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Dept for International Development

Answer

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the total sum of short- term bridging funding has been by his Department for the development of livelihoods monitoring through the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit; and what the findings of the monitoring have been. [178065] Hilary Benn: DFID provided £50,000 to fund the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit in 2003-04 to assess the information generated by the Vulnerability Assessment Mapping review in 2002 and the contribution that information made to the programming of humanitarian interventions and its potential value to 2003. DFID is also providing £538,536 funding to a consortium of NGOs consisting of ACF, GOAL and Save the Children (US) to pilot a standardized round of data collection, analysis and dissemination for the National Surveillance System in seven provinces. The piloting phase focused on testing methodologies and data collection techniques appropriate for the Afghanistan context, building capacity and structures at the provincial level to collect and manage data and use the findings to advocate for programs and/or target resources for already existent programs, and providing information on the feasibility of running an effective national level system. It also provided in depth information on livelihoods, food security and nutrition situation in the seven provinces where government surveillance units were active. To further develop a national methodology, implement a second round of data collection and link results to programming, and further develop capacity of key government staff at district and provincial levels. The completion of these activities will lay the groundwork for an EU funded four-year project for the 2004 National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment to be implemented through the Vulnerability and Analysis Unit of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. This is scheduled to start in July-August 2004.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

178065; 422 c658W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

International assistance Monitoring Statistics Research Afghanistan

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk