Afghan Women’s 10-Year Action Plan Needs Stronger Vigil to Meets Goals
By Kumar M Tiku & Farima Naderi
Kabul: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”. In a twist to this adage by Albert Einstein, the modern day feminists, reflecting on the rather slow and tortured progress on women’s equality in Afghanistan would be excused to say, ‘whatever cannot be counted does not count.”
Counting – in development parlance also known as monitoring and evaluation – progress on the National Plan of Action for Women of Afghanistan or NAPWA 2007-2017, was the subject of a comprehensive brainstorming that took stock of strategies to make stronger monitoring the centerpiece of systematic and time-bound achievement of targets for women’s empowerment in the country.
Nadira Geyah, Director, DOWA, Kunduz province, a feisty government official and mother of six daughters and three sons believes that the first pre-condition for NAPWA implementation in the provinces is the setting up of a strong coordination mechanism that involves representatives of the provincial administration as well as other leading actors such as key local influencers, civil society organizations and the media. “NAPWA is a national commitment. Agencies like the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) should emphasize NAPWA in their official correspondence with local and community-level administrators”.
Ms. Geyah notes that adherence to traditional orthodoxy and regressive cultural mores have meant that women in her province find themselves surrounded with many obstacles to their growth and mobility. “It is a rare man in the province that will allow his wife, daughter or sister to work outside home from eight in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. Especially, when it involves sharing the workspace with men. As a representative of MoWA in the province, I have never shied away from making use of the media in building awareness about women’s rights. I involve every section of government officials but also voluntary organizations”, Ms. Geyah says.
The fragile security situation has not deterred this powerful voice form Kunduz from speaking her mind on the stark situation of women in Kunduz . “I try to lead by my own example. I have been working in the district for the last 10 years, four years as the director of DoWA. I am also actively involved in the peace process”.
“Sometimes, despite being very supportive, my husband caves in to the threats. He has asked me more than once to give up my job for the sake of my daughters and for making sure their family lives in peace. But I tell him, “If I leave this job, no other woman will take this responsibility on. I have to make sure that the NAPWA commitment of 30 per cent allocation of the provincial budget goes to women in priority social and development sectors. I must go on”.
The UN Security Council Resolution 2041 emphasizes the imperative to promote and protect the rights of Afghan women and girls and to protect them from violence and abuse.
The NAPWA (2007-2017) is a 10-year plan of action by the Government of Afghanistan to implement its commitments to women constituents. These commitments are provided under the Afghan Constitution as well as international treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The purpose of the action plan is to ensure continuity and consistency in government efforts to protect women's citizenship rights in Afghan society through equality and empowerment. Its vision is to build a peaceful and progressive Afghanistan where women and men both enjoy security, equal rights and opportunities in all aspects of life.
Incidents of violence against women still remain largely under-reported due to cultural restraints, social norms and taboos, customary and religious beliefs, discrimination against women that leads to wider acceptance of violence against women, fear of social stigma and exclusion, and at times threat to life. Those incidents that reach law enforcement and judicial authorities or receive public attention through the media due to their egregious nature represent the tip of the ice-berg of incidents of violence against women throughout the country.
The women of Afghanistan are among the worst off in the world, both in comparison to Afghan men and with women of most countries. Their situation is particularly poor in the areas of health, deprivation of rights, protection against violence, economic productivity, education and literacy and public participation.
The NAPWA focuses on six sectors that are critical in accelerating the improvement of women’s status in the country, namely security; legal protection and human rights; leadership and political participation; economy, Work and Poverty; health; and, education.
Speaking at the conclusion of the training session on monitoring and evaluation of NAPWA implementation process, M&E priority indicators, and mainstreaming gender in public organizations, the Afghan Minister for Women’s Affairs , Ms. Shah Bano Ghazanfar exhorted the women civil servants to play an effective role for the NAPWA implementation in identified sectors by collecting the data about the progress. “All of us are working for the benefit of Afghan women and we should convey our message for the NAPWA implementation to the relevant provincial governors so that they give at least 30% budget to the women as laid down in the action plan, the Minister observed”.
Yuxue Xue, a senior UNDP official who addressed the Opening Session noted that world experience had shown that women‘s empowerment and gender equality can only be attained through participation, support, and partnership between and among women and men. It is equally important to eliminate discrimination against women, develop their human capital, and ensure their leadership in order to guarantee their full and equal participation in all aspects of life.
Khadija Yakeen, 48, director, department of women’s affairs, Baglan, says one of the contributing factors for impressive strides being made in improving women’s participation in Baglan has been the growing interaction among government officials and civil society organizations.
One indicator of increased participation in the government work-force in Baglan is the growing response to recruitment announcements. Entrenched social issues were keeping women from applying in big numbers. This has changed thanks to a big focus on awareness- raising.
“An ambitious awareness-building drive involving care-providers and officials responsible for service delivery in the province has been unleashed. Gender training programmes have emphasized the importance of the Constitutional law on women’s rights. The international community has played a big role in supporting training initiatives aimed at the heads of departments”, Ms. Yakeen avers.
A graduate in economics from Kabul University and a veteran field worker, Ms. Yakeen says she is fortunate to have in her husband a major pillar of support to push the women’s empowerment agenda in Baglan. “He is also a civil servant and intrinsically understands the importance of women’s participation in public life”. I did not face any serious obstacles also since there is a high acceptability of the Presidential decree among local officials.
Today, aside from Ms. Yakeen there is at least one more woman officer in Baglan working at a senior decision-making level, as the director of Information and Culture. Perhaps more heartening is that fact there is a significant number of women working at the middle rungs of the bureaucracy in the province, as teachers, health workers and computer trainers and office staff.
In the health sector, while even until a few years ago, women doctors, and in particular mid-wives, were unwilling to travel to the districts for fear of security and the prevailing cultural norms. Today there is a sea-change in Baglan as more and more trained mid-wives are travelling to the villages and districts to assist deliveries.
Noting UNDP support to strengthening oversight of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to NAPWA implementation, Mr. Xue said while progress may be slow, change appears to be on the horizon. “Women are now having better access to the justice system, better access to alternative support mechanisms, and in general their level of awareness about their rights and those of the communities in which they live, are increasing and as a result women are being recognized as equal members of the society with their male counterparts. UNDP is happy to continue its support for the implementation of NAPWA for the empowerment of women in Afghanistan”, he said.
Rahima Zarifi, Director, Policy and Planning, MOWA, says the MOWA vision is that after ten years of NAPWA implementation, Afghanistan is seen as a country that met all its goals and targets, with close coordination among men and women at all levels to make sure that we have major achievements in all provinces of Afghanistan.
“We are going to proceed in the process of M & E, technically and systematically, until we get the results. We are learning from the challenges and gaps. All of this helps us plan better for the future. Awareness-building, capacity enhancement of Afghan women and strong monitoring and evaluation are key to MOWA’s vision to achieve the NAPWA goals”.
Altogether, over 70 directors of the provincial department of women’s affairs and provincial heads of Policy and Planning Units attended the first-of-a-kind stocktaking that put the spotlight sharply on efforts put in train by the Government of Afghanistan since 2008 to ensure a better future for the women of Afghanistan. The stocktaking initiative was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).