Afghanistan

Accelerating ending open defecation in Afghanistan, Aqcha, Jawzjan province

Afghanistan Humanitarian Action
January 2022
December 2023

This 24-month year project is a scale-up of ACTED’s previous CLTS project with UNICEF and aims to declare the population of 200 high open defecation prevalence communities in Aqcha district of Jawzjan province, Open Defecation Free (ODF). The practice of open defecation is strongly correlated with prevalence of stunting and according to the ALCS 2014, and 2013 National Nutrition Survey, seven of the ten highest stunting and open defecation prevalence provinces overlap. Moving people from open defecation to using improved sanitation has a 36 percent impact on the reduction of childhood morbidity of diarrhoeal diseases. In response, ACTED will construct or rehabilitate sanitation facilities for 10 health facilities and 18 schools across Aqcha district, allowing for 94,724 people to gain access to basic sanitation. Alongside this, ACTED will also provide hygiene promotion to communities benefiting from these sanitation facilities.

The extension to this grant will improve on the previous project by declaring an additional 400 communities Open Defecation Free in Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul and Faryab as well as supporting School and Health centre WASH practices and facilities in Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul, Faryab and Laghman. A new component will be added to the project in the form of rural water provisions for deprived communities in Faryab, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul, Samangan, Balkh, Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar, Badakhshan, and Laghman based on assessments.

Current projects

Immediate support to foster agricultural resilience and sustainable livelihoods in rural North-Western Afghanistan (Balkh and Samangan)
Provision of livestock protection package and cash-based food assistance to vulnerable populations in Sar-e-Pol province
Provision of heating assistance, blankets and winter clothing packages to 1,591 conflict affected displaced, natural disasters affected and vulnerable host community households
Life-saving response to earthquake in Afghanistan
Safeguard and Create Artisan Livelihoods and Enterprises for Underserved Populations in Afghanistan (SCALE-UP AFGHANs)
Holistic and multisectoral emergency response, using Settlement Approach, for the population living in and around informal settlements in North, West and Eastern Afghanistan
Services to support the Implementation of FAO’s emergency and resilience project to support vulnerable Smallholder communities and farmers through Emergency Food Security Project
Cash for Education for 9,031 households in Nuristan province
Provision of Consultancy Services under Afghanistan Community Resilience and Livelihoods Project
Services to support the implementation of FAO’s emergency and resilience response project aimed to support vulnerable drought affected smallholder farmers
Consolidation and expansion of community-based education (CBE) in Afghanistan
Enhancing access to education for Out-of-School children in Afghanistan and supporting evidence-driven cash responses in Afghanistan through REACH
Accelerating ending open defecation in Afghanistan, Aqcha, Jawzjan province
Hiring Facilitating Partner EZ-KAR, Package#2 (Mehtarlam, Assabadad, Parun)
Eshteghal Zaiee – Karmondena Project (EZ-Kar), Facilitating Partner-EZ-KAR, Package # 4 (Taluqan)
District Development Fund