AFGHANISTAN AS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

Afghanistan as a Developing Country

Afghanistan as a Developing Country

Overview of Country

In a world increasingly beset by internecine confrontation, many of the assumptions that we may make about “acceptable” responses to emergencies or rehabilitation needs no longer contain true. The real challenge in such cases is to attend, as far as possible, to the source and context of such conflicts. A lack of a trust, or the absence of a believable system of command, is as important as the technical issues or apparent needs tackling the “victims” in such cases.(Nake, 2009)

In addition to the physical destruction of homes and infrastructure, the apparent disintegration of communities, which might previously have relished a stage of self-sufficiency, is a significant (and often hidden) cost of conflict. It is only by dealing with both the issues of social and institutional disintegration as with the technical needs, that durable solutions to post-conflict situations, based on trust and collective responsibility, will be found. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, UN Secretary General, said in October 1994, “We now understand that security involves far more than questions of land and weapons”.

 

Statement of the Problem

The broad aim of the UNCHS programme in Afghanistan has been to support an indigenous process of social and physical recovery by creating conditions aimed at encouraging those affected by the confrontation to themselves invest in the process of rehabilitation. Activities have encompassed supplies or manufacture of essential construction materials for sale through existing markets, establishment of workshops to make components (pipes, pumps) for infrastructure, as well as direct support for the rehabilitation of basic infrastructure or repairs to community facilities, and the provision of crisis relief.(Nake, 2009)

Conceptual Framework

Field staff are all too aware of the challenge inherent in the pursuit of such objectives with communities and institutions which, as a direct result of years of confrontation, have seen their human and material resources sapped, connected in many cases with the erosion of a collective sense of responsibility.(Barakat, 2004) Based on this know-how, it seems clear that the task of assisting in such circumstances entails more than “making reconstruction happen”. It involves participating and bearing witness to a process of social and physical recovery that is directed, from the smallest village to the biggest cities, by a multitude of actions and decisions at a range of levels. In more normal circumstances, this might be examined as straightforward “community participation”.

One of the most apparent aspects of the years of confrontation in Afghanistan has been the depopulation of some war-affected parts of the homeland, with perhaps two million Afghans now dwelling as refugees in Iran or Pakistan.(Barakat, 2004) This depopulation has directed in many cases to the deterioration of both settlements and the traditional systems of rural infrastructure, such as irrigation channels, bridges and access roads, where these were not damaged exactly by fighting. In addition, the presence or fear of mines has discouraged families from re-inhabiting some areas.

In some parts, displaced rural communities now practice a decreased pattern of seasonal farming on their land, commuting ...