Age discrimination

Afghanistan's success hinges on success for its citizens - all citizens. That is the rationale behind directing foreign aid toward women, as suggested by the July 18 announcement from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on a new $200 million program.

Yet there's a catch to the Promoting Gender Equality in National Priority Programs: "The five-year plan, called Promote, is expected to increase economic, social, and political participation of women between the ages of 18 and 30 through education, job training, microfinance and credit for female entrepreneurs, and training for policymaking."

The purpose of an age limit for the USAID program is unclear and could contribute to uneven development in a country where resentment already runs high.

Meanwhile, US laws protect USAID employees and contract employees from age or gender discrimination, as outlined in Promote's request for proposals. Likewise, assessment criteria for funding programs, such as those of the United Nations, often encourage inclusiveness. Despite laws and protections, discrimination, particularly age discrimination, can go unchecked and unreported even in the United States because of lack of awareness about laws or embarrassment.

Age discrimination is linked with gender discrimination, suggests the UN Women Coordination Division in its report Between Gender and Aging:

"Inequalities in income, education, and employment across the life cycle expose many women to poverty in old age," the executive summary notes. "As the status of women in many societies is linked to having a husband, widows are particularly vulnerable to poverty." The UN report goes on to report that "older women have not benefited equally from the progress that has made in tackling violence and abuse, often failing to be accounted for in both gender and ageing research and policies" – and suggests that "concerns over the situation of older women have largely been ignored."

To counter the challenges for older women, the UN Women Coordination Division recommends a lifelong approach to education, support for empowerment and priority for "the needs of rural older women in public policy."

The design of USAID's Promote program focused on young, urban women counters these recommendations from the UN Women Coordination Division and could add to Afghan divisions. Granted, 68 percent of the Afghan population is under the age of 25, yet 77 percent live in rural areas. The 365-page request for proposals from USAID vaguely connects youth with education by explaining that the Promote program will "invest in opportunities that enable educated women (i.e, women between 18 and 30 years of age who have at least a secondary education) to enter and advance into decision-making positions in Afghanistan's public, private and civil society sectors."

The request stresses an expectation that selected participants will "work towards ensuring the welfare, rights and opportunities for all Afghan women." To its credit, the USAID request for proposals suggests a program risk is failure to garner support of male family and community members and it seeks to ensure that "skills and knowledge imparted to beneficiary organizations and their staff are sustained and replicated/ disseminated to others."

That is not enough. USAID coordinators should know that many applicants already self-select in not pursuing jobs and other opportunities. Coordinators could have emphasized diversity, eliminating age, gender and urban requirements – and ensured welfare, rights and opportunities for all Afghans. The criteria could have been left at attainment of a secondary education – thus targeting men and women of all ages who support fair policies and women’s rights.

Donors should be commended for targeting vulnerable groups that have been historically neglected, yet program exclusions should be crafted with great care based on sound research and good reasons. World Bank research in Afghanistan suggests that development programs mandating female participation can increase mobility and income for women, but may “not change female roles in family decision-making or attitudes toward the general role of women in society.” And a study cited in the USAID request for proposals notes that “the Afghan culture places a considerable emphasis on respecting elders because of their knowledge, wisdom, and experience, which explains why older transformational leaders are usually more successful in influencing the Afghan population.”

Expanding the pool of applications can add to an organization’s workload and costs, yet exclusion without good reason can neglect individuals of great talent, including the Afghan men who support women's rights and are also essential for the national stability. To ensure social cohesion, USAID should revise the conditions and open the program to more applicants.

Photo of entrepreneur at women's bazaar, arranged to allow women to sell handicrafts to NATO troops, courtesy of Maj. Meritt Phillips, US Army, and Wikimedia Commons. The woman's age is unknown, but if she's under 30 she's out of luck for the new USAID program.

Slowdown

Interest in infrastructure development for distant lands comes and goes, relying on the political, economic and security interests of not just one country, but two and sometimes more. 

The US Agency for International Aid has decided against completing a $266 dam project on the Helmand River, reports Rajiv Chandrasekaran for the Washington Post.

"The dam is one of many reconstruction projects, once deemed essential, that are being scaled back rapidly and redesigned in the waning days of America’s long war in Afghanistan as troop reductions, declining budgets and public fatigue force a realignment of priorities," Chandrasekaran writes.

USAID will pay for installation, but will give the money to an Afghan electricity company rather than a US contractor. Afghans will provide security, as requested by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.  Many question if the dam will eventually supply more reliable electricity to Kandahar.

USAID has described how a convoy of 4,000 coalition troops spent a week fighting insurgents to allow delivery of a turbine to the Kajaki Dam in 2008. Three years later the turbine was still not installed, according to a report by Zainullah Stanikzai for Pajhwok Afghan News.

Economic development in the country depends on security. Responsibility for security, as well as success or failure of the dam project, now rests with the Afghan government. 

Photo courtesy of Wikimeda Commons and the US Army Corps of Engineers

Libraries

Libraries let children explore and dream. Yet such places are rare in the developing world, and war in countries like Afghanistan essentially ruined such institutions. The number of libraries in Afghanistan has grown in recent years, and yet these still remain inaccessible for most rural children in a country where half the population is under age 18.

Atifa R. Rawan, an Afghan native and librarian at the University of Arizona, has been recognized for her efforts to rebuild and protect the nation's academic libraries, reported La Monica Everett-Haynes of UA News. She has worked with Afghanistan specialists like Nancy Hatch Dupree and the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University to preserve materials. The program has since expanded to provide training and other support, and The motto of the Louis and Nancy Hatch Dupree Foundation is "Rebuilding Afghanistan, One Book at a Time."

Other more informal libraries are opening in schools around the country, reports the US Agency for International Development:

Many communities and public schools in Afghanistan do not have a library. Students are limited to grade level books provided by the Ministry of Education.

To improve access to quality education services in Afghanistan, a USAID project has disseminated educational materials to rural communities to improve literacy and promote a culture of reading in Afghanistan. Through the project, about 200 libraries have been established and more than 100,000 books distributed around the country. Each library is initially provided with 500 books that are approved by the Ministry of Education and available in both Dari and Pashto.

A blog on Rebuilding the Libraries of Afghanistan also reports progress: Before the civil war in the 1990s, Kabul had six libraries and six provincial libraries, most destroyed and damaged. Since 2001, the country has opened new libraries: "There are now 10 branch libraries in Kabul (including Afghanistan's only prison library at Pul-e-Charkhi Prison) and a further 50 provincial library branches.  Kabul Public library also has a mobile library van which services 12 outlying districts of Kabul."

Funding, corruption and challenges from those who resent education remain issues. The Rebuilding blog continues: "As in many developing countries, the priority for most Afghan librarians at this point in time is simply to be able to organise and manage books and documents efficiently and serve their clientele with a minimum of materials and technology."

Libraries combat the dangers of illiteracy. USAID projects supported libraries and literacy skills for rural youth, and USAID notes that "Through a cross-sectoral strategy emphasizing literacy and the interconnected elements of civic engagement and economic empowerment, young people were granted opportunities to gain functional literacy skills, voice, and increased livelihood opportunities."

William Frej, a former mission director, recalls a rural village in Bamyan Province, amid the Hindu-Kush mountains, as reported by Robert Sauers for USAID Frontlines. The village had a USAID program: "I was struck at this completely isolated village, and there were both boys and girls in a classroom that had a trained teacher - learning math, learning reading skills, learning English," he said, adding that USAID and its implementing partner on the project were the only development groups who had ever visited that particular village."

By empowering individuals, libraries and literacy provide economic strength as well as local and national security.

Photo courtesy of USAID.