country office portal...progress of programme implementation and various targets. the emergency...

Executive Summary

The president, Ashraf Ghani, in power since September 2014, continues to receive diplomatic backing for his regime from various regional powers, which should help to promote stability. However, political stability is adversely affected by an ongoing campaign of insurgency by various groups. A rise in tensions among rival factions of the Taliban leadership in recent months has led to an intensification of unrest. The security situation continues to be unstable. Enhancing security and economic development remain to be the focus of both policymaking and aid efforts.

Weak infrastructure with inaccessible areas (due to geographic and terrain issues) together with high insecurity have made populations in rural and remote areas highly vulnerable. There is a rethink on government take over of some of the basic social services such as Health. The triple transition involving political, economic and security spheres has had mixed results. UNICEF Afghanistan during the year began implementation of the new programme with the Rolling Workplans between UNICEF and the main ministries finalized and signed for the years 2015-2016 well into the second quarter of 2015 resulting in delayed start of the programme. In many ministries, with late swearing of new Ministers of Cabinet and other leadership changes in the Ministries has had its toll on the start of the programmes.

Among the significant achievements of the year include:

The MoPH, UNICEF Afghanistan and USAID conducted a high-level meeting, “Call to Action: Renewing the Promise for Maternal and Child Survival”. Key outcomes of the event included - the "Kabul Declaration for Maternal & Child Health" signed with targets to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality by 2020. As a follow up quarterly RMNCH score cards for all provinces and districts are published and used to review the progress of programme implementation and various targets.

The Emergency Response Centre for Polio Eradication was established in Kabul and it started functioning in the last quarter of the year. Three more sub-national ERCs have also been established and they have began functioning.

In Education programme, the UNICEF supported CBEs and ALCs have began making a dent in the thirteen provinces with among the highest proportion of girls out of school. While the enrolments suggest that a good beginning has been made, it still needs to be seen, how these students eventually get integrated into the formal schooling system in higher grades.

UNICEF Afghanistan has began implementation of the new HACT guidelines fully and programme visits, spot checks, audits and other assurance activities are now an integral part of the assurance plan. The quality assurance unit established for the new programme gives support and guidance to all offices and progressively the assurance activities are being strengthened.

The overall implementation rate of the UNICEF programme of cooperation was stepped up considerably especially in the second half of the year and the utilization rates across all funds exceeded 95 per cent for RR and ORR. The gender ratio of international staff in the country office has improved considerably during the year. The ratio among national staff has only had a marginal improvement.

The year was also associated with some setbacks. These include:

In the polio eradication programme supported by UNICEF and WHO among others, despite an active Immunisation Communication Network comprising over 5,000 social mobilizers in 65 low performing districts maintaining the missed/refused children levels at 1.5 per cent and below, the number of polio cases during the year were 19 (compared to 28 in 2014). Some of the new cases were found in the western region

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Country Office PortalAnnual Report 2015 for Afghanistan, ROSA

including Farah and in the north posing newer challenges to the ongoing efforts for polio free Afghanistan.

The school construction programme although has progressed better than in 2014, still has about 35 out of 70 schools to be completed in the first six to nine months of the year 2016. The progress in 14 schools in Daikundi and 3 in Bamyan provinces are particularly challenging and it is hoped that the Ministry of Education will considerably strengthen its oversight of the contractors and improve the speed of construction when the winter season is over.

New promises and hopes for 2016 include the introduction of Chlorhexidine for newborn care in the Health system, the launch of the weekly iron and folic acid supplements for adolescents girls, the launch of the adolescents focused programme to strengthen education for girls and thus delay in marriage age in 33 districts of 9 provinces.

Humanitarian Assistance



The conflict between Afghan National forces and anti-government entities escalated in 2015 with the relatively secure northern and central regions experiencing increased violence that significantly affected the UNICEF supported programme. During the same period, flooding, avalanche and earthquake also affected the people of Afghanistan. Estimated total of 197,000 people were displaced due to conflict and natural disasters as at end of September 2015 where assessment was successfully conducted. These numbers are expected to increase following a new conflict in the Southern and eastern region where assessments are still in progress particularly in the contested and other remote areas, where access is severely restricted for humanitarian actors. A bottleneck analysis and localized coverage assessments conducted by UNICEF found that effective chronic malnutrition (stunting) treatment coverage in the country was only 30%.

The 2015 Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan (HRP 2015) estimated that 3.5 million people are in need of emergency water, sanitation and hygiene services; of which over a million are refugees/returnees while over half a million people were affected by increase in the natural disasters in 2015. The ongoing conflicts have significant impact on the provision of basic health services as well as other services hence further increasing the vulnerability of children in many parts of Afghanistan. At the time of report, over 29 health facilities have been closed due to fighting and threats against health workers particularly in Helmand, Nangarhar, Paktiya and Uruzgan provinces. Many more children continue to live in areas that are out of government control and do not have access to basic health services such as routine immunization against measles including polio. The increased conflict, criminal activity and general insecurity exacerbated the already low enrolment of school in some of the regions such as Western, Eastern and Southern regions where many of the schools were reported to be closed.

Overall, under humanitarian response in 2015, UNICEF was able to reach 1.69 million out of the targeted 2.62 million beneficiaries. Treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) reached 81% of the planned targets. Although this is a marked improvement in the number of children reached compared to last year, more still needs to be done to increase access to treatment services by increasing the number of health facilities providing SAM treatment, which stands at between 30 and 40%. The Protection Cluster covered 64% of the prioritized mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) decontaminations within 5km of a school, health facility or IDP settlement, while Mine Risk Education was done to 22% of the targeted caseload due to inadequate funding of which UNICEF response was to 10,571 children. Out of 25,000 children targeted with CPiE activities, only 24%, 5,931 individuals, have been reached with UNICEF supports.

In response to the avalanches, earthquake mud slides and the conflicts in Central, Northern and Southern regions in early 2015, UNICEF-WASH was able to reach over 300,000 populations with safe drinking water, adequate household latrines and basic hygiene education. Additional funds through CERF and concerted efforts with other UN agencies, gave impetus to the provision of basic services such as water, health and emergency, psychosocial support and education for over 150,000 Afghan refugees/ returnees children from Pakistan settled in Khost and Paktika provinces.

Overall, as part of preparedness plan to be able to rapidly response to various threats in Afghanistan, UNICEF prepositioned stocks of pre-selected emergency items in 32 locations in the country. This has helped to improve the response time of UNICEF to be able to reach the affected population in areas of WASH, health, nutrition, child protection and education sectors including with Non Food Items. In 2015, over 31,560 families (263,536 individuals) affected by conflict and natural disaster were directly supported of which significant numbers are children.

MTR of the Strategic Plan



The 2015-2019 Programme of cooperation is the first year of full application of the UNICEF global Strategic Plan 2014-2017. The Afghanistan country programme of cooperation has six out of the seven outcomes in the SP and has also adopted fully the Gender Action Plan 2014-2017.

Changes in the coding such as restriction of activity coding to only those that are related to the Targets of the respective programme area and Outcome has resulted in inadequately representing the actual country level expenditures to the Strategic Plan. For example, the Government of Afghanistan - UNICEF programme of cooperation does not have an outcome related to HIV/AIDS. There are however some nominal expenditures for PMTCT or for other prevention elements integrated within the Child and Maternal mortality reduction objectives of the Health programme. In the past, till 2013 at the country office level it was possible to accurately code expenditures so that global estimates for various outcomes were more accurate. However, the recent restrictions has led to country offices left with no option but to code expenditures inaccurately. Attempts to get this addressed have not had any response so far from the relevant HQ units.

Summary Notes and Acronyms

ACO - Afghanistan Country OfficeAPA - Afghanistan Paediatric AssociationAfES - Afghanistan Evaluation SocietyBBC - British Broadcasting CorporationBCP - Business Continuity PlanBSC - Business Support CenterC4D - Communication for DevelopmentCBE - Community Based EducationCBI - Competency Based InterviewCFS - Child Friendly SchoolCPAN - Child Protection Action NetworkCRC - Contract Review Committee- Convention on the Rights of the ChildDCT - Direct Cash TransferDRR - Disaster Risk ReductionEPI - Expanded Programme on ImmunizationERW - Explosive Remnants of WarGIZ - Deutsche Gesselschaft fur Internationale ZusammenarbeitGPE - Global Partnership for EducationGSSC - Global Services Support CentreHACT - Harmonized Approach for Cash TransferHRP - Humanitarian Response PlanICT - Information, Communication and TechnologyIDP - Internally Displaced PersonsIFA - Iron and Folic AcidIMAM - Integrated Management of Acute MalnutritionIMERP - Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation and Research PlanIMS - Information Management SystemIYCF - Infant and Young Child FeedingLTA - Long Term AgreementMHM - Menstrual Hygiene ManagementMNCH - Maternal, Neonatal and Child HealthMoE - Ministry of Education



MoLSAMD Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and DisabledMoPH - Ministry of Public HealthMoU - Memorandum of UndertakingMRRD - Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation DevelopmentNGO - Non Governmental OrganizationNNFI - National Neonatal Foundation of IndiaOMT - Operations Management Team (of UN)ORE - Other Resources (emergency)ORR - Other Resources (regular)ORS - Oral Rehydration SolutionPBA - Programme Budget AllotmentPER - Performance Evaluation ReportPND - Provincial Nutrition DepartmentPPP - Programme, Policy and ProceduresPSA - Public Service AdvertisementsRMNCH - Reproductive Maternal, Neonatal and Child HealthROSA - Regional Office for South Asia (UNICEF)RR - Regular ResourcesSAM - Severe Acute MalnutritionSIP - School Improvement PlanSMS - Short Messaging ServiceSOP - Standard Operating ProceduresTISS - Tata Institute of Social SciencesUNAMA - United Nations Assistance Mission in AfghanistanUNDP - United Nations Development ProgrammeUS - United StatesUSAID - United States Agency for International DevelopmentWASH - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (programme)WFP - World Food ProgrammeWHO - World Health Organization

Capacity Development



In 2015, UNICEF provided critical support to the Government of Afghanistan to develop capacities of ministries, primarily the Ministry of Education (MoE), Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD), and Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation, and Development (MRRD). Focus was on institutional and individual capacity-building on child rights.

Skills of 450 health providers were enhanced on maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), and 40 paediatricians trained on advanced newborn care. Knowledge of 900 vaccinators were enhanced. Quality of cold chain system was also improved through training, equipment, and procedure revisions.

For nutrition, a comprehensive training package/SOP was developed and capacity-building completed in 11 provinces for health providers to improve services of integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM), infant and young child feeding (IYCF), and micronutrient programmes.

UNICEF advocated for revision of the National Rural WASH policy and supported formulation of a National Strategy to End Open Defecation. Six partners completed a WASH-in-Schools course conducted by Emory University.

UNICEF enhanced skills of 457 school principals on Child Friendly Schools (CFS) and School Improvement Plans (SIPs). UNICEF also provided support to MoE for provincial trainings to accelerate implementation of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

UNICEF developed capacity through the Child Protection Action Network (CPAN) for case management, monitoring and reporting, coordination, quality referrals, and mapping of services. UNICEF upgraded the Child Protection’s Information Management System (IMS) and held trainings at national and sub-national levels. Additionally, 50 civil registrars were trained on birth registration database and 738 community level registrars on process.

Workshops in social protection conducted for MOLSAMD resulted in enhanced awareness and commitment to revise the existing social protection strategy. About 100 partners were trained in AfghanInfo and a mobile App, expected to enhance equity-based planning and policymaking.

Evidence Generation, Policy Dialogue and Advocacy



In the first year of its new Country Programme of cooperation, UNICEF held a high-level maternal and child survival event and contributed to generating new evidence and focused advocacy.

UNICEF, MoPH, and USAID conducted one of the largest public health events in Afghanistan’s history, a ‘Call to Action: Renewing the Promise for Maternal and Child Survival’ attracting more than 400 participants. Evidence on potential impact led MoPH to introduce new interventions (e.g., chlorhexidine, ORS/Zinc) and scale-up existing interventions in its health package. Quarterly RMNCH Scorecards representing performance of MNCH and nutrition indicators were released to improve accountability.

With Harvard School of Public Health, a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices study on polio was conducted. Partnership with BBC Media Action generated data on knowledge and practice gaps in communities.

UNICEF supported MoPH to establish a National IMAM Quality Assurance Cell for oversight and quality standards. A bottleneck and barrier analysis was introduced; priority provinces identified and planning undertaken to improve quality of supply, coverage and quality of services.

With Emory University, UNICEF initiated a study on menstrual hygiene management (MHM) with MoE and MoPH. Advocacy from ‘Call to Action’ contributed to development of the Ending Open-Defecation Strategy and increased funding for sanitation.

UNICEF advocated for inclusion of the CFS approach into pre-service teacher education curriculum, currently under revision. UNICEF sustained advocacy on girls’ education, reviving the Girls’ Education working group and agreeing with MoE to develop a comprehensive policy and strategy.

UNICEF supported research on children in situations of migration from Afghanistan with UNICEF Belgium, Netherlands, and Sweden. The report was launched in an expert meeting to guide the ‘Best Interest Identification’ in Europe on asylum procedures for Afghan children.

A formative study in Balkh province in advance of a cash transfer pilot project was completed.

Partnerships



UNICEF continued with key partnerships and initiated new partnerships with stakeholders invested in the child rights agenda in Afghanistan.

The ‘Call to Action’ in collaboration with MoPH and USAID brought together policymakers, implementers, partners, and other stakeholders to reaffirm high-level commitment to maternal and child survival. A key partnership outcome was signing of the ‘Kabul Declaration for Maternal & Child Health’ by all development partners led by the MoPH and MoLSAMD, with targets to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality, as well as stunting, by 2020. As follow-up, the Government of Afghanistan also committed to the new ‘Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health.’

UNICEF along with the WHO and MoPH created the Emergency Operations Center, which will be the command center for all Afghanistan polio operations; partnerships were created with the Afghan Cricket Board and Pact Communications, which produces Pashto-language radio soap operas.

For humanitarian action, UNICEF coordinates the Nutrition and WASH clusters. It is an active member of the Water and Sanitation Sector Group chaired by MRRD. In 2015, UNICEF established an informal WASH donor group to attract more donor funding to the WASH sector. Afghanistan successfully campaigned to represent South Asia on the Steering Committee of the Sanitation and Water for All initiative.

UNICEF collaborates with the MoPH, PND, and MRRD for supporting the implementation of the CFS approach. As Supervising Entity for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), UNICEF supported the MoE with the application for the next round of funding. As part of the overall GPE strategy, key partners at sub-national level were included in the Provincial/District Education Directorates for programme implementation.

External Communication and Public Advocacy



The Global Communication and Public Advocacy Strategy rollout influenced structural changes to the communication team. External Communication and Communication for Development (C4D) are combined so that behavior and social change interventions inform and influence policy dialogue and public advocacy, as well as community and media engagement.

Recruitment for key IP and National posts in both Kabul and in the zone offices preoccupied much of 2015. A roster of writers, photographers and videographers is being developed to capture children’s voices in multiple formats from remote locations where insecurity limits staff access.

A two-year partnership forged with the Afghan Cricket Board will maximize the game’s popularity to raise awareness of polio and child rights. Cricketers sharing social media messages helped to increase UNICEF Afghanistan’s Facebook engagement levels from 1 per cent in April to 9.7 per cent, and boost the fan-base by 69 per cent to more than 84,500 in November 2015.

Following the 26 October earthquake, UNICEF Afghanistan’s initial Twitter response garnered more than 87,000 impressions (compared to the usual 500-2000). It was picked up in the U.S. by well-known digital media websites and CNN.

Daily media monitoring demonstrates that child rights stories are gaining traction with a 28 per cent increase (1,370) over 2014, and that launch and campaign events (e.g. the ‘Call to Action’ and Global Hand washing Day) attract a high level of traditional media coverage. UNICEF supported MoPH to set up a dedicated website for the ‘Call to Action’ and engaged with young Afghans on Facebook.

Over 312 media personnel (78 female) were trained on child rights issues and ethical reporting on children and polio-specific media briefings for 200 Kabul-based reporters led to a noticeable spike in polio media coverage.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation



In 2015, UNICEF continued to support existing and new South-South collaboration opportunities to strengthen priority technical areas for Afghanistan.For MNCH, a broad framework for collaboration was established between the MoPH, Afghan Pediatric Association (APA), National Neonatology Forum of India (NNFI), and UNICEF to strengthen newborn care in Afghanistan. Through this framework, Afghanistan and India share knowledge, skills, expertise, and resources to meet their development goals for reducing neonatal mortality.

Through this cooperation, Afghanistan adopted India’s newborn toolkit to Afghanistan’s context and 24 professionals’ capacities in newborns care were strengthened. Afghanistan now has a group of master trainers to replicate this facility-based newborn care training. Indra Gandhi Institute of Child Health was selected as a center of excellence for newborn care; to improve and standardize newborn care in this hospital, a team of health service providers in newborn unit were sent to India to receive the “non-invasive procedures training”.

UNICEF facilitated the MoE to visit Zambia to study their national system for learning assessment. This delegation was led by the Deputy Minister for General Education. The modality for ongoing cooperation between the two countries on learning assessment systems is being developed. In addition, UNICEF facilitated the participation of the Minister of Education at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Beijing which has resulted in the MoE requesting support for developing pre-school education programs in the context of Afghanistan.

For child protection, UNICEF initiated an academic cooperation between Kabul University and TISS of India, including two academic tours to TISS and signing of an official bilateral MoU in Kabul in late 2015.

MoE staff participated in international learning exchanges related to WASH-in-Schools. Staff from the MRRD participated in the Pakistan Sanitation Conference.

Identification and Promotion of Innovation



UNICEF’s innovative measures in Afghanistan include use of mobile technology, initiating new pilots, and scaling-up successful pilots.For the Polio Eradication Initiative, UNICEF is using mobile technology in several ways in 2015:

i) Outbound messages (OBD) were sent via Mobile Operators to promote public awareness and knowledge of polio campaigns a few days prior to a campaign. Three rounds of OBD were implemented with a total of 3.6 million OBD received by mobile phone users.ii) Telephonic surveys of frontline workers (social mobilisers) were conducted to monitor payment and supervision; two surveys were conducted with around 4,000-5,000 people per campaign, for 13 sub-national and national polio campaigns.iii) PolioChat and Rapid-Pro SMS-based chat for provincial and district communication officers was scaled up to share information and feedback among Polio programme’s field personnel. Approximately 3,000 SMS were exchanged between Polio Provincial Communication Officers and Polio District Communication Officers.iv) Ringback Tones (RBT) service became activated in November 2015. Through this system, around 15,000 subscribers would hear polio message while the destination being called is ringing.v) UNICEF has begun producing animated TV ads, which have seldom been used for TV public health PSAs.

Other technologies included: a new web-based database for registering births and deaths in real-time; a mobile application for Afghan Info to make socio-economic data on Afghanistan easily available on smart phones.

To promote clean energy, UNICEF supported a workshop on solar pump for rural water supply in Afghanistan. It was aimed as a first step to scale-up use of solar power in rural Afghanistan.

Attention to the life-saving potential of specific health interventions led to: introduction of chlorohexidine for newborns; introduction of mobile ambulances for maternal and child health emergencies; and development of plans for using demand-side financing (conditional cash transfers) for improving utilization of services.

Support to Integration and Cross-Sectoral Linkages



UNICEF has put additional emphasis on cross-sectoral linkages in its 2015-19 Country Programme of cooperation, which is evident in the first year of implementation.

Hygiene Education, Health Promotion and WASH-in-Schools continue to be key areas of inter-sectoral collaboration especially in the context of the CFS approach. UNICEF supports the MoE to coordinate with other line ministries such as Public Health and Rural Development.

Groundwork for weekly supplementation of Iron Folic Acid (IFA) starting in 2016 was initiated with PND and MoE.

Internally, UNICEF’s programmatic areas are closely involved with adolescent programming. Prevention of child marriage under the guidance of UNICEF’s Programme Coordination is one example of inter-sectoral work, for which evidence on the issue was gathered. Design and implementation arrangements of adolescent (girls’) programming, supported by IKEA and US government (Gender) a key platform for inter-sectoral collaboration to reduce early/forced marriage, enhance school/education outcomes.

Social inclusion further brought the sectors together through support to various national surveys and compilation and analysis tools (DHS, Afghan info), capacity building measures and advocacy on child rights.

Greater inter-sectoral linkages and integration will be a major agenda especially in the ten priority provinces through various initiatives to further strengthen community demand and dialogue including through application of C4D strategies.

Service Delivery



UNICEF made substantial inputs in basic service-delivery across the country, focusing on deprived provinces. Highlights for 2015 include:

Health:150 facilities in 10 provinces equipped with necessary MNCH equipment/supplies. Almost 800,000 pregnant women and children in 10 provinces reached by 45 mobile-teams.742,570 children and same number of women in 5 provinces accessed vaccination programmes through construction of regional vaccine storage facility Kandahar.Approximately 1.2 million and around 6 million women accessed immunization services through timely supply of vaccines and non-vaccine supplies.

Polio:About 85 million doses of polio delivered to EPI centres. None arrived late and wastage-rate of polio vaccines decreased about 15%

Nutrition:The National Nutrition Cluster-mechanism is functioning well.Health facilities providing any SAM services increased from 635 in 2014 to 752. 125,076 children (57,386 boys, 67,690 girls) treated for SAM. The cure rate is 87%, death rate is 0.5%, defaulter is 13%. 210,595 children (36%) reached with micronutrients. 703,285 mothers/caregivers reached with IYCF messages.

WASH: The National WASH Cluster mechanism is functioning well, transitioned back to UNICEF from WHO.The WASH programme which has a significant service delivery component is almost exclusively implemented through government. Strengthening government structures, planning, supervisory and monitoring systems is an integral part of service-delivery.

Education:45,000 out-of-school children (41% girls) reached through CBE. Teaching and learning materials provided to 2.9 million children in 33 provinces. 450 school principals trained on implementation of SIPs.

Child Protection6,331 child protection violations responded to by CPAN (4,393 boys, 1,938 girls).326,706 newborns (53% boys, 47% girls) registered and issued birth-certificates. 413 (354 boys, 59 girls) children received free legal-aid support.150 children under 13 years of age reintegrated into formal education classes and accelerated learning.

Human Rights-Based Approach to Cooperation



In 2015, UNICEF emphasized human-rights based approaches in service delivery – humanitarian and development – and in its advocacy agenda.

For humanitarian response, support for life-saving interventions were delivered. For example, almost 61,000 mothers and children benefited from necessary supply and services during the emergency situations. Emergency newborn kits including warm clothes were distributed to 10,000 newborns, as well as impregnated bed-nets for preventing malaria among 10,000 pregnant women who were displaced in Gulan Camp of Khost province. The armed conflict in Kunduz province also resulted in referral of severely ill children and pregnant women to neighboring provinces.

The ending open-defecation component of the WASH programme exclusively focusses on the marginalized and remote communities – as these populations have higher open defecation prevalence rates.

An estimated 3.5 million children (70% girls) are estimated to be out-of-school and UNICEF supported the MoE in establishing over 1,700 community-based schools in 10 priority provinces and deprived districts of other select provinces.

Through CPAN, 29,283 community members (15,810 male, 13,473 female) including influential community leaders, women’s groups, adolescents, and children were reached through 934 ‘community dialogues’ sessions. This approach allows community members to understand and discuss child rights, and prevention and response to abuses of child rights. To ensure sustainability and local acceptability 550 provincial and district CPAN members and additional 320 women Shuras members were trained on community dialogues in 10 provinces. In addition to the above, 577 religious leaders were trained on child right in Islam in order to educate communities through Jumaa prayers preaches in 10 provinces.

Gender Mainstreaming and Equality



UNICEF in the 2015-2019 has integrated elements of the Global Gender Action Plan by developing an Afghanistan specific Gender Action plan for both programmes and for management including staff capacity development. Three gender-focused initiatives made major headway in 2015.

As part a multi-country initiative supported by the IKEA Foundation, UNICEF strengthened its youth and adolescent programme by introducing a project aimed at increasing the self-efficacy of adolescents, particularly girls, to reduce their vulnerability to violence perpetrated through harmful practices and to nurture their ability to act as agents of change in their communities. Similarly, UNICEF successfully fundraised US $6.9 million from the United States Government (USG) for implementing a programme to reduce the incidence of child marriage, mitigate its consequences, and increase agency of adolescent girls in 20 districts of five provinces. These cross-sectoral initiatives are multi-sectoral by nature.

The WASH-in-Schools programme has a strong gender equity dimension. Toilet facilities in schools are gender segregated and dedicated washrooms are added to the girls’ toilet for MHM. The hygiene curriculum in schools provides ample attention to MHM. Community WASH interventions are commonly done by male/female teams – usually partners or relatives – as otherwise female staff are not allowed to engage in outreach activities. This is found to be highly effective to reach women, most of whom are not allowed to talk or engage with male non-relatives.

Through the Community Dialogue campaign, Child Protection has been successful in influencing harmful social norms and in earning communities’ support for the protection of boys and girls. At least 15 child marriages have been prevented through the use of this tool in at least 15 cases of child marriage in Ghor and Badghis provinces.

In addition, specific capacity development initiatives were undertaken for staff in Kabul and Herat as well as with partners especially from the Ministry of Education.

Environmental Sustainability

Through the WASH programme, the main environmental initiative for UNICEF is scaling up the use of solar powered community water supply schemes. UNICEF and MRRD held a workshop attended by 66 participants drawn from implementing agencies and solar companies and other ministries such as the MoE and the Ministry of Water and Energy. To date, a total of 185 solar water pumping schemes have been installed across Afghanistan by various agencies. For the period 2015-16, UNICEF Afghanistan has plans to implement 42 solar systems. These installations will be at schools, health centres and in communities across all the regions. UNICEF also plans to undertake an assessment of the systems installed so far to get a clear understanding from the users’ perspectives and functionality status.

In Operations, UNICEF has replaced the windows with energy efficient double-glazed windows and replaced lights in corridors with energy efficient LED or low energy bulbs and thus reduce the carbon print of the country office operations. Other initiatives are being thought through as part of the OMP for 2016.

Effective Leadership



As of July 15 2015, 100% of the audit recommendations (18 of 18) had been closed and corrective actions for recommendations were continually addressed to ensure ongoing compliance. One of the audit recommendations related to the implementation of the Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT). To better implement HACT, the office established in January 2015 a Risk Assurance Unit that provides oversight to HACT and risk management. With the migration to the GSSC in January 2016, two additional Finance Assistants will start their activities in the unit making it even more effective.

The Risk Assurance Unit together with the Finance Unit conducted several spot checks to the extent that security permitted to ensure compliance with the rules and regulations. The closer oversight also provided a lower level of outstanding Direct Cash Transfers (DCTs) which is a more efficient use of assets. For the Business Continuity Plan (BCP), the office had the opportunity to utilize the BCP staffing plan on several occasions and further refine it to ensure operational efficiency during times when there were fewer staff. The security situation makes the BCP a dynamic document because national staff are frequently required to work from home.

The CMT meets on a regular basis and all mandatory committees have been established and staff members serving on the committees oriented on their function at periodic intervals.

To further strengthen the ethical practices in the office all staff in Kabul, zone offices and outposts underwent both the online course and a face to face orientation training course conducted by the Global Ethics Adviser.

UNICEF plays a major role in the UN OMT mainly due to their size within the country and is a member of the OMT’s major sub committees.

Financial Resources Management



UNICEF ACO continues to pay attention to financial risk management, especially at the start of the new Country Programme, with a larger budget compared to the previous one.

HACT was fully implemented starting January 2015 and the quality assurance unit relied more on the comprehensive monitoring of DCTs to reduce outstanding advances, follow-up of which can be restricted due to challenging terrain and insecurity. The office maintained outstanding DCTs over nine months at 0.4%, which met the UNICEF Global Key Performance Indicator of less than 1%.

Efficient resource management was ensured through the PBA monitoring system. Biweekly PBA monitoring reports were distributed to reinforce accountability towards efficient resource management. By the end of the year, RR and ORR funds utilization matched planned figures in the Rolling workplans.

UNICEF’s table of authority was updated every quarter to meet the needs of the office and high staff turnover. In November, frequency of updating was increased to one time per month. Training for budget owners, bank signatories and new staff was conducted to enhance understanding of financial rules and regulations.

UNICEF streamlined processes and minimized the number of intermediaries involved in funds distribution through use of a Direct Disbursement Mechanism and phone banking. This tool has increased transparency of multiple beneficiaries working for UNICEF.

The ratio representing a monthly opening balance to disbursement averaged 22%. Bank reconciliation was performed on time every month. UNICEF managed to close all bank accounts in the zones in line with transition to GSSC, maintaining only one local currency and one USD account for all offices. All transactions are also centralized in the Business Service Center (BSC), including all zonal offices, which helped staff to concentrate on managing programme activities. BSC also improved processing time and reduced errors

Fund-Raising and Donor Relations



ACO intensified advocacy and approached new donors for funding. Concerted efforts were made to strengthen the relationship with existing donors through regular and frequent contacts. As a result, 15 donors made new contributions in 2015 amounting to US$ 101 million. The new funding together with those re-phased from 2014 gives a total allotment to the country programme of US$232 million. Thus, 51% of planned OR requirement for the new country programme has already been mobilized.

The fundraising targets for Health, Nutrition and Education programmes for the five year programme appear to be on track. WASH programme prospects also appear to be good. Child Protection and Social Protection programmes have not had good traction for fundraising as yet to achieve the level of results in the CPAP.

To ensure optimal utilization of available funds, the office instituted monthly review meetings involving all sections and field offices to make sure that: a) no OR funds are lost due to expiry of the grants, b) funds are fully utilized and where necessary reallocations or reversal of expenditures from grants expiring in 2016 and beyond is done; c) close follow up to close or adjust all open commitments including those from 2014; d) closer examination of outstanding DCTs likely to cross 6 months, and initiating actions with partners to liquidate them on an urgent basis; and e) review donor report situation and take appropriate corrective action. During the last quarter of the year, these meetings were conducted every fortnight.

The overall utilization rates for both RR and ORR for the year are very good. A consultant was engaged to assess the quality of donor reports submitted in 2014 and 2015 and the recommendations in the assessment will be used by the office to further strengthen quality and timeliness of donor reports in 2016.

Evaluation

UNICEF’s Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Plan (IMERP) was used to effectively track M&E and research activities, and supported results-based programme planning and management. At present, IMERP contains 37 activities for 2015-2016, with estimated budget of US$ 4.43 million. Nearly 20% is allocated for 6 evaluations in the areas of social inclusion, child protection, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and WASH.

UNICEF in Kabul re-established its Committee for Research, Evaluation and Studies. Its purpose is to ensure high quality of studies, research, evaluations and publications generated or commissioned by UNICEF. By ensuring the quality of outputs, the Committee is contributing to office-wide knowledge management, which provides evidence for policy advocacy, fact-based planning with equity and decision-making on programmes and strategies.

Two of the evaluations completed in 2014 were rated by the Global GEROS system as being of high quality. UNICEF in Kabul has decided that fewer but high quality evaluations that are utilization focused will be the priority of the country office.

UNICEF is currently implementing evaluations on Child-centered DRR and Child Protection Action Network, two strategic evaluations. Each evaluation has a steering committee composed of members from line Ministries, UNICEF and implementing partners. In addition, Afghanistan is part of a multi-country formative research initiative on Menstrual Hygiene management.

UNICEF ACO is leading the formation of an Evaluation Society and developing an evaluation policy framework in collaboration with the Afghanistan Evaluation Society (AfES), an NGO recently established by national evaluation specialists.



Efficiency Gains and Cost Savings

A big boost to efficiency was the consolidation of all transactions for polio, education and health into the Business Service Center so as to streamline transactions processes at the country office level. Consolidation of the majority of the processes also improved efficiency for transaction processing to a few experienced staff so that the transactions were completed more quickly and with fewer mistakes.

ACO has taken measures to improve the energy efficiency by installing blanket insulation between the ceilings and roofs in Guest Houses. Also, all the windows in the guest houses and offices were replaced with double glazed windows, particularly efficient in the cold winter months to conserve fuel. UNICEF in the country office continued to share premises with other UN agencies where the security, maintenance and utilities are divided, lowering costs for the small offices with few staff. Approach was to move away from sharing with UNAMA because of the very high security costs and agendas that can put UNICEF staff at risk.

To minimize travel and thereby save costs, meetings and seminars are often conducted with all of the zonal offices using video conferencing. A major outcome after the review of the procurement and CRC processes was the streamlining and improvement of efficiency that resulted in shorter processing times.

The office piloted the homegrown-in-ROSA software called Travel to Field, to improve efficiency in creating TAs for domestic travel.

In 2015, a new medical center was established within the within the UNAMA compound resulting in better medical facilities for staff who now pay for treatment using their Cigna insurance cards, a savings of approximately $110,000 had UNICEF stayed with UNAMA’s clinic.

Although the replacement of the large generator in Kabul that gave UNICEF moderate fuel efficiency, the cost of fuel was substantially lower saving about $2,200 as of 15 November 2015.

Supply Management



Functioning in supply continues to improve compared to previous years. Implementation of supply and logistics strategy developed in 2013-2014, focusing on local/regional sourcing of education-materials, emergency-kits, school furniture, etc., allowed the office to reduce delivery time and significantly reduce port demurrage and container detention fees in the transit country, Pakistan. UNICEF established 69 local LTAs for procurement of goods andservices. In 2015, UNICEF made a strategic shift in procurement of education materials and school bags, based on the results of local market research and as a consequence moved the procurement of educational materials and school bags from China to Afghanistan. This initiative aims to improve quality of supplies, reduce delivery time, transport costs and demurrage accumulated at the port of entry and transfer all risks of loss-and-damages of goods in-transit to vendors.

UNICEF continues close cooperation with WFP in their logistics hubs where UNICEF-controlled warehouses have been established within WFP logistics HUBs in Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and Jalalabad. Decentralization of UNICEF-controlled inventory in three main logistics HUBs ensured the uninterrupted flow of supplies to UNICEF-supported projects and emergency response countrywide despite growing insecurity, armed clashes and closure of main roads connecting Kabul with provincial centres.

In 2015, UNICEF Supply Division, procurement services were facilitated for the MOPH,WFP, UNDP, World Vision, GIZ and Aga-Khan Foundation.

UNICEF continues to provide support to Government of Afghanistan in clearance of supplies from customs and in-country logistics. UNICEF pays considerable attention to capacity building of Government partners to strengthen national supply-chain. UNICEF constructed a 105 m3 capacity cold-storage facility at Kabul International Airport, improving functionality of National EPI Department.

UNICEF continues to actively collaborate with UN agencies on common procurement. UNICEF plays key role in joint working-groups on procurement and logistics coordination, co-organized procurement meetings, and actively participates in inter-agency solicitation processes and sharing local LTAs.

Security



With the departure of foreign forces and transfer of major security responsibilities to Afghan National Security Forces and Afghan National Police the overall security environment in the country has become unstable. Added to that the transition of leadership of Taliban in the country with appearance of DAESH elements in the eastern part of the country poses new challenges for secure and safe operations of the country programme of cooperation.

The Afghanistan component of the Global Staff Survey clearly showed that UNICEF staff in the country rate staff security as a major concern. The country office in Kabul, the four zone offices in Herat, Mazar, Jalalabad and Kandahar continue to operate in MOSS compliant premises. The frequent change of security situation and declaration of WHITE or GREY city alerts in various parts of the country continues to compromise the UNICEF work in the country. The BCP of the country office has been revised to assure minimally effective operations and flexible working arrangements for local staff when necessary.

A 'Duty of Care' survey has been conducted and its findings further updates the Staff security and counseling measures for all staff.

UNICEF continues to avail of the UNAMA/DSS counseling services at periodic intervals in both Kabul and its zone offices and outposts.

Human Resources

UNICEF ACO focused on ensuring an appropriate organizational structure is in place to achieve results for children. There were 106 vacancies at the beginning of the year and 59 vacancies by the end of November 2015 which is due to high staff turnover of international and national staff. The number of completed recruitments by end November was 73.

The office diversity ratio was 39% of IPs from donor countries by January 2015 which is now 40%. The gender ratio in favor of males was 82:18 in January 2015 and is currently 77:23.

Performance management reporting remains one of the main office objectives and UNICEF had 51% of 2014 PERs completed by end February 2015 as compared to 74.45% of 2013 PERs completed as of February 2014.

Staff development activities were completed all throughout the year. Due to insecurity within the country many group trainings were cancelled. Staff counsellors from UNDSS were involved with counselling services for staff, hence only 45% of the planned development activities was realized. In 2015, 56% of staff completed the mandatory online individual trainings.

The 2014 Global staff survey results indicated that UNICEF performed in the top 25% of country offices in ROSA and out of 16 dimensions that were surveyed, UNICEF responses were, in 14 dimensions, higher than the regional office and global responses. Ten staff completed HIV/AIDS training and there were four sessions for the 17 peer support volunteers countrywide. There were group trainings which focused on corporate priorities in the areas of gender sensitivity, PPP, Coaching, Managing performance for Results, HACT, Emergency Preparedness, Ethics, CBI, and supervisory skills. Training was completed for First Aid and Armored Vehicle driving. Five staff supported other country offices through missions and surge.

Effective Use of Information and Communication Technology



The ICT team played a key role in the UN System’s migration to a “One-UN” digital radio network which improved coverage and quality of radio communication across Afghanistan. UNICEF provides a common digital radio network for the UN system at seven locations in Afghanistan while WFP networks are used at the six locations where WFP is present.

The bandwidth upgrade on local ISP VSATs and the bandwidth management policies implemented on routers installed at each outpost location led to better connectivity, more collaboration between staff and facilitated remote administration and support by ICT personnel to offices with no dedicated ICT staff. The upgrade, which was at a re-negotiated and reduced price-per-Mb, also resulted in cost savings of ~$66,000/annum.

The ICT Section collaborated with the Knowledge Management Unit to develop an Afghanistan Sharepoint site which improved staff access to vital records/documents needed their work.

To meet global standards, 100 nonstandard laptops were replaced and the operating system on all user workstations was upgraded to the more secure and robust Windows 8. The enforcement of data security measures through systematic update of virus signatures and operating systems ensured mission critical data was always available to staff whenever needed. The electrical installation in the server room was remodeled/redone for staff safety and data security.

The universal Wifi solution was deployed with office and guesthouse bandwidth being merged into one link at each office location. The links are accessible to UNICEF authorized users at UN compounds in Kabul and the four zones; this enhanced connectivity at the guesthouses and reinforced staff capacity to telecommute for business continuity purposes.

Seventy learning events on telecommunications and standard UNICEF systems/applications were organized and 675 participants were trained on new and existing technologies to build their capacity, improve efficiency and ultimately increase productivity.



country office portal...progress of programme implementation and various targets. the emergency...

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