APPENDIX 5
Memorandum submitted by WOMANKIND Worldwide
SUMMARY AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Gains for women in Afghanistan over the last
year, while important, have been limited and the future is uncertain.
One year on there has been rapid disengagement on the part of
the international community which has a responsibility to ensure
that visible progress for a few women does not overshadow the
need for real gains for all Afghan women. Very little is being
done to actively empower women and this impedes women's participation
in the reconstruction process. The following recommendations flow
from the needs and areas prioritised by Afghan women and independent
experts based in Afghanistan and are crucial to future empowerment
of Afghan women:
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
DEVELOPMENT IN
AFGHANISTAN
Security
1. Seek ways to rapidly increase the personal
security for women beyond Kabul in public areas and at home.
Participation
2. Assist the Ministry of Women's Affairs
(MoWA) to develop projects for women. The MoWA should set standards
and co-ordinate their implementation. A central information exchange
and comprehensive survey of existing organisations would strengthen
co-ordination of activities and understanding of needs.
3. Develop structures supporting and guaranteeing
women's participation and raise the profile of women who have
effected change.
Networks, Alliances and Capacity Building
4. Encourage networking between local NGOs
as means of developing coalitions, raising awareness about political
processes and building local NGO capacity.
5. Invest in local NGOs and support the
formation of civil society groups such as mothers groups, widows
networks, parents-teacher groups and promote dialogue between
the groups.
6. Strengthen community-based women's decision-making
capacity and give training for women in leadership and representation.
Human Rights, Education and Awareness Raising
7. Prioritise judicial and constitutional
reform processes, which incorporate a women's rights agenda in
the country's post-conflict and development strategy, including
commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
8. Provide women with basic education, vocational
and technical training and develop awareness raising programmes
about the benefits of educating women and girls, for economic
development, strengthening of families, and realisation of women's
human rights.
9. Involve men, and particularly young men,
in questioning the predominant constructions of masculinity, looking
at personal and society-wide costs of the repression of women.
Facilitate alternative constructions of Afghan masculinity, through
linkages to other South Asian initiatives of this kind and global
movements including the White Ribbon Campaign. [21]
Employment
10. Develop support systems for women seeking
employment, such as travel arrangements and child care for women
working or studying, cre"che facilities for women able to
work and for those studying.
11. Ensure that salary and benefits packages
are high enough to attract women whose families would be willing
to make alterations to household and family management so that
women can work outside the home.
12. Provide refresher training for existing
professionals and enlist the help of returnees, many of whom are
highly educated, and train Afghan women abroad in project development
and administration.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO
THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY
13. Donors should ensure that funding reaches
communities outside of Kabul.
14. Strategies and programmes should be
developed with a view to long-term human development needs, not
only short-term emergency needs.
15. Current and future strategies of donors
in Afghanistan should demonstrate consistent implementation of
gender mainstreaming.
16. Donors should report on the impact of
spending on promoting gender equality and meeting women's human
rights.
17. DFID should prepare and publish a breakdown
of DFID's contribution to donor programmes in Afghanistan, with
clear indicators as to the impact that this spending is having
on promoting the rights of women and girls and the achievement
of gender equality.
18. DFID should act as an advocate for a
thorough gender mainstreaming approach within all donor co-ordination
activities in political dialogue with the government.
19. DFID should develop a programme which
promotes women's full participation in public life, through support
to the government and civil society organisations, particularly
women's groups.
INTRODUCTION
WOMANKIND Worldwide is an international development
and women's human rights organisation. We work with 70 partner
organisations in 20 countries in Africa, South Asia, Central and
Southern America and the Balkans and are now developing an education
programme in the UK. We welcome this opportunity to feed into
this important and timely inquiry into the current situation in
Afghanistan. Our response is divided into three parts: (1) changes
and needs (2) areas identified by Afghan women as key obstacles
to participation and empowerment; (3) recommendations to the international
community and DfID; and 4) conclusion. It is based on information
from Afghan non-governmental organisation, Afghan human rights
organisations and Afghan women's professional groups, international
development and human rights agencies and independent experts
and consultants. [22]
1. ONE YEAR
ON
1.1 Positive Change
The changes of the last year have had some positive
impacts. The demand for primary education for both boys and girls
has dramatically increased. Some women have returned to work and
women in Kabul have a degree of freedom of movement they have
not had for years. The creation of a women's ministry has been
very important and efforts are being made by the Minister for
Women's Affairs, Habiba Sorabi (and other women-led organisations)
to develop a programme of activities for women. Simar Samar, formerly
Women's Minister now heads up the Human Rights Commission. The
fast pace of change has also accelerated exposure to professional
Afghan women who had acted as powerful role models in their capacities
as doctors, nurses, teachers and so on during the conflict. Nevertheless,
while significant, the gains are small and for the majority of
Afghan women a huge number of very serious problems remain.
1.2 Persisting problems
The situation faced by the Afghan population
continues to be desperate. Afghanistan is one of poorest countries
in the world where the vast majority struggle to survive and face
enormous barriers to the realisation of their human rights. The
economy is in a state of collapse, basic infrastructure has been
destroyed and social services are either non-existent or extremely
inadequate.
1.3 As in many situations of such overwhelming
"humanitarian" need and complete absence of any form
of infrastructural support, there is the danger that addressing
long term strategic issues, including the institutional and attitudinal
factors behind gender inequality, will be deferred to some later
date. The non or slow arrival of funds pledged for Afghanistan
means there is an additional risk that the development and implementation
of even existing commitments to women's rights slips off both
the current and longer term agendas.
1.4 Even before the Taliban came to power
Afghan women's rights were severely curtailed. Under the Taliban
regime women were subjected to a wholesale attack on their basic
human rights, reducing their existence to one of survival. Combined
with the problems caused by living in a post-conflict resource-poor
country, Afghan women face extraordinary obstacles to social and
economic development.
1.5 Experience shows that if implementation
of women's rights and gender equality commitments is deferred
until "later", gender inequality is exacerbated and
the advancement of the entire community suffers. The promotion
of gender equality and the empowerment of women are critical to
the positive growth of civil society. The evolution of gender-equitable
development strategies are essential foundations for sustainable
development and reconstruction.
1.6 The tendency to blame Taliban interpretations
of Islam as the sole determinant of the status of women in its
entirety is fraught with problems not least because it is based
on the assumption that in non-Islamic countries women enjoy equality.
While the situation of Afghan women clearly has its own dynamics
specific to the history, cultural and religious tradition of Afghanistan,
many other problems are shared by women across the world. It will
take a good deal of sustained effort and very careful strategic
work to begin negotiating with key powerbrokers and stakeholders
for positive change.
2. PRIORITY AREAS
The international political commitment to women's
participation in reconstruction and development has been enthusiastic
but mainly verbal. Legally binding agreements such as the Bonn
Agreement have limited concrete commitments to women and the use
or appropriation of women's rights language by the international
community does not yet have basis in policy or practice. There
are no guaranteed targets for women's inclusion in Afghan political
or social life and therefore no framework for the monitoring and
evaluation of a gendered and women's rights approach.
2.1 Women's Security
Anxiety about personal security is overwhelmingly
cited as the major concern for women by women and women's groups
and it is the single gravest obstacle to women's leadership and
civil participation.
2.2 Security outside Kabul is extremely
poor. Military conflict and Taliban brutality have been replaced
by banditry and lawlessness. Many women have even said that the
Taliban regime had some advantages. It imposed law and order with
some savagery but at least under Taliban rule personal security
was guaranteed.
2.3 The International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) mandate does not extend beyond Kabul, and despite
a clear need and desire from the Afghan people for its expansion
until the domestic infrastructure is created to ensure security,
no commitment has been given by the international community. Most
live in fear of physical violence and threats to their personal
safety from other civilians or armed men belonging to various
political factions.
2.4 Absence of physical safety affects women
in gender specific ways: in particular they are more vulnerable
to rape and other sexual abuse. There have been reports of rape,
gang rape, acid attacks, girls being coerced into prostitution
(particularly in border cities) and general physical violence.
Traditional expectations about women's behaviour, reinforced and
institutionalised by the Taliban, have led to women being assaulted
for not adhering to former Taliban edicts that strictly controlled
behaviour, dress, expression and freedom of movement. Once outside
Kabul, women feel they have to continue to wear the burqua.
2.5 Recent reports point to increases in
small-scale forms of coercion, including systematic bullying and
blackmail relating to women's behaviour and dress, suggesting
that even the small advances made for women in the last few months
are being reversed. This is particularly the case outside Kabul.
Two girls' schools were recently burnt down in Northern Afghanistan
following distribution of pamphlets around mosques in the local
district warning women against casting off their burquas. There
was a similar campaign in May in Khandahar, when pamphlets were
distributed warning parents not to send their daughters to school.
2.6 The situation is not being monitored
effectively and the absence of human rights monitoring mechanisms
regarding Violence Against Women is of concern. Without fully
accounting for the security risk it will be impossible for women
to participate in political processes since simply travelling
to meetings or speaking publicly entails personal risks to safety.
2.7 Neither is the security situation being
fully accounted for in humanitarian/development projects: for
example, reports indicate that women refugees, when being invited
to make repatriation decisions, are not fully informed by UNHCR
of the security issues women face in Afghanistan and some are
not consulted at all since the male member of household takes
the decision (which contravenes internationals standards on refugee
protection).
2.8 Legal reform
Women continue to serve and receive harsh prison
sentences for "crimes" such as seeking to marry a man
of their choice, attempting to leave partners, and criticising
their husbands.
2.9 Constitutional Reform
Drafting the Constitution of Afghanistan is
one of the most important aspects of the coming two years in Afghanistan
as it will be the defining document of women's status as citizens,
as well as of an independent legitimate and self-ruling Afghanistan.
It is therefore vital that women are represented in significant
numbers in the constitutional drafting process and that efforts
be made to ensure women's rights are fully incorporated in the
new Constitution.
2.10 Women's groups in Afghanistan are endeavouring
to raise awareness about the importance of this issue and some
have carried out training of women lawyers, with the aim of feeding
into the process. However, while formal opposition to women's
emancipation and participation has been withdrawn, there are still
deep-rooted beliefs that women have an inferior position and must
play a subordinate role. There are also groups working inside
and outside Afghanistan to have articles inserted into the draft
constitution that limit the rights of women. The Department of
Vice and Virtue has reopened under the auspices of the Ministry
for Religious Affairs (although not officially sanctioned). Many
Afghan women leaders therefore stress the need to develop a human
rights culture within Islamic and cultural traditions, which underlines
the importance of supporting indigenous solutions and actors to
ensure that gains made for women are not rejected further down
the line as being "foreign" "un Afghan" and
"un Islamic".
2.11 There is no process or plans for a
national consultation process on the Constitution committed to
taking on board the views of women or to guarantee that the Constitution
will be informed by best practice from Islamic countries, and
no obligation for women to be represented on the Constitutional
Commission. Moreover, independent women's groups are severely
hampered by lack of funding and commitment from governance institutions.
2.12 Social Participation
The image of Afghan women as victims of Taliban
oppression obscures the fact that many assumed significant economic
and social responsibilities during the war. Many women inside
Afghanistan did incredible work providing basic services and many
other exiled women were very active in opposing the Taliban. These
women are the building blocks for the future of Afghan society
and wish to be represented in significant numbers in elected government.
At present there is little hope of this.
2.13 Political Participation
A Special Independent Commission (SIC) was appointed
by the UN for the convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga. Of 21
members only three were women. The SIC stipulated that the number
of seats reserved for women should be 11 per cent, not the 20
to 25 per cent figure Simar Samar then Women's Minister, had called
for. In the end, 200 (14 per cent) of the delegates were women,
which exceeded most expectations. They were vocal and visible
and, with other women who came forward as candidates, showed that
there are many women keen to participate in governance issues.
However many delegates felt they had been sidelined and expected
to rubber stamp decision made by others.
2.14 The confluence of a cultural hostility
to women as leaders in public, the legacy of lack of education,
training and self-confidence and the absence of formal structures
to assist women with political participation means the opportunity
to participate in reconstruction is at present very limited. There
are also high barriers to formal participation involving public
reputation and personal injury: the dismissal of Simar Samar sent
a very powerful signal to all women who might want to "speak
out".
2.15 Ministry of Women's' Affairs
An estimated $67 million is needed to establish
the Ministry of Women's Affairs programmes (including legal advocacy,
education, vocational training and health programmes) in all 30
provinces. However international "good will" has not
translated into proper funding. At present the MoWA does not have
a clear idea of its role. There seems to be little available expertise,
either Afghan or foreign, to assist in the formulation and implementation
of policies and mainstreaming gender throughout the Ministries
rather than treating it as an add-on and there is little coordination
between the MoWA and Ministries of Health and Education.
2.16 Barriers to NGO formation
A number of women's organisations that had operated
during the Taliban era are now working publicly, and other women's
organisations have been formed. However, they face serious obstacles,
not least the government's requirement of a $400 registration
fee for new non-governmental organisation. There is a complete
lack of co-ordination or networking which would strengthen a co-ordinated
response to women's needs and this has been increasingly cited
by women's organisations as a major obstacle to enabling them
to begin projects empowering women.
2.17 NGO Capacity & Networking
Women's groups are often weak as they lack experience
and capacity enable them to mobilise and most have little or no
money. The little money that is directed to local NGOs is not
channelled to empower women as leaders but tends to be taken by
Afghan men driving their own priorities. Furthermore, fragmentation
and factionalisation of Afghan society also applies to Afghan
women, where there is an urgent need for resources to enable women
to network and build coalitions to reconcile divisions based on
education, economics, ethnicity, geographic differences and tensions
between returnees and women who have remained in Afghanistan over
the years.
2.18 Civil society development
The Taliban sought to ban all women from public
life. The requirement that women only travel if accompanied by
a male relative meant it was very difficult for women to meet
each other. They were unable to play any role in political processes
and were excluded from all forms of formal and informal governance.
Overcoming this legacy will require an array of support structures
which should include; giving women the opportunity to learn about
the reconstruction process and feel knowledgeable and confident
enough to participate; creating mechanisms to enable women to
build networks to assist potential parliamentary candidates coming
forward; establish formal structures such as quotas empowering
women to take up participation opportunities; and educating men
in the right of women to participate and the benefits of them
so doing. "Afghan women have constantly had their rights
taken away and given to them by Afghan men who used them as a
symbol of modernisation or alternately impeccable Islamic moral
credentials. All Afghan women need ownership of representation
in the reconstruction process. Women's perspectives and leadership
must be included within all the ministries and outside government,
in civil society and at the community level." [23]
2.19 Co-ordination
Afghan women come from different traditions
and ethnic groups and their circumstances differ. This must be
addressed in the immediate and long-term development. The issues
of health and education receive the bulk of international attention
yet the next two years will require careful analysis and thought.
2.20 Health
Women's health status in Afghanistan is abysmal.
The maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan is the second highest
in the world, with 17 deaths per 1,000 live births, 16,000 women
die every year as a result of pregnancy related causes. 12 per
cent of women have access to healthcare while internally displaced
women have almost no access to health care. [24]In
the context of the Millennium Development Goals and the targets
to reduce maternal mortality, the international community, working
alongside the Afghan Government and CBO's must make a concerted
effort to make up for the huge gaps in provision of reproductive
health services for women. However, beyond efforts focused on
improving women's reproductive health, there is a critical lack
of data on women's health that does not relate to reproduction.
2.21 In response to the needs surrounding
women's health many development projects are now seeking to provide
health services to women, through service such as mobile clinics.
2.22 The problems resulting from a lack
of services are compounded by the fact that women are rarely seen
as a priority—women have to be very seriously ill before
men will pay for medical assistance. The vast majority of girls
and women also suffer the effects of years of malnutrition resulting
from traditional preference for males, which means women often
eat men's leftovers, or reduce their food intake in favour of
men and children. Psychological trauma is also widespread and
related to many other health problems; post-traumatic stress disorder
felt by women (and men) demands a large-scale culturally-sensitive
programme and one which should be operational before drug addiction
becomes the answer.
2.23 Education
As with health, many development projects are
now focused on education. In the past year the demand for primary
education has skyrocketed and 1.6 million children are now being
educated. Here again there is still a long way to go and advances
made for girls still fall far short of those made for boys. Opportunity
for primary education is currently about 39 per cent for boys
and 3 per cent for girls. The future for most girls is still seen
as marriage so parents are reluctant to invest in education for
girls since the benefits accrue to other families. Moreover the
urban-rural divide in terms of provision for and attitude towards
education is huge. Outside cities, there are reports that a majority
of men are still very reluctant to allow education of women and
are forbidding girls to go to school.
2.24 What is clear from both these examples
is that responses which focus on simply addressing the immediate
problem—health or education will not substantially empower
women in the long term. Only a multi-layered comprehensive approach
incorporating a women's rights agenda on many levels will be able
to ensure women's development. Using a narrow set of indicators,
such as numbers of girls and women's in schools to measure gains
for women will not pay sufficient attention to the long-term nature
of transforming gender roles and the incremental nature of change
in gender roles.
2.25 Human rights education for women and
men
Women's health will not dramatically improve
if direct assistance programmes are not accompanied by broad education
and the implementation of human right standards that, for example,
prevent discrimination in health care provision, establish a legal
minimum age for marriage, establish birth control programmes and
so on. Similarly, men as well as women need to be educated that
not only is education a fundamental right, it also improves the
long term development of families and communities. Public education
campaigns should be conducted to raise peoples awareness of human
rights and gender equality.
2.26 Widows
There are an estimated 50,000 widows in Kabul
and 2 million in Afghanistan. Widows are among the most impoverished,
vulnerable and powerless in the population yet they are for the
most part overlooked in development/humanitarian assistance programmes
because they are frequently isolated and have so far been unable
to organise themselves. They therefore lack the collective voice
with which to articulate their concerns to local and national
bodies.
2.27 Many female-headed households are particularly
vulnerable in Afghanistan where the ability of women to work and
support their families is severely limited. Lack of a male intermediary
continues to affect widows' access to services, shelter, food,
health care, counselling, training, education services, income-generating
projects and legal representation. Because of family poverty or
lack of male protection, girl children of widows are less likely
to be sent to school and more likely to be found working in high-risk
informal sector undertakings. They are more vulnerable to prostitution,
trafficking and forced marriage. When humanitarian assistance
is channelled to widows it is often the case that they suffer
abuse from male leaders, who control them in order to access food.
2.28 Widows in camps on the Pakistan border
have expressed anxiety about returning to Afghanistan in the absence
of guarantees for their personal safety, or health and education
opportunities. Since women are still unable to enter into contracts
for accommodation they cannot rent. As they age, these women will
present increasing social, economic and health problems if their
needs are not addressed.
3. THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY
WOMANKIND welcomes the international community's
speedy response to the reconstruction and development needs of
Afghanistan. Donors' political and financial commitments at the
Bonn and Tokyo Conferences are vital to advancing the human rights
of women and men. It is encouraging to see donors co-ordinating
their activities in Afghanistan, through the World Bank and other
major agencies. However civil society organisations have major
concerns about strategies for reconstruction and development,
the implementation of policies, disbursement of funds, and the
impact of programmes in terms of gender-equitable development.
3.1 Priorities in donors' strategies and implementation
Donor funding is compounding and exacerbating
rural-urban divisions in Afghanistan, as Kabul is enjoying the
bulk of contributions from the international community. There
is an enormous unmet need for women and men, girls and boys outside
of Kabul.
3.2 Although it is clear that immediate
needs are great, the international community must maintain a long-term
vision of reconstruction and development. Addressing strategic
issues, such as shifts in attitudes about gender equality, must
be included in strategies both for reconstruction and long-term
development.
— Donors should ensure that funding
reaches communities outside of Kabul.
— Strategies and programmes should
be developed with a view to long-term human development needs,
not only short-term emergency needs.
3.3 Gender mainstreaming in donor policies
and national government plans
The case for specific, targeted measures to
address gender inequality could not be more clear in Afghanistan,
given the enormous gaps in gender equality. The majority of international
organisations and agencies involved in the reconstruction process
have made commitments to "respecting human rights especially
those of women".[25]
However no single agency is leading to ensure that this actually
happens. Most of the "immediate measures" recommended
by the Secretary General in his report "The situation of
women and girls in Afghanistan" have received insufficient
attention. [26]
3.4 World Bank is leading the international
community's response in Afghanistan. The World Bank strategy for
this work, the Transitional Support Strategy (TSS), pays insufficient
attention to gender equality and women's human rights. The Strategy
notes the importance of gender equality in the analysis of the
country context and states that women and men must be equally
involved in policy development. But in the "hard end"
of the policy—on funding and implementation—it is
unclear how this commitment to gender equality will be carried
out.
3.5 World Bank's strategy is based on and
supports Afghanistan's National Development Framework. The national
strategy contains one small paragraph on gender and does not mainstream
women's human rights and gender equality throughout the strategy.
3.6 The contribution of the Department for
International Development (DFID) to reconstruction in Afghanistan
is occurring through initiatives headed by multi-lateral donors.
WOMANKIND Worldwide has concerns that the current donor strategy
in Afghanistan will not enable DFID to meet its commitment to
mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policy and programming,
as established in the Target Strategy Paper for Poverty Eradication
and the Empowerment of Women and the Beijing Platform for
Action.
3.7 Therefore, at both a donor and national
government-level, commitments to gender equality and women's human
rights are evaporating in the move from political rhetoric to
practice on the ground.
— The policies and practice of all
donors in Afghanistan must address gender equality and women's
human rights. Current and future strategies should demonstrate
consistent implementation of gender mainstreaming.
3.8 Lack of data on gender impact of donor
funding
Despite the enormous need for programmes that
directly meet women's needs, donor agencies involved in reconstruction
and development do not report on what, if any, of their projects
specifically empower women. This is in large part due to a lack
of targets and indicators on gender equality established at the
outset of programme design.
3.9 DFID is not funding any bi-lateral projects
that focus exclusively on women or gender equality. According
to DFID officials, the international community is responsible
for promoting women's full involvement in the reconstruction and
development process, but they could not comment on activities
that are having a specific impact on women.
3.10 It is not acceptable that donors are
not able to demonstrate the impact of funding on promoting gender
equality and women's human rights, in the context of donors' commitments
to gender mainstreaming (through the Beijing Platform for Action
and the Guidelines developed under the OECD Development Assistance
Committee).
— Donors should report on the impact
of spending on promoting gender equality and meeting women's human
rights.
— DFID should prepare and publish a
breakdown of DFID's contribution to donor programmes in Afghanistan,
with clear indicators as to the impact that this spending is having
on promoting the rights of women and girls and the achievement
of gender equality. These should correspond to the Millennium
Development Goals relating to gender equality and include other
indicators such as political participation and economic empowerment.
— Given its track-record and institutional
commitment to gender equality, DFID should act as an advocate
for a thorough gender mainstreaming approach within all donor
co-ordination activities and in political dialogue with the government.
3.11 Gender equality and political participation
The full and equal participation of women in
politics and public life is the bedrock of a sustainable and successful
national development plan. Evidence to date of donors' priorities
and spending show little attention to this issue, despite the
enormous need identified by Afghan women.
3.12 DFID is well-placed to promote women's
participation in public life, given its commitment to good governance
(established in the Target Strategy Paper, Making governments
work for poor people) and its experience in facilitating the
participation of poor people in the development of Poverty Reduction
Strategies. Such a strategy should include:
— strengthening the Ministry of Women's
Affairs, through direct budgetary support, and working the Ministry
to establish a platform for engagement with civil society;
— strengthening national machineries
for consultation with civil society, through dialogue with the
national government and direct budgetary support; and
— building the capacity of civil society
organisations, particularly women's organisations in both rural
and urban areas, to participate in dialogue for political reconstruction,
through provision of resources.
CONCLUSION
Barely one year on there seems to have been
rapid disengagement on the part of the international community.
This is the case in terms of the lack of effective political pressure
on Afghan leaders to include women in reconstruction as well the
fact that promised funds have not materialised.
4.1 Despite no shortage of lessons learned
on the importance of gender mainstreaming in the reconstruction
processes and of incorporating women at the earliest stage, in
practice both multilateral agencies and non-governmental organisations
employ only a few women in the country (often in administrative,
secretarial or domestic roles) and some, though not enough, fund
a few projects which focus exclusively on women's needs. Both
these are better than nothing, but little will be achieved for
the empowerment of women if these agencies compound the invisibilisation
of women in the reconstruction process.
4.2 Women's concerns need to hold centre
stage and strategies adapted so that they begin with a gendered
analysis and such an analysis continues to form the basis of all
aspects of a support process including planning, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.
4.3 The reconstruction process needs to
be tackled on different fronts, infrastructural development and
civil society engagement especially women's needs to be structured
into the process from the outset. The participation of Afghan
women in the future of their country rests on developing coherent
policies that will genuinely empower women to participate in all
aspects of civil and political life. A set of co-ordinated policies
is required that apply both to the rural and urban, which address
women's immediate material needs as well as agenda setting and
implementation efforts—the education of women and men, boys
and girls, and so on.
APPENDICES
Taking Stock: Afghan Women and Girls Six Months
On, WOMANKIND Worldwide, July 2002. Not printed. See www.womankind.org.uk/documents/balance.htm
REFERENCES
Afghanistan, Gender Guidelines, Report of the
EC Rapid Reaction Mechanism Assessment Mission.
Physicians for Human Rights "Maternal Mortality
in Heart Province, Afghanistan".
"The Collaborative Fund for Afghan Women
in Civil Society," Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Amelia Nice
Advocacy Officer
WOMANKIND Worldwide
October 2002
21 WOMANKIND Worldwide successfully works with partner
organisations on projects addressing masculinity and gender roles.
The White Ribbon Campaign is the International Campaign Against
Violence Against Women which focuses around 25 November, the International
Day Against Violence Against Women. On this day, and the 16 days
of global human rights activism which follow, activities take
place in over 20 countries focusing on bringing violence against
women to an end. Back
22
WOMANKIND Worldwide has been co-ordinating the Working Group
for the Rights of Afghan Women, since November 2001. The Working
Group is an international interagency network, initially set up
by OXFAM, Amnesty International and WOMANKIND Worldwide. Its objective
is to ensure that the voices of Afghan women are heard and that
their rights and needs are systematically addressed in the reconstruction
and development of Afghanistan. WOMANKIND Worldwide is now also
in the process of developing an in-country programme in Afghanistan. Back
23
Afghanistan, Gender Guidelines, Report of the EC Rapid Reaction
Mechanism, page 10. Back
24
UNIFEM, http://www.unifem.undp.org/afghanistan/. Back
25
DFID Background briefing, September 2002. Back
26
The situation of women and girls in Afghanistan: E/CN.6/2001/2/Add.1
(25 January 2001). Back
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