Thematic Area: Food Security, Livelihood and DRR
Project Period: September 2020 to March 2021
Donor Agency: World Food Programme (UN-WFP)
Project Locations: District Peshawar of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Project Goal: Unconditional life-saving cash assistance programme to the extremely vulnerable communities in order to mitigate the humanitarian impact of recurrent shocks of COVID-19 in Peshawar District of KP
Project Objective 1. Provide unconditional relief assistance to support 4937 households, each for six months, affected by the impact of COVID-19 to address their food needs in targeted villages of Peshawar district.
Project Objective 2. Increase community/beneficiaries’ awareness against COVID-19 key precautionary measures through sensitization sessions in order to prevent and contain COVID-19 transmission.
Project Background
The COVID 19 outbreak turned into a Pandemic and the world population was confined to the houses. All the world was put to a Lockdown. Similarly, in Pakistan, with whole country at lockdown the poor and needy people especially daily wagers. Mostly impacted by this lockdown are labor working in the non-formal sector, smallholder farmers affected by recurrent disasters and IDPs/returnees as they do not have enough of food, and are totally relying charities etc. These families are passing through extremely hard times and the livelihoods and food security of majority of low-income groups is badly affected.
The targeted households largely depend on unstable and variable sources of income such as non-agricultural, unskilled daily labor, which don’t support resilience and leaves them vulnerable. It is imperative to keep an eye on the food security situation and to safeguard food security situation in these marginalized communities.
Unconditional relief assistance to the households affected by the impact of COVID-19 will address their food needs and it will contribute towards stabilization of the food security situation among the most vulnerable people in targeted area.
Objectives
This is a critical time for residents of Peshawar district as it still carries the burden of TDPs that were displaced as result of military operation X-FATA region. Keeping in view the current food insecurity and disrupted livelihoods due to current pandemic, the coming few months will be very harsh for the vulnerable communities. People of the targeted area are in dire need of assistance to address their basic needs of food as well as livelihood in order to lead them towards safety, security and dignity.
Supporting communities through “Unconditional Cash Assistance” modality will have multiple effects. On one hand it will enabling them to fulfill their food and other pressing needs while on the other hand it will help them fight the pandemics.
Sensitization messages sessions increase community/beneficiaries awareness in COVID-19 key precautionary measures in order to prevent and contain COVID-19 transmission. Sessions on precautionary measures and how to deal with infection and exposure to patients are the most important steps to cope with COVID-19. Timely identification and taking right steps will not only saves lives but also contained the widespread outbreak of the virus.
Key Accomplishments in terms of results, outcomes including outreach (in bulleted form)
The project aims to identify and deliver cash to 4937 most vulnerable families. This cash is provided by the WFP as a donor to HUJRA. The identification of the targeted families is completed and cash assistance is in progress. Below are the key accomplishments of the project;
- Formation of Village Development Committees in target area
- Identification of potential beneficiary families with the support of VDCs
- Verification of most deserving families by HUJRA monitoring team supported by VDCs and the WFP monitoring team
- Registration of 4937 beneficiaries as Heads of deserving families and an alternate recipient for each beneficiary
- Handing over PKR 7500/- cash to each registered beneficiary in each cycle for 04 cycles
- Awareness sessions conducted in the target area regarding SOPs of COVID 19 as preventive measures
- Awareness sessions conducted in the target area to sensitize beneficiaries on Hand Hygiene and hand washing steps
- Awareness sessions conducted in the target area to educate locals about safe food consumption and storage
