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Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts

Two IFAD-supported projects participate in spring AgFair; a bi-annual agricultural fair in Afghanistan

Posted by Susan Beccio Wednesday, March 30, 2016 3 comments


By: Hamid Safi, Knowledge Management & Policy Specialist, RMLSP & CLAP

Representatives from the IFAD-supported Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support Program (RMLSP) and the Community Livestock and Agriculture Project (CLAP) actively participated in the Spring AgFair held in Kabul, Afghanistan on 20 - 23 March 2016. The agricultural fair is organized biannually by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.



The CLAP and RMLSP project staff, in collaboration with implementing partners, set-up an exhibit booth to showcase many of the projects’ activities and achievements in working with poor rural farmers in Afghanistan. A number of government officials, representatives from the donor community, and people working with NGO’s visited and interacted with project staff at the exhibit booth. Curious Afghan citizens from across the country stopped by the booth to gain information and interact with project staff. 






President Ghani, the third from the right, and Minister Zamir of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, (left of President), visit the IFAD-supported projects booth

Most notably, Ashraf Ghani, President of Afghanistan, and his delegates visited the CLAP and RMLSP exhibit booth. The CLAP and RMLSP teams briefed the President on the projects’ activities and stages in the implementation process. President Ghani and his delegates expressed their appreciation of the work and especially of the progress that both projects are making in country. 
 


Sharifa Mohammadi (center), an extension worker from Bamyan Province, speaks about women’s participation in the projects with a 24 TV Channel reporter
Among the activities highlighted at the booth were those focusing on women’s empowerment. The booth displayed products and information pertaining to women’s production groups, rural microfinance packages, improved crop seeds, dairy and backyard poultry products, and animal health services. As visitors stopped by the booth, project experts and implementing partner representatives provided extensive information and explanations to address all questions. 

Emadudin (center), agriculture expert from the First Micro Finance Bank (FMFB), provides information on microfinance packages to visitors
In Afghanistan, the AgFair provides a good opportunity to share lessons learned, best practices, and implementation successes in the agriculture and rural development sector. It offers participants a platform to share their experience with various stakeholders including representatives from NGOs, the private sector, sectorial ministries, and the general public. Similarly, these participants get to know each other, to network, and to exchange ideas with one another. 

Visitors gather around the Khatiz Dairy Union booth
The AgFair is a unique festival where men, women and children can come together to see agricultural products, enjoy live music and entertainment, have a meal and do some shopping. It is hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation Livestock and held twice a year in March and October in Afghanistan. The spring 2016 AgFair welcomed approximately 185,000 visitors over four days.



International Women's Day 2015: Empowering rural women to achieve food and nutrition security

Posted by Beate Stalsett Thursday, March 12, 2015 0 comments

Written by Anja Lund Lesa and Larissa Setaro

In celebration of International Women’s Day IFAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) jointly organized an event that focused on empowerment of rural women. The celebration took place on 6 March at IFAD headquarters, and among the attendees were staff from IFAD and its partner agencies, representatives of civil society organizations and around 50 students from universities in Rome.

The theme for International Women's Day 2015 was "Empowering Women – Empowering Humanity: Picture It!" To celebrate that theme, a call went out to IFAD-funded projects asking them to submit photos from their work on women's empowerment in their countries. More than 100 photos were shared from 22 country offices around the world. See highlights here.

This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. International Women's Day was therefore a special occasion to celebrate achievements made since Beijing and to discuss remaining challenges. In light of this, the Rome-based agencies dedicated the celebration to empowering rural women to achieve food and nutrition security. The event was followed by a Gender Share Fair where a number of organizations showcased innovative practices designed to empower rural women.

The International Women's Day event at IFAD on 6 March.
©IFAD/Giulio Napolitano

 'If you invest in a rural woman, you invest in a community'

The opening speech by IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze emphasized that women are the backbone of rural societies. But unfortunately, many of them are also doing the back-breaking part of the work, and their access to productive assets and services is limited in most rural areas. Many studies have shown that rural women's economic and social empowerment leads to improvements in agricultural production, food security, nutrition, economic growth and social welfare. Their empowerment has a positive impact on themselves, their families and their communities. As Nwanze said: "If you invest in a rural woman, you invest in a community." Gender equality opens doors to entire communities, and the Beijing +20 anniversary is an opportunity to do more to recognize the role of rural women, provide them with more opportunities and better access to assets, and strengthen their voices in decision-making processes.

Significant achievements – but more needs to be done

In her statement at the event, Marcela Villarreal, Director of the Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development at FAO, also highlighted Beijing +20 as an occasion to reflect on what has changed in the past 20 years. On the development scene, significant progress has been achieved, she said. Millions of people are out of poverty and hunger, and development processes are now involving multiple actors, including civil society and the private sector. There is more awareness about gender inequality and the costs of not involving women in development. But many challenges remain, and rural women fare worse on all human development indicators compared to men and urban women. Rural women are still burdened with heavy domestic and care-giving workloads in most societies; in sub-Saharan Africa, women spend 40 billion hours every year to fetch water. Hence, more needs to be done to build on existing achievements. Let's not wait until Beijing +40 to see real advancement in the conditions of rural women, Villarreal said.

Field experiences

Four stories were presented in a panel discussion on nutrition, community mobilization, livestock and land. Those areas are all essential to empowering women to achieve food security and nutrition security.

Britta Schumacher, Programme Policy Officer at WFP, presented the work of REACH, which stands for ‘Renewed Efforts Against Child Hunger and under-nutrition’. A very informative video showed experiences from REACH in Bangladesh, reporting on misleading cultural messages about child feeding and diet during pregnancy – for instance, that eating less during pregnancy to ease childbirth, or that feeding infants with water and honey so that they 'talk modestly' when they grow up. In addition, the video illustrated the weak status of women within households and communities – highlighting the issue of teenage and child marriages, and women's lack of decision-making power. Through participatory approaches, REACH aims to bring women out of the household, interact and share experiences to increase their knowledge on nutritional issues. Women's knowledge about nutrition is essential for the healthy growth and development of their infants, and for the well-being of women, of the household and, ultimately, of the community as a whole, enabling them to rise out of poverty.

Woman in Niger holding a land lease contract
©FAO/ Andrea Sánchez Enciso
Andrea Sánchez Enciso, Gender and Participatory Communication Specialist at FAO, presented information on FAO-Dimitra 'listening clubs' and the Joint Programme on Rural Women's Empowerment in Niger (which involves FAO, IFAD, WFP and UN Women). The Dimitra clubs created spaces for farmers to discuss issues affecting their livelihoods, so they could collectively build a strategy in order to bring about real change. In the case presented, insecure land tenure and access to water were constraining farmers' lives, but through community mobilization they were able to obtain a 99-year land lease contract of 3 ha of arable land, in addition to drip irrigation. Such a participatory approach enhanced leadership capacities and gave participants the needed confidence to present their arguments before different actors.

Antonio Rota, Lead Technical Specialist-Livestock, Policy and Technical Advisory Division, IFAD, stressed the important role that women play in livestock (e.g. milking and carrying feed and water to animals), and how livestock programmes can be important to women's empowerment as an entry point for other development activities (e.g. education and micro-credit). Indeed, through the Family Poultry Development Programme in Afghanistan, women – mostly widows and destitute –  were provided with assets in the form of chickens, along with appropriate and gender-sensitive training. At least 75,000 women benefitted from the programme, increasing profitability by 91 per cent, and boosting egg and chicken consumption by 88.9 per cent and 67.7 per cent, respectively.

Women in Afghanistan working with poultry
©IFAD/Antonio Rota
Mino Ramaroson, Africa Regional Coordinator at the International Land Coalition, introduced two African experiences of women's networks – the National Federation of Rural Women in Madagascar and the Kilimanjaro Initiative – advocating for their rights to land and natural resources. These two examples of mobilization of rural women benefitted them by strengthening their confidence to express their needs and work together towards the recognition of their rights.

These programmes are all working towards women's empowerment, to finally picture it! And they share their successes in:

  • Creating a space for women, bringing them out of the household, interacting with other women and sharing their experiences and knowledge
  • Building capacities on specific issues (health, nutrition, livestock, land rights and taking action together), thus improving their confidence and self-esteem
  • Enhancing women's assets, allowing them to earn additional income and have a role to play in household decision-making
  • Recognizing women for their knowledge, skills, strength and contribution to the household and community.

Unlocking women's potential

In her closing remarks, Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of WFP, stressed that the Rome-based agencies need to work together to be more effective and efficient. We are serving the same population, she said, and the efficiency which donors demand is also demanded by the beneficiaries. She also emphasized that the global community will not advance if 50 per cent of the population are locked inside their homes, without influence and without having a voice. We need to unlock this potential, Cousin said. To do this, men need to stand up for gender equality, and women need to speak up to support other women.

A glimmer of hope for an Afghan woman in despair

Posted by Roxanna Samii Thursday, April 11, 2013 0 comments


by Matin Ezidyar, Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) and Khalil Baheer, Director Development and Rural Finance of MISFA

Arefa in tears from a painful abdominal ailment
For MISFA staff Matin Ezidyar, the trip to Badakhshan was work¬—one of the tasks to tick off from his list of priorities. He was scheduled to meet with some of the beneficiaries of the Targeted Ultra-Poor Programme (TUP), a project being implemented by the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). He went there to learn about the project, which was successfully piloted in Bamiyan province and was recently replicated in Badakhshan province. He was also tasked to interview beneficiaries of the programme and write profile articles about them for MISFA’s information tools. The experience, though short, turned into an unforgettable personal awakening. Mr. Ezidyar finally understood the real meaning of the words “despair” and “abject poverty”. In this article, he shares his personal account of his meeting with one of the TUP beneficiaries in Dhooki, a rural village of Faizabad, the capital city of Badakhshan Province.

In many ways, Arefa’s house was a reflection of her life. Dark. Bereft. Oppressive. Everything a home and life shouldn’t be.

The traditional mud house in Dhooki, a rural village outside of Faizabad, has two small storage-sized rooms shared by a family of 10, of which the breadwinner is Arefa, 47 years old.

One room is the living/bedroom/everything space, furnished mainly by stacks of crusty, worn-out winter blankets, which are not enough to keep the entire family warm during winter, says Arefa. Badakhshan is 2,000 meters above sea level and is well known to have extremely cold temperatures over the winter months.

The only other room in the house¬¬—smaller and darker—appears to be the kitchen, with a soot-covered woodstove oven providing the only clue that the space is used for cooking.

It is hard to imagine that 10 individuals inhabit the tiny mud house, but it is even harder to imagine that Arefa is the breadwinner for five daughters, two sons, a dying husband, her aging father-in-law, and ailing, 110-year old mother.

Arefa’s husband, according to a doctor in Badakhshan, needs to be treated urgently in better-staffed and equipped hospitals in the capital, Kabul; or better yet, in neighbor countries, Pakistan or India. He was diagnosed to have malfunctioning lungs that if left untreated will collapse in a matter of months and take his life.

Arefa, who is illiterate, has been begging as a way of “breadwinning” for her big household, which is literally scraping by meal-to-meal. She narrated how one time, only two days after giving birth to one of her children, she had to go beg in the streets because there was no food and no money for the next meal.

As such, getting treatment for her husband is far beyond her grasp. But the thought of just watching her husband die, not being able to do something to save the father of her children, is simply unbearable.
On top of this burden, Arefa herself is beset by an undiagnosed abdominal illness that intermittently throws her off squirming in agonizing pain. In the course of this interview, Arefa begged for a quick break and doubled over, distress written across her creased face. As she tried to suppress sobs of pain, tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I have no friends or relatives to run to for help. If I had any, I would not be in this miserable condition,” cried Arefa. “My only friend is the Almighty, and sometimes, I pray and ask Him to take me and my children.”

One of her children did get taken away, although not by the Almighty as she sometimes prayed for in moments of despair. As if Arefa did not have enough to worry about, she came home one day to find one of her teenaged daughters, Naseema, who is not yet 18, sobbing next to an older male stranger.

It turned out, she was married off by Arefa’s husband to some stranger from Sheberghan, another province in northern Afghanistan, because he could pay dowry to the family. The sale left mother and daughter wailing until Naseema had to go to Sheberghan to live with her husband and his family.

But now, Arefa learned that her daughter wants to escape from her new residence and Arefa is extremely worried about the consequences. It is not uncommon in Afghanistan and Pakistan for women and girls in Naseema’s predicament to be the subjects of honor killings.

Arefa’s life is a clear definition of what being “ultra poor” means. And that is why she is among the 800 beneficiaries selected for the TUP programme from the Faizabad and Khash districts of Badakhshan. Following years of misery, there is a glimmer of hope for Arefa, who, at the very least, can now stop begging in the streets.

As a TUP beneficiary, she now receives a monthly stipend for basic household needs, including food. She is now also tending to the livestock she received for free, as she gets trained on livestock rearing, basic reading, writing and financial literacy, as part of the holistic support provided by the programme to the ultra-poor for a period of 24 months. Moreover, she now has access to free medication and check-ups at health facilities nearby.

At the end of this period, beneficiaries are expected to be in a position to apply some of their basic knowledge and skills set to engage in income-generating activities, starting with the livestock they have been caring for. They could also be in a position to take out a loan from a microfinance institution to start their own micro-enterprises in which they could employ members of their households.

It may take some time for Arefa to get to this point of self-sufficiency, but just waking up every morning these days has gotten a lot easier—she does not have to worry about how she is going to pay for the next meal.

And every night before going to bed, she is grateful to have learned something new that day. A new skill, new knowledge. All for the new life for her and her family out of abject poverty that she can now hope for; a light she can see glimmering not so far away.

#sfrome: Afghanistan's poor farmers struggle to access markets (188)

Posted by Roxanna Samii Thursday, October 6, 2011 0 comments

By P. J. Bury

Gulla Jan Ahmadzai introduced us to the at time tough conditions for small Afghan farmers to increase their living standards through increased productivity, diversity and access to markets. Road conditions; a lack of consolidation of farmers associations (cooperatives, associations and federation); insufficient adequate product storage to influence and respond to market demands; and a lack of collaboration with intermediary traders and exporters do not favor the realization of their aspirations. Even IFAD itself, supporting them, has difficulties in identifying local context adjusted mechanisms to assist them in their endeavour.
Gulla presents and a lively exchange of experiences and suggestions ensues with among others colleagues working in similar environments like Kosovo.

Gulla will remain in touch with the 8 participants, send them the presentation and exchanged contact details.

Some notes on the discussion

  • Similar issues in Bosnia
  • Advise services to farmers are private in Afghanistan
  • Dairy projects, goats, poultry, training are donations
  • Trained para-vet at district level, 10 para-vet in each district, trained
  • Integrated dairy scheme
  • Micro finance: small donations
  • Loans provided by IFAD, people not keen in getting loan against interest
  • Conditions for the sharia loan: sharia production. Loan is given, pay back a % on benefits made. If no benefit is made, only the loan itself is to reimbursed
  • IFAD works with 4 implementing partners 
  • Project area about 500.000 ha.
  • No processing included, no storage facility, off-season problems
  • Example mellon to Pakistan exported in season and comes back more expensive to Afghanistan from Pakistan in off-season
  • Sugar cane is not processed, exported and Afghanistan imports sugar
  • Much is still in piloting stage, no loans provided up to know 


Challenges
Storage for off-season responding to demand
  • No off-storage does not allow meeting demand constantly, dispersed production doesn’t provide scale to invest in storage 
  • Bosnia exchanges experiences on storage, gradually improving through much external support (including fresh fish and berries, starting with milk production in UHT)
  • Traditional storage experiences IFAD works in 7 provinces, does not involve importers / exporters in project design (as IFAD does in Jemen and Jordan) 
  • Cooling facilities for milk products are not big enough to cater for other products 
  • Cooperative movements could address dispersed production and addressing dealing with private sector (Participant shares experience in Latin America) : farmer organizations are interested in investing this. 
  • Consolidation of cooperative movement seems hampered by levels of education? 
  • Ethiopia example of unions and federation of cooperatives, who then get access to bank loans 
  • No processing facilities to add value 
  • ICT can be used to increase market information: by voice or SMS 
Suggestion to increase information on markets, demand, fluctuation of prices
  • Look into traditional information channels 
  • Grapes a promising product, dry with solar 
  • Government strategy is weak because of political history 
  • Only policy existing is for grain, still in draft 
  • ILEIA suggestion: work more on cooperatives 
  • ICT , paper by Jensen on fishermen in Kerala using cellphone, initially the richer people. Benefits are higher to them than the cost of the cellphone and its use. (paper can be made available, see list of participants). 
  • In higher density areas people can benefit from only a few phones If they are organized they can influence the market prices.

Afghanistan: microfinance, dairy development and the future – interviews during IFAD's Start-up Workshop

Posted by Martina Spisiakova Tuesday, November 17, 2009 0 comments

Habib Ur Reman Mayar, Aid Coordinator Officer, Ministry of Finance, Afghanistan, shares some thoughts about how he would like to see Afghanistan in ten years time.
Watch the video:



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Khalil Baheer, Rural Finance Specialist, Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA), talks about opportunities of the IFAD-supported Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support Programme to work with the Islamic Banking System in Afghanistan.
Watch the video:


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Khalil Baheer also talks about a growing demand for microfinance products in rural areas of Afghanistan.
Watch the video:

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Anthony Bennett, Dairy and Meat Officer, Animal Production Group, FAO, talks about FAO’s role in dairy development and in the IFAD-supported Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support Programme in Afghanistan.
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Targeting, financial and knowledge management – the start-up workshop for Afghanistan continues

Posted by Martina Spisiakova 1 comments

Working with rural women and operational implications

The situation of women in Afghanistan is not easy. Therefore, the targeting of women requires a special attention. During the first part of the day participants discussed their experiences in working with rural women and targeting.

IFAD often targets women who are the head of their family. “A woman might be responsible for the income of her family but might not be the head of the family”, said Javed Rizvi from ICARDA. Another issue brought up relates to women who are officially married but do not get the deserving treatment from their husbands. Some times, a rural man has three or four wives who he abandoned for various reasons. These women are very poor and in many microfinance programmes their participation is the highest. “It is only the community who can tell you who is really poor,” Javed pointed out.

At the beginning of their operations in Afghanistan, BRAC staff (men and women) were not allowed to see women without having permission from their village head. “Once the leaders are convinced about our programme, they let us in,” said Fazlul Hoque from BRAC-Afghanistan. It takes a lot of effort to convince village leaders about programme benefits. “We have to depend on village elders to get information,” he pointed out. To address this issue, all BRAC staff are recruited locally – from the area where their programme operates. It is convenient in terms of language and acceptability. The problem is that lack of basic education discourages women from applying for the programme.

It is a challenge to find a well-qualified female staff. ICARDA’s approach to the problem is that it identifies two women in each village who are either well-educated or have experience in working in development programmes. When going to talk to women, they are accompanied by two men so they can easily enter other villages and reach local women. However, the situation of women is very location specific in Afghanistan. “In some villages, men cannot enter a village to talk to women, only a woman,” said Javed Rizvi from ICARDA. It is therefore important to rely on female activists in each village, who are receiving a small compensation from the project. “If something happens we know,” he pointed out. Rather than depending on a single source of information, BRAC has a network of people with whom it communicates. FAO tried to recruit female activists in villages but it was a difficult experience as their salaries could not be paid after completion.

In other cases, women are not interested to work in development programmes because they want to stay in their province or their families simply do not allow them. “Programme staff should talk to as many households as possible to improve their understanding about the benefits of programme activities. It is also important for programme staff to understand the capacities of people,” said Mohammad Ibrahimi, Livestock Specialist from the Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support Programme.

To be able to reach rural women, it is necessary to respect the local culture. “In villages, ICARDA staff don’t talk about irrelevant subjects like politics but only about the programme,” added Javed Rizvi. When recruiting a local woman for a development programme, her family must be involved and her terms of reference should be discussed and agreed on with the brother and father. Working with locals is a gradual confidence building.

FAO is putting a lot of effort, time and resources to train local people. “The more our programme advances, the easier it is for us to reach other places where we haven’t been before,” said Tek Thapa from FAO, Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, FAO concentrates more on outputs rather than outcomes since it is easier and talking about politics is avoided. “Going slow is important, otherwise there are chances of failures,” added Olaf Thieme from FAO, Rome.

Financial management

Shankar Kutty had a discussion with the PCU and service providers during which they tried to ‘iron out’ some of the issues of financial management and requirements of the programme. This resulted in some need for further clarification from service providers with regard to the requirements of the Government of Afghanistan. According to the service providers, the processes of the Ministry of Finance should be strengthened to avoid the many delays in fund releases. After the discussion, Shankar proceeded by responding to questions from the services providers and the PCU. In the afternoon we were able to resume the training in loan administration and financial management of the programme with the PCU account.

Knowledge management

The day ended with presentations by Martina Spisiakova from IFAD on knowledge management (KM). Martina started by explaining the basic concepts so that everybody understands what we mean by KM and knowledge, and then by giving an overview of KM in IFAD. Martina stressed that KM should be integrated in all programme’s processes including the monitoring and evaluation (M&E). M&E creates a large amount of information and the outputs that highlight programme progress are based on M&E. This is the reason why the information generated by M&E needs to be managed so that the findings and lessons learned can be disseminated, contribute to improved processes and systems and inform strategic decision-making in the future. Martina introduced the Knowledge Value Chain Approach to explain how value can be added to the knowledge generated in the context of programme activities and how critical reflection can help to assess programme outcomes. This and much more was covered in the presentation on linking KM to M&E.

IFAD’s corporate information system (Xdesk) and the Project Life File (PLF) was also presented showing the programme staff how to upload documents directly from the field, participate in team discussions and find information. Afghanistan will be the first country for which field staff will be sharing information through the PLF. Other stakeholders will be able to view this information. The Afghanistan programme has a privilege of having a Knowledge Management Officer (KMO) – Jawaid Samadey.

Concrete suggestions were made about how the programme staff should manage information and knowledge coming out of its activities, draw lessons from successes and failure, package and disseminate them to key people. During this workshop we also worked with Jawaid and others to outline the learning agenda (e.g. documenting the experiences of working with rural women) as well as concrete steps to developing a KM approach for the programme.

Interviews

Matthew Robinson, Finance Director, Microfinance Investment Support Facility Afghanistan (MISFA) talks about how microfinance works in conflict areas and related challenges.
Watch the video:

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Fazlul Hoque, Country Programme Head, BRAC-Afghanistan, talks about women and microfinance in Afghanistan.
Watch the video:

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Anti-corruption, logframe, progress reports and more… the start-up workshop for Afghanistan continues

Posted by Martina Spisiakova Sunday, November 15, 2009 0 comments

The second day of the start-up workshop for the Rural Microfinance and Livestock Programme begun with good news. Our two Afghan participants that were held at the Dubai airport have been released thanks to assistance of the United Nations Security Office in Dubai and the Afghan Embassy. Here they are – Sayed Kefayatullah (left) and Nasrullah Mohmand – tired but happy to be free again!

According to the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, Afghanistan ranked 117th out of 159 countries. Irene Li from IFAD was invited to present IFAD’s policy on fraud and corruption. Some extensive discussion followed the presentation regarding anti-corruption measures, responsibility for reporting and handling corruption cases. According to Habib Ur Reman Mayar, Coordination Officer at the Ministry of Finance and Aid, the government can reduce the likelihood of corruption with the help of donor community. “Government can only be held accountable for the sound use of funds that come though their treasury”, he said.
Given the selection of service providers such as FAO and ICARDA that both have a zero tolerance policy and stringent internal control mechanisms, we are confident that IFAD’s own anti-corruption policy will be adhered to.

Ricardo Luna, Administrative and Finance Officer from FAO shared an interesting experience of insuring the transportation of items such as seeds, tools and fertilizers to difficult locations. In the past, transporters did not have any insurance for the goods they were transporting and, in the cases where these goods would be stolen (as often happens in Afghanistan), they refused to take responsibility for the loss. To minimize risks from loss or damage of transported goods, especially in insecure provinces, last month FAO hired a transportation company that has insurance with a Dutch Insurance company. In case of accidents, the transportation company is not responsible for the damage or loss of goods.


The participants also discussed arrangements for the programme’s M&E system. Given a variety of service providers it was agreed that a common approach is needed to ensure that the programme is able to capture, monitor and report the right information. Every six months, each service provider will have to prepare a progress report which will then be consolidated by the PCU by using a common reporting format. In addition, an annual progress reports will be prepared according to a template to be developed soon by the PCU.

The rest of the day was devoted to fine-tuning the logframe and agreeing on administrative and implementation arrangements... and celebrating the birthday of Javed Rizvi from ICARDA. Happy Birthday Javed!

Interview with Abdul Latif Zahed, National Programme Coordinator

IFAD is promoting the rights of women and improving their access to social and economic opportunities. Since this is the first IFAD-supported programme in Afghanistan, do you foresee any problems or resistance from both men and women?

Watch the video:

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IFAD kicks-off its first initiative in Afghanistan through a start-up workshop

Posted by Martina Spisiakova Saturday, November 14, 2009 0 comments

From today, IFAD is holding a start-up workshop for its first initiative in Afghanistan – the Rural Microfinance and Livestock Programme. The event is taking place in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Twenty-two stakeholders of the programme gather together for the first time to discuss and improve their understanding of important elements of project management, implementation and IFAD’s support.

Participants include staff from the Programme Coordinating Unit (PCU), Programme’s Lead Implementation Agency – Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) – and other important partners from the Ministry of Finance (MoF), FAO, ICARDA, BRAC Afghanistan (Bangladesh), Microfinance Investment Support Facility Afghanistan (MISFA) and First Micro Finance Bank (FMFB).

The first day started with bad news about two Afghan participants being stuck in the immigration office at Dubai airport having problems with their visa. We are doing our best, including the Ambassador of Afghanistan, to get them out of the airport... :-(

Most participants are new to IFAD so it was important for them to learn how the institution works. Maria Donnat started the day by presenting IFAD’s mandate and strategic objectives.

Abdul Latif Zahed, National Programme Coordinator and Assad Zamir, General Director of the Programme Implementation and Coordination Unit, MAIL, made a presentation on the role of agriculture in the Afghan economy, in food security, livelihoods, sustainable resources and national security.

They also shared some major challenges to rural development. Assad Zamir talks about how rural people are coping in the context of conflict.

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Afghanistan’s top agricultural priorities include:

  • Improved production as the first step in building a value chain.
  • Agricultural credit for farmers which is legal, simple and fair, and which benefits farmers and small/medium businesses through established financial institutions and cooperatives.
  • Irrigation and watershed management on small, medium and large scale to heal damaged land, fight erosion, floods and drought.
  • Reform, capacity-building and change management at all administrative levels.
  • Land management – the Government owns 6m hectares, but only gets US$ 1m in revenue.
  • Marketing and international trade facilitation that requires increased farm productivity and off-farm jobs.
  • Strategic grain reserves as a protection from man-made and natural disasters by securing a minimum price for crops at harvest and domestic consumer price support when needed.
  • Improved certification of seeds to ensure quality.
Tekeste Tekie, FAO Representative, Afghanistan, talks about how the situation has changed for farmers over the last few years.

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An interesting feature to be implemented by the programme is the ‘Young Professional Programme’ which will identify new university graduates and offer them learning and employment opportunities. For example, young professionals will learn various technical subjects relevant to their work, help the PCU in preparing programme documents and provide support to the M&E officer in collecting, organizing and recording data.

The session on targeting stimulated a lot of extensive discussion. How do we define a poor household? There is a misperception that the less livestock families have, the poorer they are. However, in Afghanistan, the poorest rural households sometimes have 2-3 cows that enable them to survive. An extra cow represents a ‘saving’ for a family.

Women are IFAD’s important target group. Maria explained why we choose women as beneficiaries of the programme. “They are the most vulnerable segment of the population in Afghanistan,” she said. However, participants expressed their concerns about mistargeting as a major risk. “More effort should be made so that beneficiaries are identified properly”, said Abdul Latif Zahed, National Programme Coordinator.

In Bangladesh for example, BRAC uses the participatory rural appraisal by involving communities in targeting. “Community people know best who should benefit,” said Md. Fazlul Hoque, Country Head of BRAC-Afghanistan (Bangladesh). MFIs will have to define their own criteria for defining clients, keeping in mind IFAD’s target group and at the same time minimizing the risks of mistargeting.

Another issue is how to reach women in the first place. “We cannot talk to a woman without having permission from her husband, brother or father,” said Javed Rizvi, Country Manager of ICARDA-Afghanistan Programme. “We knock on woman’s door but it is the husband who opens it,” he pointed out. Men will therefore be involved in the discussions which will contribute to raising their awareness about gender issues. “Cooperation of men is very important,” added Javed. Therefore, targeting should be done without a rush and step-by-step in order to be effective.

Maria provided an overview of programme logframe, expected results, quantitative targets and implementing arrangements. Through feedback and extensive discussion, we started identifying areas that need to be fine-tuned in the logframe and implementing arrangements.

Shankar Kutty finished the day by talking about basic programme requirements for financial management and audit. Individual service providers (ICARDA, MISFA and FAO) asked many questions in relation to progress reports, audits, financial statements, budget allocations and limits of reallocations within categories, eligible expenditures and procurement from non-member countries. This was just an overview which will be covered in detail in working groups in the days to come.