Humanitarian Access SCORE Report: Afghanistan

Under the CORE research programme, supported by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/OFDA), Humanitarian Outcomes is studying how aid is delivered in hard-to-access conflict areas. In partnership with GeoPoll, the project conducts remote telephone surveys of crisis-affected people on their perceptions of the effectiveness of the aid response and the access challenges in their areas. Combined with key informant interviews of humanitarian responders and other contextual research, the survey results help identify the humanitarian providers and practices that have achieved the greatest presence and coverage in difficult environments. The Afghanistan SCORE report surveyed 450 people (51% male, 49% female) in the provinces of Baghlan, Helmand, Herat, Kandahar, and Nangahar (selected for relatively high need and access challenges) in September 2019. Surveys were conducted by live operators in the relevant languages (Dari or Pashto). A follow-up survey was conducted in January 2020 with 100 of the original respondents who had agreed to be surveyed a second time to provide more in-depth information. The research team also conducted anonymous interviews with 10 humanitarian actors in Afghanistan, including NGOs, UN agencies and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.