Strengthening accountability for women and girls in Afghanistan

Accountability in action
Written By GTS

Photo: Pixabay

Since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the de facto authorities (DFA) have introduced several directives limiting women’s access to education, employment, and public spaces. Although some NGOs and UN agencies navigated the decree through local exceptions and continued their operations, 2023 saw the introduction of new bans further reducing support for projects aiming to reach women and girls. In 2023, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan was critically underfunded, with less than half the amount required being funded. 

Against this backdrop, engaging with women and men is critical to ensuring the humanitarian response is tailored to their respective needs and priorities. To strengthen accountability to women and girls in Afghanistan, in September 2023, Ground Truth Solutions and Salma Consulting completed our third round of data collection with support from UN Women and the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group. 

Ground Truth Solutions and Salma consulting, funded by UN Women, set out to understand the views of women and men on humanitarian aid and how it is provided through quantitative household surveys and qualitative interviews. We target the general population, as the vast majority of the population in Afghanistan is considered to be in need of humanitarian assistance to survive. By asking communities in Afghanistan for their views on gender norms, access to, and quality of humanitarian assistance – especially for women – and working together with aid providers, donors, and policy makers, there is a chance to meet three objectives: 

  • Formalise tracking people’s experiences with and views on gender norms and humanitarian assistance 

  • Contribute to building knowledge on incorporating a gender perspective in humanitarian programming in the Afghan context 

  • Understand how to best respond to specific priorities, capacities, and needs of women and girls, supporting practical recommendations for the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) working group members and the humanitarian response more broadly 

We started the exercise with informal consultations with gender-experts, working groups, in-country humanitarian actors. In these conversations we discussed information needs, how people understand what gender-responsive humanitarian programming is, and if they had examples of best practice. We used these insights to inform our survey design and qualitative methodology. Working closely with UN Women and the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) working group members, we take a mixed-methods approach with the aim of co-producing actionable recommendations with and for humanitarian actors. 

For the first round of data collection, we implemented almost household surveys and focus group discussions with women and men living in Afghanistan in November and December 2022. In these conversations, we aimed to get a broad understanding of perceptions on aid, gender-sensitive humanitarian programming, and about gender-norms more general. 

Our second round of quantitative and qualitative data collection was completed in February and March 2023, after the nationwide ban on women non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers. The findings provided timely insight into the perceptions of women accessing aid without the availability of women aid workers. 

In September 2023, we wrapped up our third round of data collection activities. In this round we explored community-based solutions with women’s groups, discussed notions of nepotism and bribery with community leaders, and asked women how assistance could be adapted to better suit their needs and priorities.  

Alongside our research, we are also organising a series of trainings in-country (led by Salma) and online (led by GTS), called “Strengthening Women’s Participation in Humanitarian Assessments” in collaboration with REACH, with key partners.  

GTS
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