National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan - The Secretary ...

essential in national decision making. They further acknowledge the need to level the political
playing field so that women can compete and win elective posts on equal terms with men. These
provisions are by far among the most significant affirmative action policies ever adopted and the
Social Protection section of the I-ANDS commits to implementing it in the civil service.
Gender and the MDGs: The Afghan
Government has agreed to pursue 9 major
goals under the MDG framework up to the
year 2020, approximately 13 years from the
adoption of NAPWA. These include womenspecific
targets in the fields of education,
economics, health, and political participation.
These were used as the basis for framing the
benchmarks of the I-ANDS.
The MDG serves as a framework but does not
impose a limit to government priorities. Thus,
NAPWA liberally picks up all the womenspecific
commitments of the MDGs and
positions them within a broader set of
priorities that it seeks to achieve in the next
ten years. While the I-ANDS takes a five year
slice of the MDG targets, NAPWA either
doubles the I-ANDS targets or attempts to
shorten the period through which they are
supposed to be attained.
WOMEN-SPECIFIC MDG
TARGETS
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
- Ensure that by 2020, children everywhere,
boys and girls alike will be able to complete a
full course of primary schooling
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower
women
- Eliminate gender inequality in all levels of
education no later than 2020
- Reduce gender disparity in economic areas
by 2020
- Increase female participation in elected and
appointed bodies at all levels of governance
to 30% by 2020
- Reduce gender disparity in access to justice
by 50% by 2015 and completely by 2020
Goal 5: Reduce by 50%, between 2002 and 2015,
the maternal mortality ratio, and further reduce
the MMR to 25% of the 2003 level by 2020
The Way Ahead: Workplan of the Afghan
Government: The document was adopted in the 2004 Berlin Conference and reiterates the
Constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination with respect to women‘s
participation in the civil service and in the elections as voters and candidates. It reinforces the
MDG goal on education by declaring the need for Government to ensure that ―all girls and boys
complete compulsory education (9 years) and have opportunities to continue at higher levels with
special attention to the inclusion of girls who have been prevented from access to education.” It
further asserts that government will ensure that gender is mainstreamed within all sectors,
programs, and policies. The first National Development Framework of Afghanistan also adopts
gender mainstreaming as a strategy as it provides that, ―all programs must pay special attention
to gender” and that “Afghanistan has to engage in societal dialogue to enhance the opportunities
of women and improve cooperation between men and women.”
Gender equity in the Afghanistan Compact and the I-ANDS: Two principles of the Afghanistan
Compact directly support the vision of NAPWA. Principle 5 states that the Afghan Government
and the international community will “build lasting Afghan capacity and effective state and civil
society institutions, with particular emphasis on building up human capacities of men and women
alike.” Principle 7 also provides that both parties will ―recognize in all policies and programs
that men and women have equal rights and responsibilities.‖ Its benchmarks and timelines
declare that the National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan will be fully implemented and in
line with the Afghanistan‘s MDGs female participation in all Afghan governance institutions,
including elected and appointed bodies and the civil service, will be strengthened.
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