Afghanistan organization for Research and Civic Education A GUIDE TO CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFGHANISTAN Published By: Afghanistan Organization for Research and Civic Education (AORCE) First Edition 2017 A GUIDE TO CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFGHANISTAN Published By: Afghanistan Organization for Research and Civic Education (AORCE) Copyright: 2017 AORCE No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission of the publisher. _____________________________________________________ Design & Layout: KABULARTS Address: St. 5, Qala-e-Fatullah, Kabul, Afghanistan Phone: +93 0 772 79 72 72 Email: [email protected] _____________________________________________________ Office No. 1, 2nd Floor, Central Plaza Street 2, Qala-e-Fatullah, District 10 Kabul, Afghanistan Tel: +93 (0) 202 213 810 Email: [email protected] Website: www.aorce.org.af You may forward the completed questionnaire at the end of this guide to AORCE or contact AORCE for inclusion in possible future editions of this guide NOTE: © Copyright 2017 Afghanistan Organization for Research and Civic Education. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher, the Afghanistan Organization for Research & Civic Education, Permission can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or by calling +93 790 84 53 08. Contacts compiled by: Abdullah Saboor Hamza Noorzai, Mohmmad Asif Nazari, Sayed Mir Abdullah & Naveed Shirzad The cover photo was secured from (Pajhwok Afghan News), and the succeeding tab photos were provided by the organizations who filled-out the questionnaires and also sent those photos as attachments. Afghanistan Organization for Research & Civic Education (AORCE), Office No. 1, 2nd Floor, Central Plaza, Street 2, Qala-e-Fatullah, District 10, Kabul, Afghanistan Phone: +93 (0) 202 213 810 Email: [email protected] Website: www.aorce.org.af About AORCE The Afghanistan Organization for Research and Civic Education (AORCE) is a non-profit and non-government organization based in Kabul that commits to strengthening research and civic education to imbibe citizen participation at all developmental levels for a vibrant and democratic life. The AORCE has the zest to rebuild Afghanistan society by establishing cooperation with educators, youth, community leaders, and civil society groups with the aim of strengthening concerted efforts to empower various stakeholders to participate in shared government actively and mobilize effective and efficient platform for citizen participation in the bottom-up processing in governance. The gestation of the organization was initiated by civic-minded Afghan activists aiming for a positive change in the society by designing programs and initiatives of empowering and building capacities of children, youth, and adults for sustainable development. It focuses on active citizenship initiatives through training and education in capacitating future leaders and responsible citizens. AORCE unceasingly aims to prepare young people and the older generation to take responsibility for the society and equip them with the social responsibility as they manifest the core values in their lives, families, and communities. Vision A premier research and civic education organization that aims to promote active citizenship in the spirit of democracy in building and to sustain a culture of love of country Mission Implement relevant and innovative projects and programs that establish and strengthen the sense of ownership and solidarity to Afghan history, heritage and culture through training and educational programs; Engage to come up with evidence-based and high-quality research as a way of deepening civic awareness and internalizing democratic values; and, Collaborate with communities, youth, and civil society organizations to propel public participation in governance. Core Values > Human dignity > Accountability > Catalyst of change > Common good > Solidarity > Excellence ii A GUIDE TO CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFGHANISTAN FOREWORD The very essence of democracy and freedom does not manifest only on turnouts of elections, but on the vibrancy of civil society in informed choices to stand up for active citizenship. Citizen participation as a concept is a crucial element of law and policy making because it consolidates and entrenches support for democracy, whilst legitimizing and strengthening the institutions that maintain and translate those into actual practice. The concept of public participation in governance is arguably the fundamental pillar in the promotion and protection of democratic governance. Promotion of developmental issues by civil society may be achieved either through interventions to strengthen the enabling environment (increasing accountability, transparency, responsiveness, and the rule of law in the three branches of government) or through sector-specific efforts that create structures and mechanisms that give citizens experience with democratic processes, build social capital, and create their capacities to political and economic space apart from that which will support the government through bottom up processing. These sectoral efforts enable citizens by establishing civil society groups, thereby, holding government be accountable. Realities in the field, especially in the rural areas in Afghanistan manifest that civil society organizations most often lack the institutional capacities to play a meaningful role in the development of the democratic political environment. The lack of capacities hampers the rural CSOs’ abilities to interact with government at all levels meaningfully. That is the reason that despite the existence of thousands of the CSOs in the country those in the rural areas cannot meaningfully engage in the Afghanistan society. To fully capture the public trust and confidence, CSOs and activists should first work to build sturdy organizations and build capacities of their staff with their corresponding tasks/roles and responsibilities. It is necessary to begin the work amongst themselves and improve the capacities about organizational management, communication, teamwork skills, and the understanding of civil societies’ tasks and roles. For this purpose, AORCE initiated the Support Program to Civil Society (SPCS) with an aim to strengthen civil society in Afghanistan by providing institutional and programmatic technical support and training mainly to rurally based, non-active/inactive civil society organizations in the different parts of the country. A further goal of the program is to strengthen CSOs’ interaction with government at all levels. Further, this guide intends to build networks amongst CSOs, international development organizations, and other individual or group activists. This guide further intends to address the existing gap that CSOs and human rights groups work individually and not in a collective effort. Looking at the bigger picture, nothing beats collaboration and cooperation to operationalize effective and efficient CSOs’ roles. When linkages A GUIDE TO CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFGHANISTAN A GUIDE TO are established, CSOs can learn working strategies and necessary skills from each other. Furthermore, they can collectively identify challenges they face, and publicly express their problems and take action using democratic means. In addition, for the purpose of better coordination, this guide was compiled by AORCE with an aim to provide an overview of the mandate and activities of the CSOs/NGOs operating in the country, and so with the sectors that they engage. The inclusion of information about funding agencies and the sectors they are funding, government, emergency contacts, media contacts, and the law of NGOs in Afghanistan are also embedded in this guide. The inclusion of those can highly benefit the CSOs for more informed decision- making in the exercise of democracy. Particularly, the listings of the media contacts are strongly needed for the information of all civil society groups as the media play an important role to the CSOs in the dissemination and information drive of highly relevant activities. iii On the government side, various related agencies can provide support for the implementation of the projects and programs, and possible alignment of policies and programmatic plans with those being done on the ground by the CSOs. Lastly, the inclusion of the section of international donors and developmental organizations are provided as guides for the civil society to seek partnership and networking of cross-country projects and funding for such. There are three waves of data collection. First, questionnaires were distributed to NGOs, INGOs and social organizations. For those who did not respond, data were taken from their website, such is the second phase of the conduct. The third wave was for those who did not respond to the questionnaire and do not have any information about their organization in the internet, those were taken from the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Justice, and were further verified and updated by calling their contact details. Limitations on the data gathering are expected as not all organizations responded to emails and they do not have websites. Moreover, their contact details were not updated in the list of the above-mentioned ministries. It is hoped that the guide will serve