA to districts of Jawzjan province. Assessment report for Balkh province: follow-up on : 2 people dead, 66 houses totally destroyed, 40 families living in the open, response 26 families living with relatives. 66 families in need of relief assistance. Response plan: gaps, WFP (food), UNICEF and CARE Int. (NFIs). especially for : No houses destroyed but high flood risk. The immediate need is flood emergency prevention to protect water canals, agricultural land, infrastructure and houses. OHW has food. Flood in Eawanok village, started procuring sandbags. WFP food for work assistance has been requested. Shuhada district, . Credit: IOM Severe snow melt flooding is also reported in Badakhshan and Takhar provinces. In Badakhshan nine districts are affected and assessments are ongoing. Worst affected are the districts of Shignan (82 families displaced) and Shuhada (331 families affected, many displaced). In Takhar province, Namakab district is worst affected (84 families). Compared

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to previous years, 2015 snow melt flooding is much more destructive, damaging harvest, agricultural land, water canals, houses and infrastructure. Investment in early warning as part of community based disaster risk reduction has paid off in Badakhshan province and saved many lives. 5 Protection Cluster UNHCR update: National update Mine/ERW risk education: This remains a gap and the national Protection Cluster Protection advocates for funds. Mine/ERW risk activities in July included UNICEF funded child Cluster to protection radio messages in Kunduz and Jawzjan provinces and CPAN MRE training in continue , Jawzjan province combined with the distribution of awareness materials. mobilizing Protection of civilians: Noted a decrease in civilian casualties compared to previous funds for months. UNAMA is working on the 2015 mid-year report. Faryab remains the most Mine/ERW insecure and most affected province in northern Afghanistan. risk education. Child protection: Noted an increase of 32% of child casualties in the first six months of 2015 compared to last year. This is because of indiscriminate use of weapons, artillery, IEDs and anti-personnel mines mostly in civilian populated areas. Child protection related rapid assessment field work and data entry was done in June. Data analysis and narrative reporting is in progress. Gender-based violence (GBV): Noted improvements in sub-cluster management following UNFPA and UNHCR training. Established two committees to streamline referral and improve follow-up with government departments and police to activate inter-cluster referrals together with other networks and line departments. Secondly, efforts are underway to discuss the revised terms of reference and translate them into . Also, there are reportedly high numbers of attempted suicide cases triggered by drug addiction in families. ACTED marginalization platform project in Balkh province (2014-17). The project targets ethnic minorities, IDPs, disabled persons and drug rehabilitated women. Activities include literacy training, vocational training and self-help programs. House, Land and Property Task Force: The TF follows up on four pending cases. Refugee return: The trend shows an increase. As of 4 July, 13,684 individuals have returned to the Northern and North Eastern Region of Afghanistan, with the majority returned to , followed by Baghlan and Balkh provinces. Finally, UNHCR is inviting partners to share information about reintegration development project activities. UNHCR will circulate a related project activity form.

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6 Emergency Shelter UNHCR update: UNHCR provided an update of shelters constructed in response to 2014 Regional NFI and NFI Cluster floods. Nearly all planned shelters have been completed except for some in Abi-Barik providers are village, of Badakhshan province. ZOA received funding for 267 shelters for advised to 2015 flood affected families in Fayzabad district, Jawzjan province. UNHCR informed restock. about NFI distributions and regional NFI stocks. For the time being there are sufficient NFI stocks in the region but the majority are in Mazar-e-Sharif and with UNICEF. UNHCR is beginning to run low on NFIs and NRC has hardly any stocks left. But NRC can mobilize additional emergency response capacity through ERM. The IOM NFI stock situation, on the other hand, is good. Save the Children is about to receive NFI kits for 3,000 families for Faryab and Jawzjan provinces. The Johanniter have a small amount of NFIs in stock. ACF informed that soon they will have NFIs in stock in Samanagan province. The regional ESN Cluster further recommended to record unconditional cash assistance in its database.

NFI response in Northern Afghanistan in 2015 28 July 2015. By Families. Source: UNHCR

December 0 November 0 October 0 September 0 August 0 July 5,520 June 1,628 May 9,475 April 1,116 March 3,029 February 997 January 3,209

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

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NFI response in Northern Afghanistan in 2015 28 July 2015. By Province and Families. Source: UNHCR 14000 13,115

12000

10000

8000

6000 3,933 4000 3,007

2000 1,543 979 534 619 673 571 0

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NFI response in Northern Afghanistan in 2015 28 July 2015. By Type of Assistance. Source: UNHCR

17082

0 5303 17 0 2572

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NFI stocks in Northern Afghanistan in 2015 28 July 2015. By Province. Source: UNHCR

Takhar 1,300

Baghlan 1,065

Badakhshan 4,422

Kunduz 6,519

Samangan 0

Sare Pul 10

Jawzjan 34

Faryab 2,051

Balkh 9,923

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000

7 Food Security and FAO and WFP update: The regional FSAC met on 12 July. The cluster meets bi-monthly. WFP to Agriculture Cluster The meeting focused on pre-harvest food security assessment reporting and post-harvest update on (FSAC) results predictions for the region. Regional wheat production is expected to be good. But food pipeline conflict displacement related emergency food needs have dramatically increased in the capacity to region. Also, access to insecure areas has decreased. For example in Bilcheragh district ensure of where WFP has been unable to assess flood related food assistance emergency needs. Further, FAO distributed 212.5MT improved wheat seed in Balkh, Samangan, response, Jawzjan, and Sar-e-Pul provinces. FAO has also carried out a crop cutting survey in especially for Balkh, Sar-e-Pul, Samangan, and Jawzjan provinces and shared the details. The survey conflict IDPs. measured the ratio of grain yield versus straw yield. Results showed a correlation between flood and low yield. Overall, the production of wheat under irrigated and rain-fed conditions is good.

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WFP is likely to face a food pipeline problem coming September. Currently, WFP has enough food in stock to respond to regional emergencies. WFP is not responding to small scale emergencies and in the case of Amu Darya riverbank erosion in Balkh province, WFP will not provide food for work assistance. FAO informed that MAIL plans to distribute cash and wheat in 25 . In Balkh province, an oversight committee has been established and distribution will start soon. 8 Nutrition Cluster UNICEF informed that a Nutrition Officer has arrived and regional Nutrition Cluster UNICEF to meetings will start soon. UNICEF further informed about ongoing nutrition work in the provide date region and provided intervention details. for Nutrition Cluster meeting. 9 Health UNICEF update: On 25 July, Badakhshan health authorities reported the outbreak of WHO to acute watery diarrhea in , Manzel Dasht village. 2 persons have died and provide date 110 persons have been infected. Effective health measures have been taken and the for Health number of newly infected persons is reducing. Sufficient emergency health supplies are in Cluster the province, except tents which UNICEF is mobilizing from Kabul. The disease outbreak meeting. is under control. Sanitation facilities are poor in the affected area. WHO update: WHO Mazar is following up with the national Health Cluster Coordinator on the establishment of a regional Health Cluster. 10 WASH Cluster UNICEF update: Supported by UNICEF, provincial WASH Cluster meetings are held. In the NER, WASH Cluster meetings follow up on flood and landslide related response needs, such as in Badakhshan and Takhar provinces. DACAAR updated on ongoing WASH activities in Balkh province, including feasibility study, training and operational work. 11 Pooled Funding by Afghanistan Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) update: The Cluster consultation for the Eligible NGOs OCHA second standard allocation in 2015 has started. On 22 July, the CHF Advisory Board met and UN to kick-start the process. Emergency food assistance, emergency shelter and NFIs and agencies are emergency health are priorities. Between 26 July and 6 August, national Clusters will invited to consult with regional Clusters on priorities. By 9 August, national Clusters are expected to apply for 2nd submit priority papers. The Humanitarian Country Team is reviewing the findings in Standard August and on 27 August, the Humanitarian Coordinator will approve the allocation Allocation strategy. On 30 August, the second CHF standard allocation will be launched. CHF, starting

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NGOs who have successfully passed the CHF Due Diligence process can apply for on 30 August second standards allocation funding. 2015. Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) update: This a global UN fund and Afghanistan has been identified as an underfunded country. CERF is making emergency funding available. The funding will be used to meet the most urgent and underfunded life- saving humanitarian projects within the Humanitarian Response Plan. The Humanitarian Coordinator has invited UN agencies to submit project proposals in line with the guidelines. Priorities are emergency food, emergency shelter and NFIs, and emergency health. CERF applications follow CHF priorities. 12 Humanitarian Afghanistan humanitarian programme cycle – key planning dates HRT: 2016 programme cycle The planning for the 2015 Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan 2016 starts in July. A Humanitarian key date is a kick-off Inter-Cluster workshop in Kabul on 14 and 16 July. August is busy Response with the CHF and CERF process. On 17 September, the core Humanitarian Country Team Plan activities will agree on the strategic priorities for the 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan. On 30 in late August September, national Clusters will submit the Humanitarian Needs Overview for the plan. and On 29 October, the Humanitarian Country Team will present the Strategic Response Plan. September. On 12 November, the final Humanitarian Response Plan will become available. Humanitarian Regional Teams and regional Clusters will actively participate in the late August, September part of the development process.

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