Strengthening Humanitarian Capacities in Afghanistan With ReportHub

Afghanistan grapples with one of the world''''s most severe humanitarian crises, with an estimated 28.3 million people (two-thirds of the country’s population) in dire need of assistance or protection. iMMAP is supporting active humanitarian organizations through tailored information management (IM) training and workshops, enabling them to better respond to the urgent needs of those affected.

Between March to February 2022, iMMAP empowered 538 humanitarian professionals with critical skills on its platform ReportHub and IM, to respond to the country''''s humanitarian crisis. The contributions of these partner organizations were essential in the timely compilation of Afghanistan''''s 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) figures. iMMAP''''s efforts are playing a crucial role in addressing the increasing needs of Afghanistan''''s vulnerable population, making a significant difference in the lives of those affected by the crisis.

According to the latest data provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 218 humanitarian operational partners (127 National NGOs, 79 International NGOs, and 12 UN agencies) are providing humanitarian assistance across all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.

Considering the needs of the partners, iMMAP trained 538 Humanitarians in 26 rounds of training, representing staff members of 136 organizations from the Health, WASH, Food Security, ES-NFI, and Protection Clusters. The training sessions have primarily focused on iMMAP''''s own platform, ReportHub, which streamlines information flow between clusters, partners, and the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in support of the HRP. Training categories range from brief introductions to advanced practical sessions, catering to the diverse needs of humanitarian professionals from different backgrounds.

To ensure a seamless integration of the ReportHub platform into the humanitarian response efforts, iMMAP has also conducted ad-hoc training sessions to introduce and familiarize new focal persons, coordinators, and IM officers (IMOs) with the platform. These training sessions provide comprehensive guidance on how to effectively use the platform to its full potential, collect, and submit clean and accurate data.

iMMAP''''s internship program has also trained 3 interns in 2022, who now work as data analysts and junior web developers. Their support in maintaining and updating ReportHub and the Humanitarian Spatial Data Center (HSDC) will contribute to effective humanitarian response efforts. With the iMMAP internship program, participants have discovered their true potential. As one IM/GIS Intern expressed,

iMMAP capacity strengthening program played a vital role in the country’s humanitarian response in 2022 by:

1. Timely reporting: Trained partners efficiently create, edit, and submit reports, and visualize data, facilitating consistent reporting of operational data to clusters, sub-clusters, and OCHA.

1. Improved Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC): By submitting and reporting operational data, humanitarian professionals addressed gaps, aided response, and assessed progress toward HRP targets.

1. Knowledge gap reduction: Training reduces the knowledge gap, enhances national staff capacity for efficient operation, improving humanitarian response amid the high turnover of international staff in Afghanistan.