Following the change in authority in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021, UNHCR introduced a rapid assessment methodology to quickly assess humanitarian and protection needs throughout the country as part of scale-up by UNHCR to respond to the unfolding crisis. The assessments were carried out between October - December 2021.
The primary focus of the assessments were IDPs and IDP returnees who account for the majority of the households interviewed in these assessments. Nonetheless, as UNHCR takes a whole-of-community approach in its assistance programme, vulnerable host community members were also assessed, alongside a small number of refugee returnees, asylum seekers and refugees, as well as deported and spontaneous returnees under an area-based approach.
The majority of the assessments were conducted in the Southern Region due to the fact that conflict increased over JuneJuly 2021 in the South and people were displaced into urban areas and could not be reached. When the fighting subsided following the change in authority on 15 August 2021, many families immediately returned to their places of origin. As their needs were assumed to be high, they were prioritized for assessment.