]]>
"Before I was dependent on my husband, but now I have my own money," Alam says with a smile.
Alam is a member of a self help group in the small village of Shar-i-Buzurg in the northern Afghanistan province of Badakhshan. As part of a larger rural livelihoods program funded by the Oxfam Canada and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Oxfam has started self help groups for women in 10 villages.
Each group, with an average of 20 women, receives $300 in revolving funds to help the women start small enterprises. Oxfam also provides training and ongoing support to help the women manage their new businesses.
Alam is one of the first three women selected by the group members to start her own business. She recently completed repaying her loan and the group is now selecting a new batch of women for loans.
"We support each other's businesses," said another group member. "Whenever I need to buy something, I go to one of the other women's shops."
Alam says her husband was originally unsure about the idea of his wife starting a business. But now that he has seen the shop's success, he has become one of its biggest supporters.
"But if my husband wants something from the shop, he has to pay for it like any other customer," Alam laughs.
Badakhshan, a largely rural province with little infrastructure, has one of the highest poverty rates in Afghanistan. Persistent drought means that many families go hungry in lean years and malnutrition levels in women and children are high due to limited dietary options and lack of access to vitamin-rich foods.
Women in Badakhshan face even greater challenges. It is considered one of the worst places in the world to give birth—for every 100,000 live births, 6,500 mothers die—and just one in five women are literate. Highly conservative gender norms have meant that women's access to health facilities has been limited to those few clinics with a female doctor. Marriage for girls as young as 12 has been common and few adult women have completed primary school.
However, Nasima Sahar, the Oxfam gender officer in Badakhshan, is seeing some positive changes.
"When I started working here in 2002, the women were reluctant to even tell me their names because they thought it would bring shame upon themselves and their family," says Nasima. "Now they seem like completely different women, they have more confidence and you can tell how excited and motivated they are."
Training and support for the self-help group includes educating women about domestic violence and child marriage. Along with this, gender training is also being provided to more than 1,400 "change makers" across Badakhshan—men and women who have the power to change opinions and attitudes, such as religious leaders, doctors and government officials.
Oxfam is also supporting a local partner organization to provide literacy classes for 450 women in Badakhshan and runs an incentive program to attract qualified female teachers from the provincial capital to move to remote, rural areas of Badakhshan.
"Without a female teacher, many families are hesitant to send their girls to school," Nasima says. "Only 70 girls attended the school before the incentive program began, but now there are over 1,100."
Based on this success, Oxfam is now expanding this initiative to provide incentives for additional female teachers.
Though she never had the chance to complete primary school, Alam has higher hopes for her daughter.
"I got married when I was 12 or 13," Alam says. "But now my daughter is in secondary school, and I won't let her get married until she has completed university and is at least 22!"
]]>Even one event like this—and there are others including flash floods, shortages of fodder, drought—can have devastating consequences on the availability of food, especially for people who depend heavily on their animals and agriculture. Decades of conflict have prevented many of them from being able to strengthen or diversify their means of making a living.
It is harsh realities like these that a $250,000 Oxfam program has helped to remedy for 2,000 families in 40 villages scattered through the Daikundi and Bamiyan provinces. With high-quality seeds, some technical training, and a boost from a supply of fertilizer, families were able to grow a whole range of produce.
"This is the first time in my life that I have eaten these vegetables," said one 65-year-old resident of Jingan village, showing off a pumpkin plucked from a garden that also produced lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, and tomatoes. "We now save money and have a better diet."
But the program has done more than just help people produce new harvests. It has planted the seeds for their future development, too. Literacy classes for women, construction of a pair of greenhouses, and training in animal breeding to improve local herds were also among the projects initiated in this remote region.
Though a great deal remains to be done before villages can wrench themselves free of crippling poverty, projects that help people improve their standard of living have fed the aspirations of many.
"I hope that one day I will be able to read and write and will know what is happening the world around us," said a young mother named Razia, who brings her one-year-old daughter to the literacy classes sponsored by Oxfam in the village of Gochan.
The literacy classes, held in 20 communities, have been so popular that villagers have asked Oxfam to offer them for men as well. For girls who have never had the opportunity to go to school, the classes give them the basics in reading and writing—with the hope that some students will be able to continue with their educations in nearby schools.
Education, in fact, is the basis for much of this rural development initiative—from villagers learning about new seeds to improved husbandry practices. The ultimate goal is to help make sure that food is more readily available for many of the people in these rugged communities. Families chosen to participate include those caring for handicapped children, ones headed by women, and households without land and little opportunity to earn an income. All told, about 14,000 people have indirectly benefitted from the program.
With basic diets of bread, tea, and only occasionally a bit of mutton, villagers showed particular interest in learning about vegetable gardening. In separate classes for men and women, participants learned how to cultivate an array of new seeds, how to fertilize the soil, and when to harvest the vegetables and process them, too.
But challenges remain. Adverse weather and limited water often add up to small harvests. And farmers need more training on sustainable approaches to agriculture, such as through the creation of seed banks.
The establishment of orchards—a new activity for many people—also sparked interest. Thirty farmers each received 100 saplings including walnuts, pears, apples, almonds, apricots, and peaches. And 10 farmers also got the tools needed to graft fruit trees to aid in the creation of new orchards. Courses offered farmers training on the establishment and management of nurseries and garden design.
Oxfam also provided training on animal breeding and livestock management. A total of 26 new calves were born under the program and 20,000 animals received vaccinations against a host of ills including parasites and liver worms.
"Given the multi-dimensional nature of poverty and the past decades of conflict and insecurity, the local communities still have a long way to go in establishing sustainable community structures, livelihoods and environmental protection," said a final report on the project.
What's the answer? Oxfam sees the need for a long-term commitment to these villages so that local people can become empowered to undertake development initiatives that would ensure greater food security for everyone.
]]>Household contributions to education are steep and deter new entrants. Those in schools are faced with inadequate educational materials, textbooks, and teachers. Budget allocation and spending in the education sector by various stakeholders remain largely uncoordinated and opaque.
This briefing paper outlines some of the key concerns, and proposes a plan for not only increased funding, but also reforming budget allocation and planning within the Ministry of Education and amongst other actors in the education sector.
]]>The report card (for grades 1-9) recognizes that Afghanistan has made progress in enrollment, but finds key gaps in school completion rates, policy management, quality of education and available resources.
Despite the increase in school enrollment, more than half of Afghanistan's children don't attend primary school. Less than 34% of those enrolled are girls.
Drop-out rates are high, particularly among girls. Of those attending primary school, only 9% go on to secondary school.
Female teachers are scarce. In one province there is one female teacher for every 152 male teachers. Increasing the number of female teachers is essential to increase the enrollment of girls.
HRRAC recommends that international donors honor their commitments to provide sufficient and long-term funding for Afghanistan and ensure adequate steps are taken to increase the enrollment of girls and improve the quality of education.
The Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium is a group of Afghan and international organizations working in the fields of humanitarian relief, reconstruction, human and women's rights, peace promotion, research, and advocacy. It was established in early 2003 to engage in proactive research and advocacy on human rights issues over a sustained period.
Consortium Members
Afghan organizations
Afghan Development Association
Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission
Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (advisory organization)
Agency for Rehabilitation and Energy-conservation in Afghanistan
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (advisory organization)
Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance
Cooperation for Peace and Unity
International organizations
Oxfam International
Mercy Corps
Ockenden International
CARE International
Rights and Democracy
Save the Children Federation, Inc.