Takht FS assessment report Needs Assessment Report “An assessment of the food security of the population of Takht, Waras District, Bamyan Province” nd th Date of Assessment 22 -26 November 2013 Region Takht, Waras District, Bamyan Province (see map 1, page 5) Estimated population size 8217 individuals Needs Assessment team leader Arianna Zorzi Meneguzzo 1 Takht FS assessment report Table of Contents 1. Introduction and objectives .................................................................................................... 3 2. Justification for the assessment .............................................................................................. 3 3. Humanitarian Context ............................................................................................................ 4 4. Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 6 5. Summary of findings household survey .................................................................................. 7 5.1 Food Consumption Score ........................................................................................................... 7 5.2 Household Dietary diversity ....................................................................................................... 8 5.3 Coping Strategy Index ................................................................................................................ 8 5.4 Longer term coping mechanisms ............................................................................................... 9 5.5 Agriculture and wheat consumption ....................................................................................... 10 5.6 Land ownership and land productivity .................................................................................... 10 6. Market Survey ..................................................................................................................... 11 7. Focus Group Discussions ...................................................................................................... 13 7.1 FGDs with men ......................................................................................................................... 13 7.2 FGDs with women .................................................................................................................... 15 8. Key Informant interviews on the local irrigation system ........................................................ 15 9. Conclusion and recommendations ........................................................................................ 16 2 Takht FS assessment report 1. Introduction and objectives This assessment was conducted between the 22nd and 26th November 2013 in the Takht area, Waras District, Bamyan Province, and covered 13 CDCs1 and an estimated population of 82172 individuals. The objectives of this assessment were: 1. To collect quantitative data on food security indicators through a structured questionnaire to be conducted with the sampled households. 2. To determine the price of commodities and whether the local market is functional and capable of responding to a potential increase in wheat and staple food demand, through a semi structured questionnaire with traders. 3. To collect qualitative data on the crop performance after the harvest in Takht through Focus Group Discussions (FGD) in each CDC. 4. To identify food security related gender issues through FGDs conducted with women, to include their participation in the design of potential future projects. 5. To analyze the current crop irrigation methods in use through key informant interviews and direct observation by the assessment team. 2. Justification for the assessment On the 13th October 2013, the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC) organized a workshop in which the 2011-2012 National Risk Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) results and the 2013 Seasonal Food Security and Agriculture assessment (SFSA) preliminary results were presented to partners. The NRVA results presented the food security status of the population by province, and in Bamyan Province, 40.5% of the total population was classified as food insecure, consuming less than 2100 kilo calories (kcal) per day, subdivided as follows: 10.3% classified as very severely food insecure, consuming less than 1500 kcal per day, 14.6% severely food insecure, consuming between 1500 and 1800 kcal per day, and 15.6% moderately food insecure, consuming between 1800 and 2100 kcal per day. The 2013 SFSA ranked the provinces according to their level of needs and vulnerability 1 to 5, with 1 being very low needs and vulnerability, and 5 very high. Seven indicators were combined to assign the score: Kcal intake deficiency, Food Consumption Score (FCS), Household Hunger Scale (HHS), Coping Strategy Index (CSI), exposure to natural hazards, vulnerability to natural disasters, and vulnerability to conflict. Bamyan Province ranked 4, showing a high overall level of food security needs and vulnerability. On the 17th November 2013, FSAC organized another workshop where the Afghanistan Food Security Technical Team (AFSTT) presented the regional findings of the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC). The IPC is a set of tools and procedures to classify the severity of food insecurity which provides knowledge 1 Community Development Councils (CDCs) have been launched as part of the National Solidarity Program (NSP), which was established in mid-2003 as a government program executed by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. Through NSP, communities are mobilized and supported in the establishment of a village-level, consultative decision-making and representative local leadership. 2 Data was collected for the number of households from the CDCs’ leaders and the number multiplied by 11, the average household size for Waras, based on Medair previous assessments in the area. 3 Takht FS assessment report for decision support. It classifies areas with acute food insecurity into five phases: minimal, stressed, crisis, emergency and famine. The phases presented showed the current status of the provinces, November to December 2013, and the projected status, January to March 2014. Bamyan is classified as phase 3, crisis, for the current status, and phase 4, emergency, for the projected status. Currently no province in Afghanistan is classified phase 5, famine. The results of these 2013 national food security assessments organized by FSAC constitutes a framework for determining appropriate geographical targeting and responses by the humanitarian actors. Medair’s presence in the Central Highlands dates back to 2004 with WASH and Food Security projects, and Medair is well established in Waras District, Bamyan Province, where this needs assessment took place. Medair is implementing a UNICEF funded WASH project and a MCC/ CFGB3 funded Food Security project in the north part of Takht area, in the south west of Waras District. Medair field staff have been aware of the critical post- harvest situation in Takht and the consequent food gap that the Takht communities are going to face this winter and next year, especially the communities in the South of Takht, which are not covered by the current projects. This area, belongs to the south and west part of the central region of Afghanistan, which was affected by the dry spell in the summer of 2013. In November Medair responded with a needs assessment focused on the south part of Takht, covering 13 CDCs, a total of 747 households and 82174 individuals. The results revealed a poor food consumption score for the 30% of the households interviewed, a high reliance on short and long term coping strategies, and significant crop failure, in some cases up to 100% of planted crops, as explained in section 5.6, page 10 and 7.1, page 12. Data on household wheat consumption and household dietary diversity combined, suggest that the poorest section of the population, corresponding more or less to 30% of the total population, hardly reached 1500 kilo calories per person per day, the threshold that defines a household (HH) as very severely food insecure, as further explained in sections 5.2 and 5.5 (on page 8 and 10). 3. Humanitarian context Takht is situated in the south west part of Waras District, in Bamyan Province, sharing a border with Ishtarlay District of Daykundi Province to the south, directly adjacent to the areas of the Central Highlands that were affected by a dry spell during the summer of 2013. Several humanitarian actors responded to the emergency through the Emergency Response Fund (ERF), covering portions of Ghor, Daykundi and Bamyan provinces, but Takht was not covered, mainly because of lack of hard data on the food security situation of its population at that time. The area is divided into North Takht and South Takht, and it is composed of 80-90 CDCs. A Medair assessment carried out in October 2012 estimated the total size of the Takht population at 43,200 individuals of Hazara ethnicity. The area, like all of Waras District, belongs to the Afghanistan livelihood zone N.26, with livestock and agriculture serving as primary and secondary sources of food and income, and characterized by risk of food insecurity in a normal year.5 There are two health centers and one hospital that serve the area: Dahane Sabzak 3 Mennonite Central Committee/ Canadian Food Grains Bank 4 This number has been calculated based on the average household size experienced by Medair in Waras, with 7.6 members