How to Contribute

• NEW! To assist the most vulnerable communities affected by sudden onset emergencies and urgently requiring food, water, shelter and other basic needs, please DONATE ONLINE to the Afghanistan HF - click here. Through this rapid and flexible response mechanism your contribution can be truly life-saving! Your donation is administered by the UN Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization registered in the United States (EIN/tax ID number: 58-2368165). Your donations are fully tax-deductible in the United States to the extent allowable by law.

Fund Dates:

• Start Date: March 2014
• End Date: N/A

Key Documents:

• Operational Manual (March 2021)
• Memorandum of Understanding
• Humanitarian Fund Standard Administrative Arrangement (SAA) template

Overview

The Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund (HF) is a pooled funding mechanism established in 2014 for humanitarian activities in Afghanistan. Under the overall authority of the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC), it is intended to give the HC greater ability to target funds to the most critical humanitarian needs, and enable efficient, rapid response to unforeseen circumstances.

Priority humanitarian projects responding to needs as identified in the Afghanistan Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP) are eligible for HF funding. The CHAP outlines the annual strategic and operational plan for the UN and NGOs' assistance in Afghanistan and is developed in consultation with humanitarian clusters operating in the country. 

This website is not the official Afghanistan HF website, but the UNDP Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office information website on the Afghanistan HF. To visit the official Afghanistan HF website, click here.

The Afghanistan HF is administered by the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF Office) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in accordance with its financial regulations and rules.

Objectives and Allocations

The Afghanistan HF has four main objectives:

1. To promote needs-based assistance in accordance with humanitarian principles.
2. To  improve  the  relevance  and  coherence  of  humanitarian  response  by  strategically funding assessed humanitarian action as identified in the CHAP process.
3. To strengthen coordination and leadership, primarily through the cluster system and function of the HC.
4. To support and strengthen priority clusters and regional priorities in accordance with identified needs.

The Afghanistan HF is intended to improve humanitarian response by: providing early funding to the humanitarian actions; strengthening the planning and coordination process; tying the funding allocation to the CHAP; broadening participation in the CHAP; channeling funds towards the most urgent needs; and ensuring that funds are available for rapid responses to unforeseen circumstances.  There are two mechanisms for allocating funds:

• Standard allocations, which will be generally used to allocate the bulk of the resources and to ensure funding for priority projects in line with the CHAP. Every year two standard allocation will be facilitated.
• A reserve allocation mechanism called the HF Reserve, which will be used for the rapid and flexible allocation of funds in the event of unforeseen needs or to address strategic humanitarian needs.
• The HC also allocates funding to support the direct cost of OCHA’s Humanitarian Financing Unit (HFU) for managing the HF and the grants for NGOs.

Governance

The Humanitarian Coordinator (HC)

The overall management of the Afghanistan HF is led and coordinated by the HC, supported by the Humanitarian Financing Unit (HFU) and advised by the HF Advisory Board. The HC is responsible for:

• Resource mobilization;
• Defining allocation amounts and priorities;
• Authorizing disbursement of funds to partners;
• Reporting to donors on Afghanistan HF operations;
• Overseeing the process of fund-level monitoring, reporting and evaluation;
• Chairing the HF Advisory Board;

The HF Advisory Board (AB)

The HF Advisory Board represents the views of the donors, UN agencies of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and the NGO community and provides guidance and advice to the HC on strategic and policy issues. The Advisory Board is consulted in the prioritization of humanitarian action and the development of Allocation Strategies as well as in to recommend projects for funding to the HC. It also serves as a forum to share information on funding coverage to strengthen donor coordination and to avoid duplication of funding. Due to the advisory nature of the Board, with decision making ultimately resting with the HC, recusal procedures do not apply to its membership.

The Humanitarian Financing Unit (HFU)

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) serves as the HF technical unit and is responsible for managing the allocation process in Afghanistan. For participating NGOs, funds are channeled through OCHA’s Humanitarian Financing Unit (HFU) which performs the function of the Managing Agent (MA). Under the management of the OCHA Head of Office, the HFU supports the HC in the coordination and management of the Afghanistan HF. The main responsibilities of the Unit are:

• Strategic and policy advice to the Humanitarian Coordinator;
• Administration of NGO projects: the Managing Agent role;
• Project Cycle Management for UN and NGO projects;
• Coordination of monitoring and reporting processes;
• Resource Mobilization;
• Sensitization on and Socialization of the HF;

The Administrative Agent (AA)

To support uniform and consolidated financial reporting, the Afghanistan HF is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in accordance with its financial regulations and rules. UNDP serves as the Administrative Agent (AA) on behalf of the Participating UN Organizations. The UNDP MPTF Office, in its capacity as the Administrative Agent of the Afghanistan HF, undertakes the following functions:

• Receives, administrate and manage contributions received from Donors;
• Disburses funds to the PUNOs and IOM in accordance with the decisions of the HC;
• Provide periodic (annual and final) financial reports on the Afghanistan HF Account to the HC, contributing donors the Afghanistan HF Advisory Board and PUNOs;
• Provide the Humanitarian Coordinator, the HF Advisory Board and PUNOs with the statements of donor commitments, deposits and transfers to Participating UN Organizations and other financial information related to the Afghanistan HF, available directly from the publicly accessible MPTF Office GATEWAY (http://mptf.undp.org);
• Provide necessary information and assist the HFU, as needed on HF fund administration issues.

Decision-Making Process

The Eligibility Process

In order to become eligible as HF partners, NGOs interested in applying for funding under the HF Afghanistan have to participate in a Capacity Assessment process. The Capacity Assessment process is comprised of two inter-linked steps, each with its own review and feedback system to ensure transparency. The first step is the initial Due Diligence review, a desk study of NGOs’ institutional capacity, policies and manuals conducted by the HFU. The second step is a fully fledged Capacity Assessment through an independent third party, reviewing the partner’s institutional capacity and programmatic ability in depth. Eligible partners, based on the individual score obtained during the Capacity Assessment, will be categorized in three risk-level categories. The score will also determine the appropriate operational modalities and control mechanisms that will be applicable to them as defined under the HF Afghanistan Accountability Framework. Details on the eligibility process and application forms can be obtained on http://www.unocha.org/afghanistan/eligibility-process.

The Proposal Submission

The Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) issues an Allocation Strategy to guide the allocation process, based on available humanitarian information, as well as humanitarian priority needs and cluster response plans. Participating UN Organizations, eligible Non-UN Participating Organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are invited to submit project concept notes or full proposals to apply for HF funding according to the provided criteria and within a set timeframe as indicated in the Allocation Strategy.

The Proposal Review & Approval Process

The Afghanistan HF uses the Grant Management System (GMS) for Concept Note and Project Proposal submissions and the overall project cycle management. In Standard Allocations, the Concept Note prioritization, based on a quantitative system scoring for strategic, programmatic, financial and monitoring strength, is carried out by the Strategic Review Committees, led by the respective Cluster. Concept Notes are then recommended for funding to the Advisory Board and the HC, who endorses chosen Concept Notes for elaboration into full Project Proposals. After their submission, proposals are reviewed for technical and financial rigor and cluster coherence by Technical Review Committees which convene within each cluster and include representatives of NGOs and UN agencies with sector-expertise, the OCHA HFU and cluster lead agencies. Finalized projects are submitted to the HC for the final funding decision.

The HC then informs the recipient organizations of the allocation decision and instructs the Administrative Agent (AA) of the HF to transfer funds to the relevant organizations. Disbursements to Participating UN Organizations and Non-UN Participating Organizations such as IOM are then made directly through the AA. Disbursements to NGOs are made through OCHA, performing the function of the Managing Agent in Afghanistan.