In times of crisis, how can people accomplish what they wish and experience progress, in a regime full of restrictions? The Afghanistan Week in November 2024 showcased many opportunities. A comprehensive report is now available.
When hearing the word «innovation», the first associations are often business and hectic entrepreneurial endeavours. The concept also embodies inventiveness and new solutions for people living under difficult circumstances. Among the many insights gathered from the 2024 Afghanistan Week in Oslo, we saw that innovative approaches are essential in order for people in Afghanistan to cope, and to thrive. The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee and other international actors have much to offer in this regard. The launch of the Afghanistan Week 2024 report provides a snapshot of some of the most significant opportunities and challenges Afghanistan currently is facing. Many of the participants and panelists are activists, experts and researchers with first-hand experience from the country.
Education: Small steps of innovation
Pictured: IT-teacher at a Job Lab in Jaghori, Ghazni in 2024.
Imagine a 16-year-old girl. Her name might be Shakila. Shakila was 13 when Taliban took power from the Ghani-government. Girls lost the right to education from that age on. Her school closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and was never reopened. The only way forward for Shakila was to find a husband. She is now pregnant with her first child. Her story represents an estimated 1.4 million Afghan girls who have been pushed out of education since 2021. It is a generation lost.
What education and training opportunities would there be for Shakila outside the official educational system? If you want to understand how education works in Afghanistan, you need to go beyond politics and powerholders and listen directly to students and teachers. One way to organise education is to provide families with home libraries. Places where people meet in local communities could be arenas to learn vocational skills, English and other subjects. Flexibility and innovation, where local communities work together with humanitarian and development INGOs, enables more people from a lost generation to benefit from training, despite some of the world’s most severe restrictions.
Flexibility is also needed globally, on every arena where the right to education is discussed. The strong engagement for girls’ right to education from the international community can prove counterproductive when mixed with political demands. The intention is to encourage the fulfilment of human rights, however the governing bodies view these demands as pushing a Western agenda, making it a political matter of principle rather than actual demands from Afghan people themselves.
Economy: Self-sufficient?
Young boy at school in Faryab.
One consequence of Taliban’s isolationist line is that Afghanistan desires to become as self-sufficient as possible economically. This is a massive transition from the country’s status as the world’s highest per-capita aid recipient during the Cold War.
Humanitarian aid has been substantial since then, peaking at nearly 4 billion USD in 2022.
NAC Country Director Terje Watterdal was a panelist in a session taking a closer look at opportunities and limits for economic growth in Afghanistan. International sanctions caused by violating basic human rights and the limited freedom of girls and women leads to a decrease in international aid. The Afghan people need to provide for themselves. How can they cope in the best possible way?
Some of the opportunities for Afghanistan lie in new solutions for agriculture, mineral extraction, regional trade collaborations and entrepreneurship for women. The mineral industry, worth between 1 and 3 trillion USD, has further potential for extraction. One way to improve both economic development and employment could be examining new ways of utilising raw materials before export.
A crucial way of strengthening the economy within agriculture is to find new ways to protect crops, animals and people against natural disasters and climate change. In the agricultural field, NAC is involved in several innovation solutions when it comes to growing more valuable produce, improved infrastructure after harvesting and securing against floods and landslides. A general solution to promote innovation and make the most out of the promising possibilities is prioritising long term development projects.
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Download the Afghanistan Week report here
