NordenBladet — Finland suspended its development co-operation with Afghanistan after Taliban wrested control of the country. Despite this, the results of the past 20 years of cooperation are not wasted, says Senior Specialist Merja Mäkelä.
In the 2000s, women working in professions have, through their example, influenced attitudes in their communities on the social status of women in Afghanistan. Photo: VWPics / Press photoMerja Mäkelä worked as Special Adviser on Development Policy at the Finnish Embassy in Kabul from autumn 2020 until this summer.What did development co-operation achieve in Afghanistan?Significant progress has been made in Afghanistan particularly in education and health care. The status of women and children in Afghanistan improved, and both maternal and infant mortality was halved. Most girls were able to begin education, when girls were disallowed from attending school entirely the last time the Taliban were in power. The number of women in government increased considerably, and the latest figures for this year show that 36 per cent of teachers and 29 per cent of all officeholders were women. Women have been able to participate in local decision-making, and living conditions have improved in many areas.Freedom of expression has also improved over the past two decades, and Finland has supported the growth of a professional local journalist community through an NGO project. The project provided training for some 500 women journalists between 2009 and 2017.Operating conditions for the private sector improved thanks to new roads, better access to electricity, Internet connections and the adoption of an electronic tax return system, among other things. Development in the most critical industries, agriculture and mining, proved less successful as attracting investors to conflict zones is extremely difficult.Finnish aid money has been used to build schools and health clinics and improve water supply and sanitation.Finland has supported humanitarian mine actions to successfully clear mine and other explosives from the ground. In 2017, 80 per cent of Afghanistan’s land area where mines have been used had been successfully cleared, after which the amount of various explosives again began to rise.Afghanistan has been a country in conflict for several decades. As a result, development co-operation efforts have been difficult or impossible in many areas, particularly rural regions, as government and NGO employees have feared for their lives. The most significant progress was made in cities.How much of the aid went to supporting girls and women?Improving the status of girls and women was taken into consideration in all projects supported by Finland.For example, water supply in schools and villages and toilets built in schools have a direct impact by making life and schooling easier for girls. Teacher training was aimed particularly for women so that girls would have a chance to participate in the classroom. Schools were given funding based on the proportion which girls made up of pupils. In the geophysics project for the mining sector that improved the capabilities of the Afghanistan geological survey institute and Ministry of Mines to explore and control mineral resources, nearly half of the students trained for field work were women. In the MISFA microfinance programme by the World Bank’s Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, around 70 per cent of borrowers were women who owned small businesses.Finland has been a staunch advocate of human rights in Afghanistan. Among other efforts, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has helped give citizens the possibility to report on human rights violations against them through the Afghan Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).Finland has also given long-term support to the development and implementation of Afghanistan Action Plan 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which guarantees women’s opportunities for meaningful participation in peacebuilding, reconstruction and conflict prevention.Are all these achievements now in vain?No, at least not entirely. Thanks to the long-term development co-operation by Finland and the international community, Afghanistan’s citizens are more educated, healthier and better informed. This is an achievement that will not go to waste.Women who have worked as teachers and doctors have changed Afghan society and the attitudes of both men and women in their communities. The same is true for numerous educated and influential women journalists, artists and human rights activists.For example, development co-operation strengthened local decision-making and increased the participation of women. More than 16,000 villages set up committees to manage the funds needed to provide basic services. In all these communities, women were able to become involved in decision-making.All in all, many areas of Afghanistan’s civil society have strengthened over the last two decades, including the media, NGOs and informal joint action by citizens. The Red Cross has helped establish a volunteer organisation in the country that continues to operate actively in the current crisis.Young people in Afghanistan, especially in cities, are networked and active on social media. Nothing like this happened when the Taliban were last in power.How do we know whether the aid got through?Finland’s bilateral aid to Afghanistan was sent primarily through international organisations, such as the World Bank, Unicef and the UN Entity for Gender Equality, UN Women. These organisations were also supported by many other donor countries and handled large sums of joint funding from an international community of donors.The use of funds by the World Bank’s Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund was regularly audited by a third party. The same was true of the water supply and sanitation project by Unicef. Third-party experts audited the projects’ accounts, payments, purchases and payrolls systematically and extensively. The results of projects in villages were also inspected by independent third parties.Development cooperation around the world is always done under difficult circumstances. In Afghanistan, rife corruption has presented a particular challenge. In 2019, more than 90 per cent of Afghans named corruption as a serious problem causing the most damage to ordinary people.Between 2014 and 2020, a total of five cases of suspected misuse of funds and abuse were reported related to development co-operation and humanitarian aid by Finland to Afghanistan. All of the cases were investigated.The most serious of these had to with suspected abuse uncovered in 2019 related to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, which is managed by the World Bank. Audits revealed inconsistencies in the way procurement guidelines had been followed and documented. The total sum concerned was USD 3.9 million, which the Afghan government repaid to the World Bank. Finland has been one of the project’s 19 funders since 2014.What happens now to development co-operation?It is too early to tell as the Taliban has not yet formed a government and it is not clear under what conditions aid organisations could operate in the country in the future.Several organisations backed by Finland, such as Unicef and MSIA Reproductive Choices, have been able to operate in Taliban-controlled areas in the past. They are likely to be able to continue their work in the country.Finnish CSOs together with their local partners are assessing the preconditions for continuing their activities. The Finnish Red Cross is carrying out a health programme in remote village communities that fall outside the reach of the public health care system. Fida is working on the Afghan dental health care programme in Herat Province together with its partner, Shelter Now International. The Family Federation of Finland and its local partner, MSIA Reproductive Choices, is providing reproductive and sexual health services at clinics.
Source: Valtioneuvosto.fi