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Sweden's Foreign Aid in Afghanistan from an Environmental Perspective

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Sweden's Foreign Aid in Afghanistan from an Environmental Perspective Master thesis in Sustainable Development 321 Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling Sweden’s Foreign Aid in Afghanistan from an Environmental Perspective Linnea Karlsson DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES INSTITUTIONEN FÖR GEOVETENSKAPER Master thesis in Sustainable Development 321 Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling Sweden’s Foreign Aid in Afghanistan from an Environmental Perspective Linnea Karlsson Supervisor: Ashok Swain Evaluator: Ian Snowball Copyright © Linnea Karlsson and the Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University Published at Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University (www.geo.uu.se), Uppsala, 2016 Table of contents: 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Background and problem formulation ................................................................... 1 1.2. Purpose and research objective .............................................................................. 1 2. Background ................................................................................................................ 3 2.1. Afghanistan ............................................................................................................ 3 2.1.1. The environment in Afghanistan ....................................................................... 3 2.2. Sweden’s Foreign aid in Afghanistan through Sida .............................................. 4 2.2.1. Sida’s foreign aid in Afghanistan ...................................................................... 4 2.2.2. Sida’s organisation for the foreign aid in Afghanistan ...................................... 5 2.3. Previous research ................................................................................................... 5 3. Theoretical framework ............................................................................................... 7 3.1. Sustainable development ....................................................................................... 7 3.2. Sustainable development, environment and poverty ............................................. 8 3.3. Sustainable development, environment and conflict ............................................. 8 3.3.1. Conflict lead to degradation of environment ..................................................... 9 3.3.2. Degraded environment can lead to conflict ....................................................... 9 3.3.3. Abundance of resources can lead to conflict ................................................... 10 3.4. Environment and peace ........................................................................................ 10 4. Method ..................................................................................................................... 11 4.1. Method 1 Analysis of project documents ............................................................ 12 4.1.1. Selection of projects and documents to analyse .............................................. 12 4.1.2. Analysis of the project’s documents ................................................................ 13 4.2. Method 2 Interviews ............................................................................................ 14 4.2.1. Selection of respondents .................................................................................. 14 4.2.2. Conducting the interviews ............................................................................... 14 4.2.3. Analysis of the interviews ................................................................................ 15 4.3. Method discussion and criticism of the sources .................................................. 16 4.3.1. Validity of respondents’ answer ...................................................................... 16 4.3.2. Validity of assessed projects ............................................................................ 16 5. Result ....................................................................................................................... 18 5.1. What has been done? ........................................................................................... 18 5.1.1. Review of the documents ................................................................................. 18 5.1.2. Respondents comments on what is done today ................................................ 22 5.2. Why is not environment more prioritized? .......................................................... 24 5.2.1. Environment is not in the development aid strategy ........................................ 24 5.2.2. Environment is not believed to be prioritized in Afghanistan ......................... 26 5.2.3. It is a challenging environment ........................................................................ 28 5.2.4. The program officers lack environmental knowledge ..................................... 30 5.3. Is it possible to have more environmental focus? ................................................ 31 5.3.1. Yes, it is possible to do more ........................................................................... 31 5.3.2. How should it be done? .................................................................................... 32 5.3.3. What is needed for it to happen? ...................................................................... 38 6. Discussion ................................................................................................................ 39 6.1. What is done? ....................................................................................................... 39 6.2. Why has it not been a focus area? ........................................................................ 40 6.2.1. Environment is not in the strategy ................................................................... 40 6.2.2. It is not being seen as a part of development or peace ..................................... 40 6.3. What can be done? ............................................................................................... 42 6.3.1. A western view of environment ....................................................................... 42 6.3.2. Humanitarian identified needs ......................................................................... 42 6.4. What is needed? ................................................................................................... 43 i 6.5. A new way to view sustainable development? .................................................... 43 7. Summary .................................................................................................................. 45 7.1. Ideas for further studies ....................................................................................... 46 8. Sources ..................................................................................................................... 47 8.1. Printed sources: .................................................................................................... 47 8.2. Project documents ................................................................................................ 49 8.3. Internet based sources: ......................................................................................... 50 ii Sweden’s foreign aid in Afghanistan from an environmental perspective LINNEA KARLSSON Karlsson, L, 2016: Sweden’s foreign aid in Afghanistan from an environmental perspective, Master thesis in Sustainable development at Uppsala University, 65 pp, 30 ECTS/hp Abstract: Afghanistan has been in armed conflict for over 30 years. The many wars have severely affected the environment negatively. Sweden has between 2010-2015 been allocating 4,7 billion SEK in foreign aid to Afghanistan. This is a qualitative study with the purpose to critically analyse how this foreign aid has contributed to a sustainable environmental development in Afghanistan. To be able to answer this question a review of projects documents and Sida assessment was conducted. This was then supplemented by interviews with 14 people who in different ways had been working with these issues. In the analysis theories connecting to environment, poverty and conflict have been used. Sida is supporting two types of foreign aid in Afghanistan; humanitarian aid and development aid. The study found that the Sida’s humanitarian work in Afghanistan has a clear focus on environmental issues, whereas the development aid overall where lacking a focus on environmental issues. The larger focus within the humanitarian aid was explained by that environmental consideration is a part of the Sida’s strategy for the humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and humanitarian aid’s natural connection to environment, in for instance natural disasters. The lack of environmental focus within the development aid was found to have three explanations; the strategy did not have an environmental focus, the staff lacked the necessary environmental knowledge and environmental issues was not believed to be prioritized in Afghanistan. It was however believed to be possible to have more focus on the environment in Sida’s work in Afghanistan. The study shows that environmental issues are not believed to be a necessary component for creating a sustainable development or peace in Afghanistan. The study is arguing that one way to create more focus on environmental issues within the development aid would be to work closer with the humanitarian aid. The thesis was finally presenting an alternative way to look at environment and
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