Our Programme In Depth

WOMANKIND’s involvement with Afghanistan began in November 2001 as an urgent imperative to address the issue of women’s rights at the earliest stages of the country’s reconstruction.?

Together with Oxfam and Amnesty International we established the Working Group for the Rights of Afghan Women, with the key aim of ensuring that Afghan women’s rights and needs are appropriately, and systematically, addressed in their country’s reconstruction and development.

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Women meeting in Afghanistan
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In April 2003, with support from the Foreign Commonwealth Office and the Ajahama Trust, WOMANKIND began its in-country work with the establishment of the Afghanistan Empowerment Programme. The programme’s focus is on women’s civil and political participation and violence against women (VAW); giving Afghan women the practical skills and resources they need to take a full and active part in their own lives and their country’s reconstruction. Working closely with our Afghan partners to set up training workshops on rights awareness, as well as basic vocational skills training, the programme supports and enables women to become active decision-makers within their families, their communities and their country. In addition the programme works to address issues regarding violence against women and to provide practical support and advice to those women suffering from violence.

Progress so far

Our programme currently operates in Kabul, Jalalabad, Mazar-I-Sharif and Peshawar where WOMANKIND’s partnerships are involved not only in human and civic rights training but in helping build contacts with local NGO’s; government ministries and policy makers. They have submitted recommendations on women’s rights to the Constitutional Commission; helped the UN Assistance Missions to Afghanistan with registration of women, particularly in rural areas; and continue to work closely with the Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA). Through our work together, thousands of women from refugee backgrounds have already received literacy training and basic health education – vital information which they give back to their families and communities, enabling even more women to move out of poverty and become self sufficient. Many more women have benefited from rights-awareness workshops which focus on women’s civil and political rights – information which again returns to their communities and continues to generate women’s own empowerment.
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The next step

With financial support from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), WOMANKIND has just launched a 5 year programme in Afghanistan. As well as building on existing programmes, this will focus on:

The creation of a women’s political campaign
Training of female election observers from all provinces
Continuing rights awareness and leadership training, as well as advocacy initiatives at all levels

Our Partners In Afghanistan >>

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