In the political centre of Afghanistan, at the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee’s main office in the country, Sayed Ehsan holds the positions as Deputy Country Director and Director of Support Services. In the Kabul office, Ehsan is responsible for seventy-two employees and several important project areas.
– What inspired me to work for the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee was their reputation and their longstanding work in support of and in solidarity with the people of rural Afghanistan. This is exactly why I have worked so long for the organisation, precisely because of its goals and focus.
Sayed is from Kabul, but he also lived and worked for 18 years in Peshawar, Pakistan, due to the unfortunate situation in Afghanistan at the time. Sayed and his family returned to Afghanistan in 2002, when Hamid Karzai was in power.
– Before NAC I was working for a French NGO in Peshawar. In 1998, I heard that NAC was looking for an accountant for their office in Kabul – which fit with my educational background in economics and finance. So, I was very encouraged to apply for the position, which I was subsequently selected for. And then things evolved from there, Ehsan explains.
Responsibilities at the office
Together with the Country Director and the Internal Auditor, Ehsan is also responsible for NAC’s anti-corruption implementation efforts. The anti-corruption action plan includes providing training in anti-corruption assistance to the staff, as well as closely following up on its results.
– At NAC’s main office here in Kabul, I step in as Country Director when Terje is either unavailable or out of the country. Otherwise, my main responsibility is to supervise and monitor the daily work within logistics, the administration, within humanitarian resources and the information technology departments of the organisation – so that everything runs smooth and according to our goals and policies.
Ongoing programmes in Afghanistan
In the provinces and districts that the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee is present in, several educational projects are ongoing these months. In Faryab, an extensive programme is in the works in collaboration with the Danish Assistance to Afghan Rehabilitation and Technical Training (DAARTT). Like the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, the organisation also works with creating long-term development solutions in the country, with a special focus on education. Together, since January, we have been working with the Equitable Access to Quality Education project, which aims to include children from all different parts of the province.
– In Badakhshan we have several Global Partnership for Education (GPE) projects, which is currently funded by UNICEF, he says. These projects will continue over the next two years. Another project that focuses on education is the research-programme Education Equity and Quality programme (EEQAP), funded by both NORAD and the Washington University of St. Louis. The programme aims to improve the teaching methodology in primary schools, Ehsan explains.
Sayed also explains that NAC will have even more projects focusing on girls’ education, particularly in Ghazni Province. This is particularly important these days as the older girls are still not allowed to attend school. NAC also has several projects in other key areas in Afghanistan right now.
– The ERA programme (Empowering Rural Afghanistan) we have had going in Badakhshan, Ghazni, Faryab, Paktia and Jalalabad is soon coming to an end. ERA, which is funded by NORAD, is a development project that aims to improve a wide range of key areas in Afghanistan. It focuses on national resource management (NRM), disaster risk reduction (DRR), food security and education. ERA also includes cross-cutting themes that are part of all these focus areas, such as gender issues, human rights, climate change and dialogue- and conflict transformation. We have applied for further funding and for the extension of the programme for its continuation throughout 2022, Ehsan explains.
Urgent humanitarian needs
In these difficult times, NAC has several emergency and humanitarian response projects in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). These include food security and livestock projects, which are ongoing in Badakhshan, Ghazni, Kapisa, Panjshir and Parwan.
– Hopefully we will get these projects into more provinces as well. The main component of this project is the distribution of seeds and fertilizer to vulnerable farmers. We also have several emergency and humanitarian projects with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) ongoing, both in Badakhshan and Ghazni. For the next couple of months, we also have food-for-work programmes, which are supported by the World Food Programme (WFP).
Current obstacles and challenges
Ehsan explains in detail how the ongoing banking crisis in the country poses a significant problem right now. Everything NAC does in terms of payment and giving out salaries, must be done with cash. Transferring, transporting, and distributing large amounts of cash to the regional field offices to fund the projects and to pay all the employees is a very risky and challenging process.
– This feeds into another challenge to our work and to Afghanistan’s future – the worsening economic situation for the people. To decide who should get help through our humanitarian projects is an extremely hard decision. Going to a village for example, we might have the capacity to help ten, fifteen or twenty families, whilst eighty other families are out of our reach and are then left to themselves, sadly. We simply do not have the capacity to reach out to all the communities and their people, Ehsan says.
Outlook on the future
– I will stay here in Afghanistan to continue our work for the poor people of this country – this is my aim in life. I am not supportive of the idea that everyone should leave, especially those who are educated. What would happen to the poor people of this country if all the educated, qualified and experienced people leave? What will then be the future of Afghanistan? The country will not have a future if that happens – which is exactly why i will remain here.
