Livelihoods and Integrated Health Strengthening in Afghanistan and Pakistan

This Lives in Dignmity Grant Facility-funded cross-border livelihoods and health project (June 2022 - December 2024) in Afghanistan and Pakistan, implemented by CARE Afghanistan & Pakistan, Afghan Women's Resource Center (AWRC), and Sarhad Rural Support Program (SRSP), addressed the multiple interconnected challenges facing displacement-affected communities along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where refugees and internally displaced persons lack access to essential services and income-generating opportunities, with women and children being particularly vulnerable due to limited healthcare and economic access, further exacerbated by climate-related hazards and political instability following Afghanistan's 2021 regime change. The initiative adopted a unique holistic, needs-based approach rather than status-based targeting, allowing it to reach undocumented refugees, internally displaced people, and Afghanistan Citizen Card holders in Pakistan, while implementing an innovative cross-border strategy with activities designed to build complementary skills and assistance, such as providing adaptable resources like Khurasani goats well-suited to Afghanistan and seeds that could thrive in both countries. Key achievements included providing vulnerable households with poultry, livestock, fodder, and kitchen garden supplies on both sides of the border, training 98 local women as community health workers and midwives, conducting vocational training in diverse practical skills including food processing, livestock management, tailoring, mobile phone repair, and carpentry, implementing solar-powered water systems that improved access to clean drinking water for more than 30,000 refugees and individuals, and demonstrating exceptional adaptability by successfully pivoting during Afghanistan's political transition to expand health sector activities while maintaining livelihood support through community-based approaches, creating a sustainable framework for supporting displacement-affected populations across complex political and geographical boundaries.