RCAR 2007 - Afghanistan

The political transition, which started six years ago, has come under growing internal and external pressure. While there has been significant progress during the reporting period in terms of economic growth and social development, mounting insecurity and corruption undermine Afghans’ trust in their Government. The deterioration in security has also had a harmful impact on the UN’s capacity to deliver humanitarian and development assistance throughout the country. Of particular concern is the increased number of attacks against both the local and international humanitarian actors. For instance, over 40 convoys contracted by the World Food Programme were attacked and looted on Afghan roads in 2007. Suicide attacks, such as the ones organized at the Serena Hotel in January 2008, also demonstrate that the threat expands to the international civilian community and that risks are increasingly difficult to mitigate.

Yet the international community’s commitment to the nation-building project in Afghanistan remains robust. The continuing support for the Afghanistan Compact and formulation of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) demonstrate that both the Government and the international community are willing to sustain their efforts towards peace and development. A number of opportunities have emerged with the nationwide consultations on the ANDS, the drafting of Provincial Development Plans and the creation of the Independent Directorate for Local Governance. There has been slow but steady progress on electoral issues, such as the completion of a civil and voter registry pilot project and a draft electoral bill. Counter-narcotics efforts featured prominently at the recent Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board VII in Tokyo, which endorsed a position paper on counter-narcotics and prioritized implementation plan presented by the Government, and decided to restructure the CNTF and that force protection would be provided to counter-narcotics operations.

Regional tensions have had a negative impact in Afghanistan in a number of ways. On the humanitarian front, 330,000 Afghans were deported from Iran. In Pakistan, Afghan refugees are also at risk of being forcibly repatriated to Afghanistan with the anticipated closure of at least three refugee camps. Because of this, we have not been able to implement the tri-nation partnerships that were agreed upon at the 2007 UNCT retreat. For instance, the question of population movement that was to be championed by the Iranian UNCT could not be considered as a long-term issue between the three countries because of the continuing action by the Government of Iran to deport Afghan nationals.

Summary on progress towards UNDAF outcomes

Security With the mounting insecurity in Kabul and the insurgency in the South, Southeast and Eastern regions, security remains a priority. Achieving success in this sector requires coordinated effort, the formulation of a vision for the Afghan National Police (ANP) and continued support to the ANA.

Key achievements - Afghanistan made critical progress in the area of demining and other mine action activities during the reporting period, including through achieving key national milestones. The United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) assisted the Government in successfully fulfilling its obligation under Article Four of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty and its National Development Strategy benchmark by destroying the last of all known stockpiles of anti-personnel landmines in October 2007. Furthermore, a UN supported Mine Action Symposium took place in December 2007, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This event resulted in an agreement for the establishment of an Inter-Ministerial body that will provide Governmental oversight of mine action nationally and will facilitate transition of responsibility for mine action from the UN to the Government. - With a strong belief that development is an essential tool to stabilize volatile areas, the UN has continued to involve local communities in governance and development issues. For instance, the UN supports programmes such as the National Solidarity Programme at the village level (rural development), the National Area Based Programme at the district and provincial level (local governance), the Community Based Schools (education), the Basic Development Needs project (rural development / health), etc. Such projects give a full ownership to the communities, who in return guarantee as much as they can security for the implementing partners. Working at the grassroots level has thus allowed maintaining access in most areas of the country.

Rule of Law, Governance and Human Rights The year 2007 was marked by significant progress in the rule of law area. Thanks to your participation in the Rome Conference, there has been a strong focus on this sector. A number of positive steps were undertaken and were accompanied with renewed leadership from the Government. On the governance front, the UN welcomed the establishment of the Independent Directorate for Local Governance, which should scrutinize appointments at the sub-national level and reconnect the public with local government, with an emphasis on insurgency ridden-areas. Other improvements were made on strategy development for gender equality and reforms of the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney-General’s Office and the Supreme Court. Much still needs to be done in this sector and the UN will reinforce its Rule of Law Country Team in 2008 to better address some of the challenges.

Key achievements - The UN Country Team greatly contributed to the formulation of the National Justice Sector Strategy and the National Justice Programme, which will channel more donor support and lay the foundations for increased Government leadership. - Encouraged by OHCHR and UNAMA, the Government established a Human Rights Working Group, which will be responsible for mainstreaming human rights throughout ministries and sector strategies. - In terms of counter-narcotics, UNODC has worked on two fronts. On the one hand, it developed a new partnership with selected UN agencies to provide a more integrated approach to alternative livelihoods. On the other hand, UNODC increased regional cooperation, through a tripartite agreement (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran), to enhance law and order. - OHCHR and UNAMA, with the help of OCHA, organised a Protection of Civilians Conference that brought together international military forces, Afghan national security forces and representatives from civil society.

Economic and social development Around 40% of the Afghan population is estimated to be below the poverty line. The food price crisis in recent months has had a disastrous impact on many families, which are at risk of falling beneath the poverty line. This led to the launch of a Joint Appeal on 24 January 2008. The World Food Programme, World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund appealed for a total of USD 81.3 million, to assist 2.55 million Afghans. The Appeal aims to provide food assistance (89,000 MTs of food) for livelihood protection, and to prevent malnutrition, targeting in particular the under-fives, pregnant and nursing women. The finalization of most sectoral strategies, into which sub-national consultations fed, should lead to more focused and pro-poor support to economic and social development from all actors. Significant progress was made in the areas of energy, education and regional economic cooperation.

Key achievements - We have five UN joint programmes in Afghanistan. They are a valuable tool to advance towards ANDS objectives and Millennium Development Goals targets. The launch of the Joint National Youth Programme in 2007 triggered a discussion on youth issues with the development of a strategy and the ANDS Youth Consultations. Similarly, the Greening Afghanistan Initiative (GAIN) has led to improvements in the environment in some parts of the country. Its impact throughout the country will increase in the next years. - To reinforce UN coordination, UNDP finalized web-based software to map out UN activities, called the Provincial Mapping of United Nations Activities (PMUNA). The software was designed in close collaboration with programme managers from a number of agencies to ensure the product would respond to the UNCT’s needs. - The UN agencies maintain their support for community-based projects, such as the National Area Based Development Programme or the Community-Based Schools. These allow the UN and the Government to benefit more Afghans and guarantees higher security for the implementing partners. - The UN agencies were fully involved in the development process of the Afghanistan Education Strategic Plan, which was announced by the President in January 2007. - Despite significant progress achieved in recent years with regard to the reduction of infant and maternal mortality in the country, they continue to be unacceptably high. The UN Joint Programme on Maternal Mortality Reduction is assisting the Government in addressing these issues in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. - Based on the nationwide household listing conducted during 2004-2006, UNFPA and the Government published, in June 2007, the national and provincial demographic and socio-economic profiles that have provided valuable inputs for the Provincial Development Plans of the ANDS. This exercise would be further consolidated and expanded during the first nationwide population census to be conducted in the latter part of 2008 by the Government with strong UN support.

Summary on progress in UN Reform

Enhancing the Government’s leadership on development: successful joint UN support The Government of Afghanistan, with support from the UN and other international partners, undertook a set of activities towards the formulation of the ANDS, which will also form the Afghan Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. The commitment of all UN agencies to offer their expertise to the Government while ensuring the Government’s leadership demonstrated the extraordinarily high capacity of the Country Team to work in close cooperation towards one goal. The complex steps of the ANDS formulation included a series of consultations both at the national and at the sub-national levels. For the provincial consultations and the preparation of the Provincial Development Plans in all 34 provinces of the country, UNDP provided 80 trained staff from its National Area Based Development Programme, UNAMA mobilized all provincial actors through numerous awareness events and all UN agencies present in the provinces provided valuable technical inputs to the provincial authorities and to some 6,000 Afghans who participated in the exercise.

The UN Country Team also brought the expertise of its members to help shape the development of the ANDS sectoral strategies. Agencies’ contributions were provided through the Consultative Groups in which all Country Team members regularly participated. They also provided substantive recommendations through the Donor Dialogue on the ANDS. To advise the Government in a coordinated and coherent manner, UNDP compiled all comments and recommendations and submitted them to the Government. These lengthy and complex exercises offered an opportunity to strengthen the capacity of the Government through the provision of advice to enhance the dialogue between the Government and the UN and to build the foundations for the ANDS implementation through the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).

Strengthening humanitarian coordination In recognition of the growing humanitarian challenge in Afghanistan due to the impact of conflict, forced population movements within and towards Afghanistan from neighbouring countries, and serious natural hazards impacting on a very vulnerable population, humanitarian coordination under UN auspices was enhanced during 2007 with support from Norway. Under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator, a Humanitarian Affairs Unit was established within UNAMA, the integrated mission. With this new capacity significant progress could be made, in particular the creation of a Humanitarian Country Team, bringing together relevant UN agencies with non-governmental organisations, and the Red Cross Movement as an observer. A monthly NGO/UN/donor coordination meeting has also been established to help raise humanitarian policy and advocacy issues, and identify gaps and areas to be strengthened. Future steps include the implementation of the cluster approach and subsequently an humanitarian action planning process, which will facilitate resource mobilization for all humanitarian actors. The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) is another main element of the Global Humanitarian Reform in use in Afghanistan, having been requested to support immediate response to the deportations from Iran. This was well planned by the Agencies and the CERF proved vital in enabling a speedy and effective humanitarian response.

In the field Humanitarian Affairs Officers (HAO) were deployed to almost all regions and they have established Humanitarian Regional Teams replicating the Humanitarian Country Team at national level. This has improved the quality of humanitarian assessments and monitoring, and the UN and partner organizations are beginning to see improvements to coordination of the response to a serious of disasters that challenge local authorities each year (floods, harsh winter conditions and drought) as well as newly emerging problems such some refugee flows into Afghanistan from Kurram in Pakistan.

Key aspects of the proposed 2008 workplan

Aid Coordination and Harmonisation All UN agencies will participate in the Paris Declaration Monitoring Survey. Great emphasis will be put on the qualitative assessment. The Country Team will study the recommendations from the OECD / DAC survey and will strive to incorporate the changes necessary to reach the targets set by the Paris Declaration. To do so, significant efforts should be made to train UN staff in financial reporting according to the DAC guidelines.

UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP will implement the Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfer in 2008, with the goal of becoming a HACT-compliant country by 1 February 2009. This objective will be particularly challenging considering the failure of UNICEF’s pilot project to transfer cash directly to the Government, which it was unable to spend.

Strategy: a continued UN and Government partnership The UN will be supporting the finalization of the ANDS and the sectoral strategies during the first half of 2008. UNDAF will identify how the UN can best support the ANDS and its sectoral strategies. The UN will also advocate for the funding of the Provincial Development Plans to demonstrate to claim-holders that the consultations led to tangible results.

Joint Programmes The Country Team will develop more joint programmes to help reach the MDG targets. At a recent retreat, the UNCT identified maternal mortality reduction, environment and gender equality for these programmes. Up to two new joint programmes might be launched in 2008, which would bring the total of joint programmes in the country to seven.

UN Communication and Advocacy UN agencies continue to work closely with the Office of Communication and Public Information (UNAMA) to engage in a dialogue with journalists on humanitarian and development achievements and constraints. Communication will also be conducted through well-targeted UN messages throughout the country, using a number of communications means. The topics that could be covered by these campaigns might include UN Days, joint programmes, thematic issues etc.

The HIV/AIDS Project Implementation Plan will be implemented and Avian Influenza contingency planning reviewed. The OMT will further harmonize a number of policies and services. More common UN services will also be developed.

Recommendations

The Development Group Office (DGO) has been very helpful in 2007. This did not only include financial and staffing support, but often also advice on policy and planning, and sharing of useful tools for coordination or best practices.

The year 2008 will be a pivotal year for the Country Team in Afghanistan with the preparation of the UNDAF. In the context of a deteriorating security situation and the possibility that the UN could become a target of the insurgency, the challenge for the UN to maintain strong support from the population and to continue programme delivery throughout the country is great.

I hope this report will serve as a useful reference document on the work of the Country Team in Afghanistan. I would welcome any comments you may have.