Afghanistan Gender Equality Report Card Evaluating the Government of Afghanistan’s Committments to Women and Gender Equality PEACE PROCESS SECURITY PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION ACCESS TO VIOLENCE AGAINST POLITICAL RESOURCES AND JUSTICE WOMEN PARTICIPATION SERVICES ECONOMIC VULNERABLE AWARENESS OPPORTUNITY GROUPS RAISING 3 February 2015 About the Organization EQUALITY for Peace and Democracy (EPD) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization dedicated to empowering women and youth at the community and policy levels in Afghanistan. EPD was established in early 2010 by Ms. Nargis Nehan, the Executive Director of EPD. EPD works to build the capacity of women and youth in order for them to articulate their needs in the development, peacebuilding and democratic processes. EPD further aims to mobilize women and youth to contribute to overcoming the challenges of instability that Afghanistan is facing. EPD has established platforms for women and youth to come together, establish networks, build trust and confidence, and strive jointly toward transforming Afghanistan into a democratic country free of all forms of violence and discrimination. EPD’s Afghans’ Coalition for Transparency and Accountability community-led networks monitor service delivery and advocate for good governance and are based in Herat, Bamyan, Nangarhar and Kabul. EPD’s Provincial Women’s Network community-led networks identify and address issues that are of concern to women in the community and are based in Herat, Bamyan, Nangarhar, Faryab, Kunduz, Kandahar and Kabul. Furthermore, EPD is one of the lead civil society organizations in Kabul building alliances with other civil society organizations and groups, monitoring government policy-making in the areas of peace and good governance, ensuring human rights and advocating for engagement of civil society. EPD’s team, beside traveling around the country and interacting with people to understand their concerns, is also organizing meetings and debates in the center with policy-makers to voice people’s concerns. EPD’s leadership is attending international events and advocating for effective and sustainable engagement of the international community in Afghanistan. Acknowledgements EPD would first and foremost like to express their gratitude to the women of the Provincial Women’s Network and the stakeholders who participated in the consultations across Afghanistan, without whose contributions this research would not have been possible. EPD would also like to thank the Embassy of the Netherlands for providing funding and support for this project and external reviewers Hannah Partis-Jennings, Dr. Pam Green, and Fareeda Miah for their invaluable insights and feedback. EPD would like to acknowledge Marie S. Huber for authoring this report and research design, and appreciation to Maurits Rade and Shamsia Noori for their support in the development of this research and data collection. Lastly, a special thanks to the entire EPD team for their support throughout this project, especially Zabiullah Zahid and EPD’s Provincial Coordinators for carrying out the survey. Equality for Peace and Democracy Gender Equality Report Card 2 Table of Contents ACRONYMS 4 ACCESS TO JUSTICE 42 Legal Protections 44 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 Accessibility 45 2014 Gender Equality Report Card 9 Formal Justice Institutions 47 Formal Justice Officials 47 INTRODUCTION 13 49 Methods 14 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN About the Provincial Women’s Network 15 Legal Protections 51 Study Demographics 16 Government Support Mechanisms 51 Limitations and Challenges 16 Implementation of Laws and Recution of VAW 53 GIRoA Overall Performance 17 POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 55 Political Institutions 56 PEACE PROCESS 18 Elections 58 National Peace Processes 20 Local Peace Processes 21 RESOURCES AND SERVICES 60 Resources 62 SECURITY 23 Transportation 63 Protecting Women and Girls 24 Decision-Making 64 Security Actors and Women’s Rights 25 Recruiting Women to the Security Sector 26 ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 65 Support for Women in Business 66 PUBLIC HEALTH 28 Affirmative Action 68 Women’s Access to Healthcare 30 Women’s Inheritance 68 Maternal and Reproductive Health 31 Women in Agriculture 70 Psychological Support for Women 33 VULNERABLE GROUPS 71 EDUCATION 34 Primary and Secondary Education 36 AWARENESS RAISING 75 Tertiary Education 38 Literacy 40 CONCLUSION 78 Islamic Education 41 REFERENCES 80 Equality for Peace and Democracy Gender Equality Report Card 3 Acronyms ACTA Afghans’ Coalition for Transparency and Agency Accountability LOTFA Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan AFN Afghani, currency M Mean AGO Attorney General’s Office M&E Monitoring and Evaluation AIBA Afghanistan Independent Bar Association MAIL Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and AIHRC Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Livestock Commission MMR Maternal Mortality Ratio AISA Afghanistan Investment Support Agency MoEd Ministry of Education ALP Afghan Local Police MoF Ministry of Finance AMDG Afghanistan Millennium Development Goal MoHE Ministry of Higher Education AMICS Afghanistan Multiple Indicator Cluster MoI Ministry of Interior Survey MoJ Ministry of Justice ANA Afghan National Army MoLSAMD Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs ANC Antenatal Care and the Disabled ANDS Afghanistan National Development MoPH Ministry of Public Health Strategy MoWA Ministry of Women’s Affairs APRP Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration MRRD Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Programme Development ASPP Afghanistan Social Protection Program NABDP National Area-Based Development AWBF Afghan Women’s Business Federation Program BC Budget Circular NAPWA National Action Plan for the Women of BPHS Basic Package of Health Services Afghanistan CDC Community Development Council NCO Non-Commissioned Officer CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All NGO Non-governmental organization Forms of Discrimination Against Women NPP National Priority Plan CSO Central Statistics Organization NRVA National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment DoWA Department of Women’s Affairs NSP National Solidarity Program EPD EQUALITY for Peace and Democracy PDC Provincial Development Committee EUPOL European Union Police Mission PPC Provincial Peace Council EVAW Elimination of Violence Against Women PRR Priority Reconstruction Reforms FRU Family Response Unit PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder GBV Gender-Based Violence PWN Provincial Women’s Network GDP Gross Domestic Product SBA Skilled Birth Attendant GIRoA Government of the Islamic Republic of SD Standard Deviation Afghanistan SME Small and Medium Enterprise GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale ToT Training of Trainers Zusammenarbeit UN United Nations GPE Global Partnership for Education UNAMA UN Assistance Mission to GRB Gender Responsive Budgeting Afghanistan HMIS Health Management Information System UNDP United Nations Development Programme HPC High Peace Council UNFPA United Nations Population Fund IARCSC Independent Administrative Reform and UNICEF United Nation Children’s Fund Civil Service Commission USAID United States Agency for International ICT Information and Communications Development Technology USD United States Dollars, currency IEC Independent Election Commission of VAW Violence Against Women Afghanistan WPC Women’s Protection Centers IGDK Independent General Directorate of Kuchi JICA Japanese International cooperation Equality for Peace and Democracy Gender Equality Report Card 4 Executive Summary Equality for Peace and Democracy Gender Equality Report Card 5 Since 2001, the Government of the Islamic Republic Network (PWN) in five provinces of Afghanistan, combined of Afghanistan (GIRoA) has made over 2,300 explicit with desk research and stakeholder interviews. commitments to the women of Afghanistan on gender equality in laws, treaties and agreements, policies, and As a baseline for measuring progress regarding the strategic documents, a figure that does not even include government’s commitments, this report aims to take stock the innumerable verbal commitments made over the past of how far the government has come since 2001, and which fourteen years. While much of the focus in discussions on areas need more focus and improvement moving into the government commitments to women’s rights center on Transformation Decade. The indicators were selected to the National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan reflect both the most common commitments throughout (NAPWA), this document only encompasses a small fraction policies and documents from the GIRoA and the most critical of the commitments that have been made. This research areas for improvement that would represent actual positive reviews these commitments in a number of key areas: change in the daily lives of Afghan women. The Afghanistan peace processes, security, health, education, access to Gender Equality Report Card will be conducted through justice, violence against women, access to resources and EPD’s Provincial Women’s Network and a report card will services, political participation, economic opportunity be produced annually as a monitoring tool that enables and employment, protection of vulnerable groups, and civil society, the Afghan government, and the international awareness-raising among the public. It assesses both community to hold the government accountable to its progress and shortcomings in each of these areas from commitments to the women of Afghanistan and gender the perspectives of Afghan women, according to a survey equality. completed with 154 members of EPD’s Provincial Women’s Progress, Stagnation, and Setbacks