Analysis of Afghanistan’s National Action Plan

By Manar Marouf

In July 2015, the Government of Afghanistan launched the Afghan National Action Plan (NAP) for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. This makes Afghanistan the latest country in the Middle East to adopt national mechanisms for implementing SCR 1325, following Palestine and Iraq. The NAP has been released at a very critical time for Afghanistan as the government is increasing efforts to address the aftermath of decades of war in the country. During these conflicts, women were banned from participating in public life, including in the workforce and in roles of activism. Now, women in Afghanistan are increasing their participation in both the public and private sector. Earlier this month, women human rights defenders from the country met with the Taliban as part of the ongoing peace negotiations with the group. The main agency responsible for the development, monitoring and evaluation of the NAP is the Steering Committee, headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Steering Committee works in collaboration with other government agencies, civil society organisations, and international organisations.

The NAP is divided across the four main pillars of SCR 1325: Participation, Prevention, Protection, and Relief and Recovery. Each theme has a number of strategic objectives to address specific service areas of concern. For instance under the pillar of participation, there are objectives distributed across Civil Service, Security and Peace and Reintegration. Objective one is concerned with increasing meaningful participation of women in the decision making and executive levels of the Civil Service, Security and Peace and Reintegration, and objective two focuses on strengthening women’s active participation in national and provincial elections. Under each of these objectives there are a number of strategic objectives followed by a number of specific actions, expected results, indicators, reporting mechanism, time frame and implementing agencies.

Read more about Afghanistan’s National Action Plan here>>