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BRAC AFGHANISTAN Annual Report 2008
BRAC Afghanistan House No: 45 Lane: 4
Butcher Street, Baharistan, Kart-e-Parwan, Kabul, Afghanistan
E-mail : [email protected] www.bracafg.org
Just enlightened, healthy an free from hunger, poverty, environmental
degradation and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex, religion and ethnicity. ‐Vision
A Just, enlightened, healthy and democratic societies free from hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex, religion and ethnicity.
BRAC: An Overview
BRAC is an international organisation started its development activities in Bangladesh in the year 1972 focusing on rehabilitation and resettling thousands of Bangladeshi refugees returning soon after the liberation war of Bangladesh. Through the years of struggle against extreme poverty, illiteracy, diseases, environmental degradation, injustice and other handicaps, Bangladesh has adopted many innovative tools to tackle poverty.
BRAC is the name of a development organisation founded by Fazle Hasan Abed in February 1972, now renowned nationally and globally of its participatory approaches for bringing sustainable changes in the livelihood of the people through designing a comprehensive package of two goals; empowerment of the poor people particularly women and poverty alleviation.
BRAC’s development programmes has been working to reducing the vulnerability of the people by using new methods and improved technologies which helps to bring about changes of the poor people life that permits them to break out the cycle of poverty and hopelessness with special emphasis on improving as well as increasing their socio‐economic condition in the society and health conditions through group formation (Village Organisation, VO), concretization and awareness raising, skill training, health and education services, and collateral free loans for income‐generating activities .
At present, BRAC operates in over 69,421 villages (out of a total of 84,000 villages) through its mainstream micro credit‐based development program reaching nearly covered population 110 million through share with human resource over 117,067 fulltime staff and a similar number of part‐time functionaries with an annual budget of US$ 485 million, 80% of which is self financed. Over the years BRAC has established
an integrated link with government to ease the surfacing of other organizations in Bangladesh (http://www.brac.net).
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TABLE OF CONTENTS BRAC: An Overview 02 BRAC Afghanistan: An Overview 05 Location of BRAC projects in Afghanistan 06 BRAC Afghanistan At a glance 07 Education Programme 09 Health Programme 19 Microfinance Programme 33 Agriculture Development Programme 42 Livestock Development Programme 46 Infrastructure and Social Development Programme 48 BRAC Training and Resource Centre 59 Women Training and Production Centre 63 Support Programme 64 BRAC Afghanistan’s Operational Management 67 BRAC Afghanistan Organogram 68 Financial Statement 69
CORE VALUES
Concern for people especially poor Human dignity Belief in human capacity Gender equity Fairness Honesty and integrity Discipline Creativity and innovation Participation Accountability Cost consciousness Team work Openness Sharing information Transparency Professionalism High quality product and service Concern for environment
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BRAC Afghanistan: An Overview The war in Afghanistan lasted for three decades leaves not only debris, poverty and unemployment but also its natural resources have been degraded and public institutions lost their capabilities. The lack of capacity grassroots level administrative bodies (availability, knowledge and competence) is among the most serious problems affecting the Afghan infrastructure.
After becoming a largest organisation in the field of development sector and committed to the alleviation of poverty and empowerment of poor, BRAC has been sharing its expertise in post war rehabilitation with the communities in Afghanistan to improving the overall socio‐economic environment. BRAC Afghanistan was registered as an international NGO in Afghanistan in May 2002 and implements Education, Health, Enterprise Development, Microfinance, Agriculture and Livestock Development, Capacity Development, and National Solidarity Programmes. BRAC Afghanistan has constantly been applying the proven best practices keeping in mind the cultural and social context of Afghanistan. BRAC Afghanistan operates to verifying degrees of scope and intensity in 25 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan with 429 offices. BRAC’s long experience in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and some East African countries suggest its capacity to implement programmes in a participatory manner even in security challenging areas.
Through its different programmes activities in Afghanistan with the help of the government of Afghanistan and international donor agencies, BRAC Afghanistan health programme operates in 7 provinces now managing 7 district hospitals, 20 comprehensive health centres, 66 basic health centres, 44 sub health centres and 533 mobile sessions every month. The education programme operating 2,654 community based schools in 11 provinces of Afghanistan with accommodated 84,536 students. Besides, BRAC Afghanistan has undertaken an extensive microfinance programme covering 23 provinces and reached to 188,806 members with cumulative disbursed more than USD 145 million microloans to 139,824
borrowers, trained 20,794 farmers under Agriculture & Livestock Development and Credit Support Programme, 1,390 poultry and livestock workers who serve thousands of people, and 9,521 families received hygiene education training.
BRAC’s Bangladeshi staff successfully trained hundreds of Afghani nationals to manage and implements the programmes and now 95% of BRAC Afghanistan staffs are Afghani. A group of 3,649 skilled Bangladeshi and Afghani staff are actively engaged in implementing various programmes of BRAC in Afghanistan. (www.bracafg.org)
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BRAC Afghanistan: At a glance
Provinces covered: 25 (out of 34)
Balkh, Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar, Parwan, Kapisa, Kabul, Nangarhar, Paktika, Helmand, Badghis, Samangan, Jawzjan, Saripul, Kandahar, Hirat, Faryab, Logar, Ghazni, Laghman, Panjshir, Ghor, Badakshan, Nimroz and Daykundi.
Personnel Total Staff 3,649National Staff 3,477
Male 1,882Female 1,595
Expatriates 172Office set up 429Training Center 1
Education Programme Community based schools (CBS) established 2,654Students in on going CBS classes 84,536 (84% girls)Graduated students 124,075 (84% girls)CBS teachers’ recruitment 2,654Class room construction 476In‐service training to Govt. school teachers 857Master Trainers developed on English subject 40Training for govt. school teachers on English subject 293SASC member development through workshop 3,045Capacity development of local NGOs 50CBS operation by local NGOs 650
Annual Expenditure 2002 US$ 00.24 million
2003 US$ 02.78 million
2004 US$ 14.56 million
2005 US$ 20.33 million
2006 US$ 31.15 million
2007 US$ 28.75 million
2008 US$ 25.77 million
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BRAC Afghanistan: At a glance
Health Programme Province covered 7District covered 52Population covered in million 4.35District Hospital 7Comprehensive Health Centre 21Basic Health Centre 66Sub Health Centre 44Mobile / Satellite Clinics 533Community Health Workers 3,578
Microfinance Programme Province covered 23Village Organizations (VOs) 11,572VO members 188,806Borrowers 139,824Members’ Savings (US$) 5,596,627Disbursement (Cum.) (US$) 145,604,001Portfolio Outstanding (US$) 27,597,081
NSP Programme Province covered 6Com. Development Plan prepared 2,327Sub projects being implemented 1,007Sub projects completed 3,631
WATSAN Project
Province covered 2 Total tube well installed 160 Latrine constructed 505 Hygiene education training for family 9,521
CBDRR Programme Province covered 1Orientation on disaster to Village Level Development
1,678
Orientation on disaster for school children
714
EQUIP Programme
Education enhancement (Materials) 389Infrastructure completed (Schools) 46Capacity building training for SMC & PTA members
389
Orientation course conducted 119
BRAC Training & Resource Centre (BTRC) No. of Trainers 16Total participants trained in around the year 2,967
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EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Education scenario in Afghanistan Afghanistan has faced a long term impact on the education sector for its social unrest and security problem over the years. The literacy rate up to now in Afghanistan marked as low and moreover, the country facing the lack of teachers and schools. During the 23 years conflict and war inside the country, misplaced many families to rip up their children from school and many more migrated to neighboring countries. After return back, number of children had to remain at home to help their family’s daily work and putting their hands for income generating activities. Over aged girls were forbidden from attending schools for the lack of their educational facilities, and as a result, a large number of female in Afghanistan has been deprived of the right of education. Access to education is also an issue for those children, who are living in remote areas, from extremely poor families and moreover the ethnic minority communities. The Ministry of Education (MoE) in Afghanistan and a number of donor agencies supported, to increase collaboration for providing teachers training, schools for unprivileged children in the underserved areas, social mobilization, local community involvement, supply of educational materials, the exchange of ideas and experience in primary education, and to enhance the pedagogic efficiency of teachers. Through various initiatives of Afghan Government and international donor agencies, the people of Afghanistan are now realizing the value of education and allowing girls to attend school where appropriate facilities exists. Still today, some of the obstacles to education for girls in Afghanistan which includes the long distances of schools from residence, customary restriction on girls mobility, lack of security, poverty, lack of female teachers and staffs particularly in rural area and the widespread custom of marrying girls at a very early age has playing a negative impact in implementing education for girls.
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BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme From its inception in 2002, BRAC Afghanistan has found that a large number of small children cannot get any scope and facilities to attend formal schools because of far way from their residence or not being able to reach school due to topography. Moreover, a significant number of over aged girls are out of reach of the basic education systems because their parents are reluctant to send them alone to distantly located school.
BRAC Afghanistan putting hands with the Ministry of Education and supported from international donor agencies for trying to shape the Afghan children as worthy citizens of the country through creating the scope to education.
BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme has taken number of initiatives aimed at the holistic improvement and significant progress of the country’s education infrastructure, providing an opportunity for quality education in underserved areas of Afghanistan. Beside, the millennium strategy that has taken by the Afghan government, try to figure the country’s education sector through providing education for all with the close cooperation and assistance of the international development agencies, international NGOs and national NGOs. Over the years, it has been expanded redirecting its school programme by establishing Basic Education for Older Children (BEOC) in place of Non Formal Primary Education (NFPE) schools with a view to take stand on behalf of the poorest and under privileged children those who are deprived of education.
Achievements of the Programme BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme has created an employment opportunities for local women. A total number of 2,654 women are engaged as school teachers and 266 women as school supervisors. In addition, BRAC Afghanistan also develops the capacity of local NGOs. A total of 49 local NGOs are engaged to operate 650 community based schools. BRAC Afghanistan now runs 2,654 Community Based Schools with accommodated 84,536 students (84% girls) and has received graduation 124,075 students (84% girls).
A total of 389 schools had improved the quality educational inputs and process as the foundation for a long terms strategy to enhance quality of
educational outputs under Education Quality Improvement Programme (EQUIP) with the assistance of the World Bank in Parwan and Kapisa provinces. Besides, a total number of 75 school buildings constructed as the part of infrastructure development under Emergency Education Rehabilitation and Development Programme (ERDP) and EQUIP.
A Total number of 86,970 students graduated under Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) funded by UNICEF and 37,105 students (89% girls) graduated under Community Based School funded by SIDA. BRAC Afghanistan Education programme working for the capacity improvement of school management and strengthen linkages to exchange ideas and experience in primary education, and to enhance the pedagogic efficiency of community based school teachers, government school teachers and government officials through organizing different type’s of workshop and subject based training. A total number of 20 staff members received five months long courses on education management from BRAC Bangladesh.
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Aim of Education Programme
BRAC Afghanistan’s contribution in education sector of Afghanistan on it has had twenty three years experience of Bangladesh in providing non‐formal primary education to underprivileged children which were out of the formal education system. The goal of BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme is to encourage the communities to establish community based schools in different rural areas of Afghanistan to build the skills and self‐confidence level of the children and mainstreaming them to continue their education through the formal system.
Different Education Projects BRAC Afghanistan operates two types of education programme in the year 2008 which are followings:
♦ Community Based School Programme supported by SIDA
♦ Girls’ Education Project supported by CIDA
Community Based School Programme Supported by SIDA
Since September’ 2004, the BRAC Afghanistan education programme supported by the SIDA has implemented the community based education programme through establishing two types of community based schools which as Basic Education for Older Children (BEOC) and Feeder
Schools in 13 provinces (Kabul, Parwan, Kapisa, Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar, Samangan, Balkh, Jawzjan, Hirat, Kandahar, Helmand and Nangarhar) of Afghanistan. The BEOC School is designed for the out of school girls aged 11‐15 years to provide the education opportunities up to grade III level education by two years time span and the Feeder School is designed for the out of school children aged 6‐7 years to provide education opportunity up to grade I level education by one year time span. After completion of the course of BRAC run community based schools, the graduates are enrolled in higher grades of the formal school to continue their education.
Specific objectives ♦ Support government efforts to achieve
education for all ♦ Reduce mass illiteracy and contribute to
the basic education of the country’s poorest children.
♦ Increase access of girls in education. ♦ Involve communities in the
management of schools and mobilize in favor of education, especially for girls’ education.
♦ Create employment opportunities for local women as school teachers.
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Achievements of the Project
Since inception to end date of the programme (September’04 to June ’08), a total of 1,212 community based schools are operated accommodated 35,807 students of them 31,810 (89%) girls. Out of 1,212 these schools, a total of 670 schools are BEOC which have provided education to 19,057 girls (adolescent and over aged girls) up to grade III and a total of 542 schools are Feeder which provides education up to grade III to 16,790 children of them 12,753 girls. Over the project period, a total of 36 ARCs are established as piloting of the project with 974 adolescent members. A total of 86 adolescent had received training on tailoring.
Obtaining experience on grade IV and V level teaching In consideration of the community demand, continuous education opportunity of the adolescent girls who did not get opportunity to continue their education after completion of BRAC community based school course, due to long distance of formal schools. The education programme has been prolonged up to March 2008 as an extension phase through extending 51 BEOC schools’ duration for piloting on grade IV and V level teaching, along with 12 Feeder schools for piloting on grade II and III level teaching. This pilot programme is carried out with the objective to obtain the experience of teaching on stated levels’ education for accommodating the newly formulated the policy of the Ministry of Education (MoE) on community based education system.
Adolescent Reading Centre (ARC)
Adolescent girls are often the most marginalized and vulnerable member of the society. Due to some unavoidable reasons such as long distance of formal school, parents’ unwillingness to send adolescent girls in long distant formal school resulted from getting admission in the formal schools for their continuous education.
The project established Adolescent Reading Centers (ARC) as a piloting phase of this project to keeping adolescent girls adhered with the educational materials for retaining their knowledge after completing BRAC Afghanistan school courses. The ARC reading materials such as story books, magazines, and newspapers are provided to them to continue their education informally along with to make them socialized.
Moreover, through providing training on the tailoring, life skills of the members is also enhanced to serve their family needs by earning some money or assisting their neighbors through tailoring service.
Addressing gender issue
The Community based school programme supported by SIDA gave the utmost emphasis on gender issue at its all stages of programme implementation, basically the programme is developed focusing on the girls’ education that ultimately narrows down the gender disparity from the society through flourishing girls as befitting Afghans. Taking in account the girls’ educational conditions in Afghanistan‐ where some days ago girls had no access to education. The programme established two types of schools of which one is BEOC developed only for girls (100% girls’ students) and second one is feeder developed for children of them above 70% girls. The programme also recruits female from the community as school teachers, means 100% teachers are female and above 80% staffs are female. Moreover, the programme ensured the community mobilization activities through arranging monthly mothers meeting focusing on girls’ issues.
Capacity development of Local NGOs
BRAC Afghanistan always believes in partnership for the better programme implementation and committed to the development of the capacity of local NGOs. On a pilot basis, the programme initiated to make partnership education program me with local NGOs for enhancing the capability of local NGOs in community based education programme implementation. A total of 15 community based schools has been implemented by three local NGOs to obtain experience on community based school implementation in underserved areas of Afghanistan with the financial support from SIDA.
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Girls Education Project Supported by CIDA
The Afghan Ministry of Education (MoE) and the international community realized that in spite of girls’ education, it could not be possible to rebuild the education system and to meet the growing demand in education sector. The aim of the girls’ education project has been to explore the way in which gender equality will be maintained through the provision of basic education. Besides, the existing facilities of educational space and resource in Afghanistan so far from adequate to serve the needs of all school age children. Therefore Afghanistan government has established a strategy that supplements government education services by parenting with service delivery organisations, such as BRAC Afghanistan, to deliver education in underserved areas of Afghanistan.
BRAC Afghanistan started the Girls Education Project in Afghanistan through singing a contract between CIDA and BRAC Afghanistan on December 2006.The project fully supported by the CIDA and developed in line of the newly formulated community based school operation policy of the MoE. The purposes of the project are to narrow the gaps in access and quality of basic education, and life skills development in rural and underserved areas of Afghanistan, especially for girls and the children who are out of school and also enhance continuing education opportunity to girls through quality enhancement of public school.
Specific objectives of the project: ♦ Increase access to girls’ education
through CBFS and CBALS schools. ♦ Promote adolescents to continue
education and enhance life skill knowledge
♦ Continuously improving education opportunities for girls through quality enhancement of public schools.
♦ Develop the capacity of local NGOs to be involved in CBS programme implementation under the proposed project.
Components of Girls’ Education Project
The core components of the project are a). Community based school operation a. i) 4,000 CBFS and CBALS establishment. a.ii) Class room construction a.iii) Capacity development of local NGOs,
b). Adolescent reading centres operation, c). Quality enhancement of public schools c. i) Research and new initiatives.
Community Based Schools Operation
The Education programme implemented Girls education project through operating two types of community based schools which are:
i.) Community Based Feeder School (CBFS) and ii.) Community Based Accelerated Learning Schools (CBALS) The Community based feeder schools were designed for children those aged brackets 7~9 years old in sitting capacity of 30~35 numbers of students to provide education up to grade III in two year time period. After successfully completion from BRAC Afghanistan community based feeder schools, the graduates will be enrolled in grade IV of the formal schools. Besides, Community Based Accelerated Learning Schools accommodated for out of school girls aged within the 10~15 for two years and provided education up to grade IV to catch the formal education system. In both types of schools followed the government curriculum along with supplementary reading materials. Teachers are recruited locally of these two type schools after consulting with the community peoples and Education Department. All teachers receive 15 days basic training as well as monthly and grade change refreshers.
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School in operation
Since January 2007 to December 2008, a total of 2,654 Community Based schools established with accommodated 84,536 (84%girls) in 65 districts of 11 Provinces i.e Kabul, Kapisa, Parwan, Samangan, Balkh, Jawzjan, Herat, Nangarhar, Lagman, Kandahar and Helmand. Out of these schools, a total of 1,404 CBALS have provided education opportunity to 42,716 girls and 1,250 CBFS to 41,820 students of them 28,617 (68%) girls and 13,203 boys. Although, CBS establishment has created scope to access in education for the out of school children and create opportunity female as teachers in the community.
In the year 2008, the project has established a total of 1,653 (CBFS 781 and CBALS 872) community based schools with accommodated 54,000 students (83% girls) on the basis of survey findings and the community based education policy of the Afghan Ministry of Education.
BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme……….
….target children coming from the poorest and most deprived house hold during 2007~2008 120,000 ‐ 80,000 ‐ 84% 70000 – 60,000 – 50,000 – 40,000 – 16% 20,000 – 0
84,536 of total students’ 71,333 of girls’ student 13,203 of boys’ student
Classroom Construction
A total of 476 classrooms are constructed under this project despite of many reasons such as the scarcity of land and construction materials. This has an access opportunity to education in the communities where there is no govt. hub school and especially over aged girls which also significantly help to minimize the gender gap in the enrolment of the primary education. Although target was more than 930 in this project with its 4 years time span but it was decided in the steering committee meeting with the Ministry of Education and CIDA that BRAC Afghanistan has only constructed new 392 class room in the year 2008.
Status of Classroom constructed
Target Classroom construction
Year 2007 Year 2008 Total classrooms constructed
Outcomes level
930 (Revised) 84 392 476 Educational opportunity for the out of
school children where there is no govt. hub school.
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Capacity Development of Local NGOs under Girls Education Project
BRAC Afghanistan always believes in partnership for the better programme implementation and committed to the development of the capacity of local NGOs. The project has enhanced the capacity of the local NGOs in implementing the CBE in remotest rural areas through providing the education opportunity for girls especially for the over aged girls.
A total of 49 local NGOs had shared experience and partnership with the BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme operated 650 community based schools (365 CBALS and 285 CBFS) with accommodated 21,434 students (81% girls) in 42 districts in 11 provinces of Afghanistan since from January 2007 to 2008. It is in target plan within the 4 years project period to operate 1,000 community based schools administering by local NGOs to buildup their capacity.
In the year 2008, a total of 29 local new NGOs signed contract with BRAC and shared experience to operate 450 community based schools under the girls’ education project in rural areas of Afghanistan. The partners NGO already have received the training on school operation management, education management and financial management. A total of 80 NGO personnel’s participated the training in over the year.
Quality Enhancement of Public School
BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme has maintained the high linkages with Provincial Education Department (PED) and District Education Department (DED) through organizing workshops Additionally, BRAC Afghanistan conducted workshops with the help of the Govt. schools Advisory Committee (SASC), Local leaders from the catchment villages and School Management Committee (SMC) of nearest BRAC Afghanistan schools clustered with the govt. School. Besides, BRAC Afghanistan well briefed the education system that operating in BRAC schools and responsibilities to SASC, SMC and community leaders to ensure quality education. In this workshop a school mapping assessment also prepare to finalize how many CBS school could be established and clustered under a particular govt. School. Beside this, BRAC Afghanistan has been providing the subject Based trainings for the government school teachers to enhance the quality of the
government school teachers. A total of 857 Government school teachers (386 female and 489 male) had received training on INSET I from inception to December 2008. Out of them, 206 govt. school teachers had received this training in the year 2008. In March 2008, it was decided in place of INSET I and Education Management trainings .BRAC Afghanistan education programme has to provide trainings on different subject based training to the Govt. School teachers under its Girls’ Education Project next year. As per new target the project has to provide training to some 3000 Primary and secondary School teachers on English, Math and science subjects.
With a view to provide subject based training to the government school teachers, BRAC Afghanistan has designed a 15 days long subject based training on Math and English subjects to develop the Master Trainers and teachers capacity on the mentioned subjects. Consequently after several meetings with Teachers Education Programme (TEP), finally the newly developed training module and materials on English subjects has received approval from TEP.
In 2008. 22 trainees from Teachers Training College, TEP and teachers in different government schools and Master Trainers have been received training on English subject. Now they are providing training at the field level. A total number of 293 teachers at the field level have been trained around the year 2008.
Capacity Building of CBS teachers
Training for the teachers of community based schools is playing a very important role to smoothly implementing the girls’ education project. After the primary recruitment of the teachers from the community, a twelve days long Basic Teachers Training is provided which was same followed by a basic teachers training module prepared in the light of TEP training module INSET I. Those who are able to receive the training effectively only they are finally recruited as the teachers to operate the community based schools.
The basic teacher training course focusing on the concept of community based school, class room management and discipline, teacher’s preparation for teaching method in class, techniques, evaluation process, and rapport building with parents and guardians. The training has developed the teaching skills of the teachers for providing quality education.
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After completing the 12 days long Basic Teachers Training, BRAC has organized a 3 days orientation focusing on the perspective of the girls’ education project. Although this orientation also very important for CBS teachers to know the CBS school operation modalities, preparing class routine, record keeping, materials maintenance, keep touch with parents through arranging monthly mothers meeting along with the techniques of making the child friendly learning atmosphere.
From the started date of the project, BRAC Afghanistan has already provided a 12 day’s long training to 2,700 teachers and finally recruited 2,654 teachers as a teacher of the community based schools.
Subject based training for Capacity Development
With a view to increase the capacity development for master trainers and government school teachers, BRAC Afghanistan has been operating a 15 days long subject based training on Math and English subjects which was started in the year 2008. In response of the necessity of English and Mathematics, the Ministry of Education, BRAC Afghanistan and CIDA has decided in the steering committee meeting on March 9, 2008 to make a new inclusion in project instead of INSET I training for government school teachers and the Principals and Headmasters training on Education Management as well as determination of new target 3,000 on English and Math subject based training.
Consequently BRAC Afghanistan had arranged several meetings with the Teachers Education Programme (TEP) and finally received approval from TEP to design and development of the subject based training on English and Mathematics subject for master trainers and government school teachers. A total number of 293 trainees from teachers Training College, TEP and teachers of different government schools have been trained out of targeted in the year 2008.
Capacity Development of MoE officials
A five months long training course from March 18, 2008 to August 11, 2008 focusing on Education Management, English Language and computer proficiency is provided to a twenty member team comprising of the government high officials of the Ministry of Education as an initiative to enhance the capacity development. The training was held at BRAC Centre, Bangladesh in assistance of Training division of BRAC Bangladesh. All participants were
awarded by H.E Karim Nawabi, Afghan Ambassador of Bangladesh, Ms. Hamida Nizami, Director of Basic Education of MoE, Dr. Mahabub Hossain, Executive Director of BRAC and Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, Pro.V.C of BRAC University. On the occasion of awarding ceremony, all the distinguished guests delivered their speech on the effectiveness of the training course in rebuilding of Afghanistan. School Management Committee (SMC) BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme has formed the SMC comprising with the community people such as teacher of CBS, Sura representative, Olema representative, Female representative of the Parents and Education Patrons to operate the CBS effectively and to make ensure the community participation. A total of 2,600 SMC has formed during January 2007 to December 2008 of which 1,599 SMC in 2008. As an impact of formed SMC, the CBS has been a defendable learning place for the over aged girls and moreover ensuring the community participation.
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Material Arrangement and Development
It is important to develop the learning materials which are used in BRAC Afghanistan’s School for the students and teachers. Material development unit modify these materials as per the revised text books and used some extra reading materials as supplementary to improve their reading efficiently and pleasures in schools. Ensuring the quality education, these materials help the teachers to carry out their teaching responsibilities effectively and also help the students to obtain their necessary development unit knowledge and proficiency in their life. Furthermore, educational materials which are related to teachers and also staffs such as Teacher’s guide, Basic Teachers guide for learning intervention, Refreshers guide, implementing manual for staffs are developed by the Material Development unit. Besides, these instruction guide books are developed in consideration the Afghan socio‐economic culture and religious context.
Specific responsibilities of BRAC Material development unit are as follows
Prepare and supply of extra reading
materials for grade I~III of community based schools. This unit developed 5 extra reading materials for each grade.
Prepare and supply of reading materials/story books for Adolescent Reading Centre.
Prepare and supply of Charts (Number chart, Alphabet chart & Multiplication chart) to community based schools
Deliver the class routine to community based schools for maintaining time properly.
Prepare guide books for teachers, pre‐service training guide, refreshers guide for II, III to IV, math guide for grade IV and V.
Prepare operational manual for Program Organizer (PO) to implements project efficiently.
Prepare and organize training module and materials for staff development like OMC, ToT training.
Prepare module and organize in subject base materials training for govt. school teachers.
Although, material development unit has been arranged revision the guide books for the teachers because most of the text books revised by the Curriculum board in every year. The text books for the students and teachers were printed with the approval of the Ministry of Education.
Procurement and Supplies BRAC Afghanistan has individual department named as procurement and logistic support department for providing support to programme and also making quick and timely supply the project materials to ensure the effective implementation of project.
This unit procured education materials at based in central office has maintained and followed procurement policy of the girls’ education project.
BRAC Afghanistan education programme delivered the necessary documents and reports to CIDA and the Ministry of Education time to time to maintain the transparency of the procured educational materials.
Supervision and Monitoring
Effective monitoring and supervision expedite the program toward its targeted and expected goal. With the views of supporting staff and teachers in carrying out their effective and efficient role and responsibility at grass root level programme implementation, the supervisory staff of the programme which as Programme Manager, Zonal Manager, Regional Manager, Master Trainer and Programme Organiser carry out extensive supervisory functions through continuously and frequently school visits, classroom teaching observation, students’ performance observation, co‐curriculum, physical arrangement and set disciplines of teachers, students and school. BRAC Afghanistan introduces two stratified monitoring, one is under Programme Manager and another one is under the Country Programme Head of BRAC Afghanistan. The monitoring unit under BEP continuously performs monitoring on the program through collecting data from the fields and prepares monitoring reports focusing the physical arrangement of classroom, attendance of the children, materials availability and use and subject wise performance levels of the students by grades such as Excellent, Good, Average and below Average and by provinces. This monitoring report
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is shared with PO, MT and RM. On the basis of the average and below average grade levels the remedial strategy is setup to promote the performance in satisfactory level. The newly setup strategy is also shared with all concern bodies of the education program through meetings and discussions.
The Monitoring Department under Country Programme Head monitors the programme in line of contract agreement and prepares monitoring reports focusing all dissimilarity with the approved budget and contract agreement and that are submitted to the top and line management. Based on monitoring reports necessary steps are taken to improve or readjust the program activities in light of stipulated goal and objectives.
BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme mainly gives emphasis on monitoring of students performance and academic disciplines along with the issues which have financial involvement of the project.
Integration with the Ministry of Education
Effective and efficient coordination between BRAC Afghanistan Education Programme and the Ministry of Education and also other partners NGO is played a role to the successful implementation of the project.
BRAC Afghanistan runs community based schools are also functioning as the outreach classes of the government schools. Therefore, at each and every steps of the project implementation has taken a close coordination with the Ministry of Education and its various bodies. The project established its community based schools in consultation with the Provincial and District Education authorities along with in regard of CBS teachers’ appointment.
Besides, the students of BRAC Afghanistan runs Community Based Schools are registered as the students of the nearby government school so that they will continue their education upon completion of the course. Although, education programme provided the subject based trainings to government school teachers a protocol on execution of the subject based training on English, Mathematics, Science and computer through singed contract between the BRAC Afghanistan and Teacher Education Programme (TEP) of the Ministry of Education. The
materials of this training are developed in consultation with TEP and other concern bodies. BRAC Afghanistan always organised a coordination meeting to keep in touch and consistency with the Basic Education department of MoE and the provincial education department where the project takes part actively.
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HEALTH PROGRAMME
Health scenario in Afghanistan
Decades of war and civil strife have adversely affected the delivery of health care services to the population of Afghanistan. The overall health status of the country remains worst in the country although it has been able to maintain a steady growth to improve and sustain the country’s overall health status since the fall of Taliban regime 2002. To ensure heath care services for all, the Government of Afghanistan has adopted the BPHS (Basic Package of Health Services) and EPHS (Essential Package of Health Services) policies. A part from the government, national and international NGOs have been implementing the BPHS and EPHS in different provinces of Afghanistan. Information on existing services as well as scope of service provision raises concern for the government as to how the health care system can be further upgraded and made more ‘users friendly’ through coordinated public‐private collaboration. The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) plays the role of stewardship functions such as setting strategic direction of the sector including financing, monitoring and evaluation, human resource planning and in general connect the private sector to attain the national objectives of BPHS and EPHS. Thousands of Community Health Workers (CHWs) of BRAC Afghanistan health programme were trained to disseminate health related messages, promote the use of family planning methods, ensure primary health care services, and to contribute in referring the complicated cases to the health facilities.
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BRAC Afghanistan Health Programme Health for all
Health interventions of BRAC Afghanistan have been an integral part of the organisation since obtained registration in July 2002 in Afghanistan. BRAC Afghanistan began its health intervention with 2 fixed health centres in Parwan and Balkh Provinces. Responsiveness to the people across communities, adoption strategic approaches, participatory methodologies, sensitive to local cultural norms and cost effectiveness of the interventions of delivery of health services have made BRAC Afghanistan as one of the major partners of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to implement the BPHS and EPHS.
Lesson learned from previous experience in the field of public health in Bangladesh have enabled BRAC Afghanistan to implement preventive, promotive, remedial and rehabilitative health services at grassroots’ level. Currently, BRAC Afghanistan health programme offers wide‐ranging health services to more than 4.35 million people of Afghanistan through 7 District Hospitals, 21 Comprehensive Health Centres (CHC), 66 Basic Health Centres (BHC), and 44 Sub Health Centres . These health facilities located in 52 districts under 7 provinces (Balkh, Badghis, Nimroz, Parwan, Kapisa, Panjshir and Nangarhar provinces) of Afghanistan. In addition, BRAC Afghanistan is providing community based health care services through a network of 3,578 Community Health workers and 533 Mobile Health Sessions every month.
Major components of BRAC Afghanistan health care services include Maternal and Neonatal Health, Child Health and Immunization, Public Nutrition, Treatment and Control of Communicable Diseases, Mental Health, Disability Services and Regular Supply of Essential Drugs. Family Planning services are also provided through dissemination of relevant information and distribution of contraceptive (pills and condoms). Recently, Delivery/birth kits have also made available for the clients at the community level.
Specific Objectives
♦ To ensure the provision of good quality of health services in underserved areas of Afghanistan.
♦ To provide the services that are cost effective and addressing to find the health problems that faced by the majority of the population.
♦ To establish a network based health care services in close coordination with local communities by developing community health committees and creating health posts.
♦ To build the capacity of provincial health departments of the MoPH, Afghan health workers and partner NGOs to ensure the delivery of quality basic health care services.
♦ To improve access to basic health services particularly for women and children.
♦ To ensure the smooth coordination and cooperation between Government, NGOs and donor agencies.
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BRAC Afghanistan Health Programme
Province covered 7District covered 52Population covered in million 4.35District Hospital 7Comprehensive Health Centre 21Basic Health Centre 66Sub Health Centre 44Mobile / Satellite Clinics 533Community Health Workers 3,578Total patients treated 1,882,570Deliveries 15,593Family planning acceptor 114,988Total TB patients received treatment 3,380
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Health Projects of BRAC Afghanistan In co‐ordination and co‐operation with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and donor agencies, BRAC Afghanistan has been implementing following heath projects in Afghanistan:
Performance Based Partnership Agreements (PPA):
BRAC Afghanistan implements PPA to address the challenges of improving health facilities for the disadvantaged poor population in Afghanistan through the conformist system. By this project, BRAC Afghanistan runs Health Facilities (HF) and Health Posts (HP). The HFs and HPs provide clinical and non clinical services to the population. In line of the objectives of PPA, it also measures and monitors the proper implementation and recommends remedial actions to modify health facilities for providing health message, health service delivery, training and management in an efficient manner where needed, as coverage increase to larger population.
The PPA project is financially supported by MoPH/World Bank and currently under implementation in three provinces i.e. Balkh, Badghis and Nimroz provinces. The project is performance based with some targets. Every year third party evaluation takes place to evaluate the progress of the project. BRAC Afghanistan health programme deliver BPHS through a four‐tier service delivery infrastructure ranging from Health posts, Basic Health Centres (BHCs), Comprehensive Health Centres (CHCs) and District Hospitals (DH). The Community Health Workers (CHWs) provides primary health care services to the households at community level. Patients are treated with more service facilities at BHCs, CHCs and DHs. According to the BPHS guideline, BRAC Afghanistan responses to the health needs of the population surrounding to these HPs and HFs. Brief description of the HPs and HFs hav been high lighted below:
Health Post (at community level through community health workers))
♦ Provide health and nutrition education. ♦ Identify sick newborns, complicated
pregnancies and referral. ♦ Counseling on family planning and
promoting exclusive breast feeding
♦ Distributing non clinical contraceptives (pills and condoms)
♦ Case management of ARI, diarrhea and malaria
♦ Refer complicated cases ♦ Refer self reported TB patients ♦ For identified TB patients encourage
compliance with course of treatment routine based on DOTS.
♦ Distribution of essential drugs and other health commodities.
Basic Health Centre (BHC)
♦ Out patient services (OPD) ♦ Antenatal care, Postnatal care, Pregnancy
related care and Family planning. ♦ EPI ♦ Treatment of Malaria and TB patients
including DOTs ♦ Distribution of essential drugs ♦ Dressing of minor surgery ♦ Referral of complicated cases to higher
health facilities.
Comprehensive Health Centre (CHC)
♦ First referral center in BPHS. ♦ Out patient services (OPD) ♦ Management of complicated delivery
cases. ♦ Management of Malnutrition. ♦ Management of complicated cases of
Malaria and TB patients. ♦ Indoor/observation room services for
complicated cases. ♦ Laboratory services. ♦ Immunization (both children and
pregnant women) ♦ Minor surgical cases.
District Hospital
The district hospitals provide all types of health care services including the treatment of complicated cases according to BPHS. There are provisions of comprehensive emergency obstetrics care with contraceptive services including male and female sterilization. Following services are provided through district hospitals operated by health programme of BRAC Afghanistan.
♦ Out patient services (OPD) ♦ Diagnosis and treatment of all categories
of TB patients with X‐ray facilities.
♦ Voluntary Confidential Counseling and Testing (VCCT) for suspected HIV/ AIDS patients.
♦ Management of all types of complicated cases.
♦ Instrumental delivery and caesarian section facilities
♦ Wide range of laboratory services ♦ Diagnostic services (X‐ray and ECG). ♦ Basic physiotherapy and orthopedics
diagnosis for disability. ♦ Comprehensive services for mental health
and disability. ♦ Blood transfusion facility ♦ In patient services for surgical, medical,
pediatric and obstetrical cases Referral Linkages
BRAC Afghanistan health programme under this project has established a strong referral system between health facilities and community under PPA. Person with aliments, visit the local Health Post. The CHWs provide first hand treatment services. In cases of patients with serious complications, the CHWs refer them to the BHC/CHC with a pictorial referral slip. At the health facilities, a register is maintained to keep records about patients referred from the HPs. The referral issues are elaborately discussed during the monthly refresher and monthly meetings for strengthening the patient referral mechanism. The number of treated patients, not treated, cured, and case fatalities in the HFs are ascertained through analyzing the total number of referred cases. Following table shows the ideal number of population supposed to be covered by the HP and HFs.
Level of Service Delivery Covered Population
Health Post (CHW) 1,000~1,599/ HP Basic Health Center 15,000~30,000 /BHC Comprehensive Health Center 30,000~60,000/CHC District Hospital 100,000~300,000/DH.
Community Based Health Programme (CBHP)
With financial supports of Oxfam Novib, the Community Based Health Programme (CBHP) is currently under implementation in Parwan and Nangarhar provinces of Afghanistan with financial support of Oxfam Novib. The core aims and objectives of the programme are to create and
sustain awareness among the rural poor particularly the women to enable them seek and practice their reproductive heath rights as well as have their children free from 6 vaccine preventable diseases. Moreover, the CBHP offers a window for the women to share and learn from experiences. Initially, the project was for three years from January 2005 to December 2007 but extended for 10 months (upto October 2008). The project is further extended for another three years starting from November 2008.
Specific Objectives
♦ To expand the availability of health
services through CHWs
♦ To reduce the maternal and infant
mortality and morbidity
♦ To increase the number of modern
contraceptives users
♦ To raise awareness on personal hygiene,
use of safe water, and sanitation
♦ To improve the quality of primary health
care
♦ To build the capacity of community
health workers, community health
supervisors, managers and BRAC staffs to
ensure quality health services.
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Service components of CBHP are as follow
♦ Out patient services (OPD) ♦ family planning ♦ EPI for children ♦ Immunization for pregnant, ♦ Treatment for ARI and Diarrhoea, ♦ Water, sanitation and personal hygiene
through health education, ♦ Implementation of Community DOTS
for TB. ♦ Additionally, a strong referral linkage
system for complicated patients has been established in the line with the type of service outlets.
Direct Beneficiaries
From January 2008 to December 2008, there were a total of 174,910 persons were directly benefited or received health care services under the programme. Out of this a total of 78517 (45%) were benefited from the fixed health facilities (BHCs and CHCs) and mobile health centres (72/month) centres, while the rest of 96,393 (55%) health care services from 725 CHWs in their communities.
CBHP has a two tier service delivery system i.e Facility level and Community level. At facility level, services are provided through Basic Health Centers (BHC) and Comprehensive Health Centres (CHC) while the Community Health Workers (CHWs) provide services at community level. Health Post1 is the service point at the community level run by the CHWs. The activities of CHWs are closely monitored and supervised by Community Health Worker Supervisors2 (CHSs).
Basic Curative Services (OPD service)
OPD services are provided at all CBHP service outlets. The doctors provide health care services at fixed facilities and mobile clinics through HPs at community level. Treatment and consultation are available for all common diseases at the HPs. However, patients requiring intensive treatment or surgical interventions are referred to higher health facilities in the line with the referral system. Majority of the cases consulted at out patient department are Acute Respiratory Illness (ARI) and Diarrhea. Treatment provided for other causes includes Urinary Tract Infection Malaria, minor to moderate traumas and others.
Fixed Health Centre
Fixed Health Centre under CBHP of BRAC Afghanistan is an integrated grassroots approach for ensuring access to essential health care services for the poor and disadvantaged, particularly women and children. Health care services are provided through 8 fixed health facilities in Nangarhar and Parwan provinces. The tiers of these facilities are ranging from CHC to BHC. The facilities adhere to the guideline and policy package of government’s i.e BPHS. Services available in these centres are OPD, Immunization, Health education, Family planning, TB diagnosis and treatment, ARI and diarrhea treatment, and distribution of essential drugs. These centers are located in the rural areas to increases access of the local communities.
Mobile Health Clinics
Mobile Health Clinics are aimed to take health services to the door steps of people living in remote areas where accesses to health care services are inaccessible. This is an innovative strategy to ensure health facilities, particularly for women and children in the underserved areas of the country. Mobile Clinics are operated from morning to till late afternoon for making the health care services available for the people. It is open for a longer time keeping in mind that women can access the health services after completion of their household works.
Common services at Mobile Clinics
♦ Out patient services (OPD) ♦ ANC and Family planning services ♦ Immunization (both children and
pregnant mother) ♦ Distribution of essential drugs ♦ Dressing of minor surgery ♦ Referral of complicated cases to higher
tier of health facility ♦ Identifying TB suspects and sputum
smear collection
Community Health Workers (CHW)
The Community Health Workers (CHWs) are the gateway to reach people at their door‐steps. BRAC Afghanistan has been reasonably accustomed with the culture and norms of Afghanistan and has successfully organised an extensive network of more than 4,000 CHWs working under different
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projects. They are predominantly selected from with in their respective communities. Different issues around health and health care are addressed during their regular day to day visits to the households. Health messages on maternal and neonatal health comprise a significant proportion of the CHW service package. The CHWs (95% female) organise meetings in their houses with female members of the community and delivers health education among them during their house‐to‐house visits. Awareness on female reproductive health has been a key agenda in CBHP which has contributed to an upsurge in accepting and practicing family planning methods with in the project catchments’ area through CHWs. Health care services provided through CHWs include identification and treatment of common illnesses, distribution of essential drugs, identification and referring of the suspected TB patients to the HFs,, providing family planning materials (pills and condoms), delivering health education and referral of complicated diseases.
Programme Achievements
Child Immunization: 72 sessions/month
ANC: 71% of all pregnant
Family planning: 75% pills & condoms
TB diagnosis and treatment: All 8
(health facilities have been equipped)
TB performance: 179 total +ve and
under treatment
Health education forums: 398 forums
Trainings: 857persons (CHW,
CHS, Doctor, Nurses, Vaccinators)
Couples received family Planning method from CHWs and Fixed Health Facilities
CHW 77% BHC,CHC 22%
Series :CHW 77 , BHC,CHC 22%
TB Scenario in Afghanistan
Afghanistan still remains the 22nd among high TB burden countries in the world. The poor living conditions resulted from tragic war continues to worsen the situation.
WHO estimate shows the current TB incidence rate is 73/100,000 populations of which 32% results in death. The TB prevalence rate is 231/100,000 population of which 68% are female, the relatively more vulnerable segment of the society. Considering the mortality and morbidity, The TB control program has been emphasised as a vertical program and acknowledged by the donor community despite it being one of the key components of BPHS. BRAC Afghanistan pioneered the community DOT as an innovative endeavour adopting the model of BRAC Bangladesh that poses a greater challenge in a post conflict circumstances. However, the BRAC Bangladesh model successfully continues with the passage of time. Followings are the current BRAC TB control interventions in Afghanistan.
Tuberculosis Control Programme
BRAC Afghanistan started the Community Based DOTS in 2004 in two districts, one in each of the Parwan and Balkh provinces. Following the introduction of BPHS by Government of Afghanistan, BRAC Afghanistan established TB services in all its health facilities. Moreover, BRAC Afghanistan has accelerated its TB control programme with the support of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases “The Union” since January 2006. Currently BRAC Afghanistan provides TB control services through its 92 treatment and diagnostic centers and 57 treatment centres in 7 provinces of Afghanistan. Besides the integrated TB programme with BPHS, BRAC Afghanistan has been implementing the following community based TB projects in Afghanistan. FIDELIS Project
BRAC Afghanistan initiated the Community Based TB DOTS through FIDELIS project in Afghanistan in 2006. BRAC Afghanistan has expanded TB diagnostic facilities through establishing 50 TB microscopy centres at different levels of health care settings during the 1st phase of FIDELIS programme (January 2006‐March 2007). Another 92 TB microscopy centres will be established during the current phase of FIDELIS programme (July 2008‐December 2009).
BRAC Afghanistan has received several appreciation certificates from Ministry of Public Health, National Tuberculosis Control Programme and Provincial Governor for implementation of the CB DOTS. After successful completion of the first phase of FIDELIS project, The Union requested BRAC Afghanistan to prepare an action plan and budget for extension of the project for next three yeas. TB CAP Project
TB Control Assistance Programme (TB CAP) is a project supported by USAID through MSH in Afghanistan. The objective of the project is to improve the TB control programme in Afghanistan. The project is implemented in partnership with BRAC Afghanistan, MSH and WHO. BRAC Afghanistan implements the community based DOTS component of the project through replicating
the community based DOTS model introduced in FIDELIS project. This is a one year project and BRAC Afghanistan supports the BPHS implementing organisation in 4 provinces i.e. Badakhshan, Baghlan, Jawzjan, and Herat provinces for implementing the community based DOTS through a process of integration with their existing health service system.
Photo shows Sputum Microscopy in a BHC
TB diagnosis: BRAC Afghanistan has equipped all health facilities with in its catchment area with TB microscopy services. Sputum examination is performed by the doctor at facility for all suspected referred cases. Besides, sputum examinations of the suspected patients referred by the CHWs are carried out in these centres.
Treatment: Treatment for TB is available in all health facilities within its catchment areas of BRAC Afghanistan. TB medicines are provided by NTP/MoPH. NTP protocol is adopted and used for treating all TB patients strictly in line with the BPHS policy. Patients receive TB medicines free of charge from all health facilities. Drugs for intensive and continuous phases are also available on weekly and monthly basis.
Follow up Treatment: Patient follow‐up is performed by the Programme Organisers (PO), a new position created by BRAC Afghanistan which has been proved effective in Bangladesh. POs play a key role to disseminate information on TB service outlets in the community. They promptly response in tracking any patients not collecting medicines for one single day during intensive phase and act accordingly.
Out reach smearing services: Out reach smearing is an innovative service of BRAC Afghanistan for the
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people those who are unable to reaching the health facilities. BRAC Afghanistan operates outreach smearing services within its catchment area. Frequency and service location for outreach sessions are prescheduled based on needs and geographical accessibility. People in a target area are informed by the respective CHW and PO prior to the arrival of the outreach team.
Community DOTS
DOTS is acknowledged globally as an effective approach to cure. Implementation of DOTS in the rural Afghan community has been a challenge for BRAC Afghanistan. The idea was derived from its successful implementation experience in Bangladesh which has been described earlier. The CHWs are the front line health workers who take up the challenges to implement DOTS at the community level. The mechanism implies that all the TB patients congregate at the HPs or an area selected by the CHW and community for regular and timely intake of medicines vital for TB treatment. This strategy helps tracking patients who miss even a single dose and therefore continuation of the treatment is ensured.
Malaria Control Programme
The Malaria Control Programme (MCP) of BRAC Afghanistan is functional in 5 provinces i.e Nangarhar, Parwan, Balkh, Badghis and Nimroz) through 38 microscopy centers in 7 DHs, 10 CHCs and 21 BHCs. Of these, 21 microscopy centres have been established at BHCs located in remote and disadvantaged areas for increasing access to Malaria diagnosis and treatment facilities. The CHWs are trained on signs and symptoms of Malaria and provided with the treatment kits. In collaboration with the National Malaria Control Programme and other agencies, the health programme of BRAC Afghanistan, are providing insecticide treated bed‐nets through the CHWs. As of April 2008, BRAC Afghanistan has distributed a total of 7375 such bed nets to the population of the programme catchment area. In Nangarhar, 1970 bed nets have been distribute through antenatal clinic, 155 through EPI clinics and 2150 have been sold through pharmacists and POs, each bednet for Afs 100. In Balkh, 2400 bed nets have been distributed at free of cost through antenatal clinics at different health facilities. In Badghis, 700 bed nets have been distributed through different health facilities.
Behavioral Change Communication (BCC) Project
Behavior Change Communication (BCC) is an essential tool to achieve a sustainable health status for all. Health Education is an effective way to conduct behavior change communication. Key information regarding health education includes ways to adopt and maintain healthy life by using safe drinking water and hygienic latrines, creating awareness on family planning (birth spacing), danger signs of pregnancy, immunization with TT during pregnancy, and adaptation and maintenance of personal hygiene. This is a one year pilot project financially supported by UNICEF in 6 different districts under 6 provinces in Afghanistan. BRAC Afghanistan implements this project only in Surkhrod district of Nangahar province since September 2007. The objective of this project is to improve health status of the population particularly maternal and child health through active participation of the community people in the health education. Health education and promotion activities are undertaken through BCC for different groups of people, including pregnant and lactating mothers, mothers of children under five and village groups. The BCC focuses on
♦ Family planning ♦ Community awareness on early signs of
pregnancy and labour ♦ Neonatal and childhood illnesses ♦ Preparedness for pregnancy, labour and
parenting ♦ Birth planning ♦ Essential newborn care ♦ Neonatal and child health problems ♦ Breastfeeding and complementary
feeding ♦ ORT and pneumonia ♦ Hygiene, water and sanitation
Community Midwifery Education (CME)
Since 2006 the heath programme of BRAC Afghanistan has been implementing the 18 months long Community Midwifery Education (CME) course in Badghis province. First batch of 14 Community midwives were graduated in October 2006, and training to the second of 19 students is
going on that will be ended in March 2009. A part from Badghis, BRAC Afghanistan has recently been awarded the CME project for Nimroz province. The CME in Nimroz is scheduled to commence in June 2009. The objective of the CME is to build capacities of the community midwifes in order to reduce maternal, neo natal, and child mortalities. The training of second batch in Badghis province is financially supported by Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI) and financial supports for CME in Nimroz province has been extended by GAVI/HSS through the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).
Mobile Health Team
The Mobile Health Team (MHT) is a GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization) funded project through the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).The duration of MHT project is 40 months. This project is under implementation in Nimroz and Badghis provinces. This is an innovative approach to ensure health for all, particularly women and children living in inaccessible parts of the country.
Global Fund Round 8
In 2008,BRAC Afghanistan health programme has been selected as a Principal Recipient (PR) for Malaria and Tuberculosis component of the Global Fund Round 8. BRAC Afghanistan will be Co‐PR with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) for TB component and Health Net TPO and MoPH for Malaria component of the Global Fund Round 8.
Programme Components
Health Education
Information on adopting and maintaining healthy life is delivered through health education. It is provided at all service delivery points. The CHSs provide health education at the facility level when people wait for their turn to visit doctor and also during mobile clinics (see the pic). The CHWs are assigned to impart health education at community level during their door‐to‐door visit. It focuses on creating awareness among community people on their rights and access to basic health care. The level of knowledge about key messages on personal hygiene and other relevant health issues has been increased in last three years of CBHP implementation.
Control of ARI/Diarrhea
Diarrhea and ARI remains the major causes of child mortality in Afghanistan. Information on danger
signs and management of ARI and Diarrhea are disseminated both at the health facilities and Health Posts. IEC materials/flip charts containing relevant key messages on prevention of these diseases are also used during health education sessions. ORT corner indicating a coordinated approach towards reducing child death from diarrhea is available at all CBHP facilities (CHCs and BHCs). Moreover, ORS is included in essential drug list and distributed by the CHWs in the community during their household visits.
Water and Sanitation
Messages on advantages of safe drinking water and hygienic latrine as well as ways to adopt them in daily life are an integral part of health education under CBHP. Regarding this, the CHWs disseminated information during their household visits aiming to create awareness among the people. Despite the awareness raising activities on the benefits of using safe drinking water, a large number of people appear to be unwilling to adopt the key messages on water and sanitation and continue to use water from unprotected and polluted sources. However, declined trend is observed in using open latrines and toilets close to the water sources. Toilets and open latrines 20 meters away from the water source have remained as a preferred option. The use of water‐sealed latrine is difficult due to scarcity of water. Attempts to provide a reasonably suitable and convenient alternative to current practices have received highest priority over the past year.
Capacity Development
Development of the human resource is an integral part of any community interventions. Therefore, most of the staff working in health programme of
BRAC Afghanistan particularly those engaged in implementation have received adequate number of training. This has helped developing their capability to deliver quality services. CHW Training and Development Unit
There is a team of national and expatriate staff in CBHP working under the health programme of BRAC Afghanistan. This unit is especially working for the development of basic and refresher training plan and sustainability of the CHWs.. This unit also represents BRAC Afghanistan in the CBHP Task Force.
Liaison with MoPH and other Stakeholders
The health programme of BRAC Afghanistan works in cooperation with the MoPH through its Provincial Public Health Directorate (PPHD) in respective project implementing provinces. BRAC Afghanistan actively participates in monthly performance review meetings in the PPHD and extends cooperation in monitoring and supervision events carried out by the MoPH. Representatives from BRAC Afghanistan and MoPH review the outcomes of the health projects during monthly meetings. Monthly HMIS reports are being shared at provincial level and finally it is sent to the central HMIS unit of MoPH as a performance of the reporting province. In addition, other collaborative forums participated by BRAC Afghanistan include Provincial Health Coordination Committee (monthly), Technical Working Group (TWG, monthly), Emergency Taskforce Meeting (as required), Meeting on NID/SNIDs (monthly), and meeting on TB (monthly).
Participation in national and international forum
Over last six years of presence in Afghanistan, BRAC Afghanistan health program has successfully participated and contributed in different decision making forums of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. The role of BRAC Afghanistan in the process of rebuilding the country has been acknowledged by relevant ministries as well as donors. Following is the list some forums represented by BRAC Afghanistan health programme:
♦ National Technical Coordination Committee of MoPH
♦ Technical Round Table meetings
♦ NTP Taskforce ♦ National Vector Born Disease Taskforce
(Malaria and Leishmaniasis) ♦ Country Coordination Mechanism
MICROFINANCE PROGRAMME
………….Challenging for poverty reduction
BRAC Microfinance Afghanistan Canvas
Microfinance has proved in worldwide to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic condition. The debate on women’s rights and their role in Afghan society has been closely interlinked with the national destiny. Women not only carry the burden of symbolizing the honor of the family, but often are seen as embodying the national honor as well. Women play an extremely important role in all dimensions of the income generating activities. In certain regions, women’s time input equals men’s, but in other regions traditions restrict their work to the households where they are involved in crop processing (threshing, cleaning, drying, preserving) and also in charge of most of the household based activities (water and fuel collection, cooking, cleaning, sewing, tailoring, weaving, and child rearing). Women play an increasingly important role in cultivation, livestock production, processing dairy products, swing activities, carpet weaving etc. Women’s contribution to pastoral livestock production both for domestic consumption and for the national and international market is high, which is reflected in a range of key export products such as carpets, hides, karakul skins and wool.
BRAC Afghanistan had considerable knowledge of South Asian microfinance, was thus the first to enter the market, followed by NGO with experience working in post‐conflict environment. Now, BRAC Afghanistan implemented microfinance in 23 provinces out of 34 and working with more then 188.806 clients through formed 11,572 village organisations and most of them are women. It has been evident that the mobility of the clients has been increased and remarkable economic progress has been made only for revolving them in income generating activities. However, a little has been addressed on the improvement of agriculture sector through the provision of microfinance. The proportion of the involvement in agriculture is figuring 10% of the total loan. The development of value chain in agriculture product is still needs to be strengthened.
Coverage Provinces BRAC Microfinance Afghanistan programme now covers 23 provinces of Afghanistan –Kabul, Kapisa, Parwan, Kunduz, Samangan, Balkh, Jawzang,
Saripul, Faryab, Takhar, Laghman, Baghlan, Logar, Ghazni, Nimroz, Badakshan, Badghis, Herat, Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar, Ghor and Daykundi through its 163 branch offices and number of well experienced expatriates in microfinance sector.
A glimpse of Microfinance Programme
Province covered 23District covered 110Village Organizations (VOs) 11,572VO members 188,806Borrowers 139,824Farmers in ALDCSP 20,794Members’ Savings (US$) 5,596,627Disbursement (Cum.) (US$) 145,604,001Disbursement‐ 2008 48,967,180Average Loan size (US$) 506Portfolio Outstanding (US$) 27,597,081Female workforce 1,981
Repayment Rate 97.41%
Products of Microfinance Programme
Apart from the Microfinance poverty alleviation program, BRAC Afghanistan has four loan products which are:
- Microfinance (MF) - Small Enterprise Project (SEP)
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- Agriculture and Livestock Development and Credit Support Programme (ALDCSP) - Alternative Livelihood Rural Finance Programme (ALRFP)
Microfinance Programme (MF)
Micro Finance (MF) Programme in Afghanistan has started journey with a view to create a self‐sustaining and reliable financial service program me for the poor, especially women. Microfinance Programme launched with a goal to extend financial and non‐financial services to support poverty alleviation in the under developed areas of Afghanistan. BRAC’s Microfinance Programme provides micro loan service and other services empowering to the poor women so that they will be able to break the cycle of poverty. To save them from different forms of exploitations, BRAC Microfinance Afghanistan extends credit facility to the poor for income generation activities such as: tailoring and hand waved, fruits and vegetable vending, carpet weaving, agriculture, small grocery and enterprise, livestock, etc., so that the poor can easily establish their own venture and able to outcomes from the chronic poverty. Under this program all Village Organisation (VO) members will receive loans. Through this loan service, BRAC Microfinance Afghanistan extends loan facility to those who have little or no source of income.
Specific objectives
♦ Make credit available to the poor,
especially women at reasonable rate ♦ Involve the poor, especially women, in
income generating activities through provision of credit
♦ Increase economic development in Afghanistan by increasing the income level of the poor, especially women.
♦ Extending financial services to existing businesses for expansion
Characteristics of the Programme:
♦ Loan range: 5,000 Afs – 100,000 Afs (US $ 100 ‐ $ 2,000)
♦ Repayment: Equal weekly installments ♦ Loan Duration: 1 year ♦ No guarantee required
♦ No collateral ♦ Members of the VO
Pre‐conditions and Procedures
Village Organization ‐ Linkage to the Poor:
A village organization is an association of the poor, landless people who come together with the help of BRAC Afghanistan to form an entity of their own and try to improve their socio economic conditions by implementing microfinance activities. The main goal of the VO is to strengthen the capacity of the poor for sustainable development and enable them to participate in the national development process.
To bring the rural poor people into mainstream development, BRAC Afghanistan focuses on institution building as strategy for empowerment and socio economic development. BRAC Afghanistan believes that a common platform, created and owned by the poor, is a prerequisite through which the poor can make valuable contribution themselves for their development. All activities such as loans, savings, etc. are all administered through the association of VO. BRAC Afghanistanʹs microfinance staff meet VOs once in a week to discuss and facilitate credit operations. Each VO is made up of 3~5 small peer groups consisting of five members. These five members select a leader from their group. The leaders of the small groups will be in the VO Management Committee who elects a President, a Secretary, Cashier and general member of the management committee. All members receive a 6 day orientation course at the time of VO formation. The group member of each VO meets weekly in a selected
meeting place. Savings deposits, selection of borrowers, loan proposals, and repayments are the normal activities of these meetings.
Target Group
BRAC Afghanistan microfinance programme has set the following criteria to consider a member for microfinance programme.
Adequate Loanee for the product:
♦ Those poor households who have less than 20 biswa land including homestead
♦ Day laborers who sell manual labor (on and off farm) for earning livelihood.
♦ Age limit of 18 to 60 years. ♦ Small businessmen and traders ♦ Only one member per household is
considered. ♦ The member must be a resident of the
village or the area for at least five years. ♦ Widows are encouraged to join
Savings Scheme
Savings are seen as an essential emergency reserve and old age security fund for the members to use in the future. BRAC Afghanistan emphasizes the importance of savings throughout its microfinance activities. Members are encouraged to establish a savings habit. All microfinance beneficiaries have the opportunity to save with BRAC Afghanistan. Savings are also used to create investment funds for members’ future businesses, fulfill of emergency need and ensure old age security. Two kinds of savings schemes have so far been introduced. One is the weekly saving, in which a member makes a deposit at the weekly meeting. The amount varies from 10 Afs. to 200 Afs. The other one is a compulsory savings scheme, which is deducted from the borrower at the time of loan disbursement. It is equivalent to 5% of the disbursed amount. Members have access to their savings whenever they want. They also receive 6% benefit at the end of the year. Their savings help the beneficiaries to qualify for a larger amount next time. The cumulative savings of all beneficiaries as of December 2008 was USD 4,409,315 only.
VO members of Microfinance programme, build up their savings in two ways:
Weekly Personal Savings: On average, Members are required to save a minimum Afs: 10 in each week.
Compulsory Savings: When VO members take loan, it is mandatory that they deposit 5% of the loan amount into their savings account.
Case Study : Ms. Rabaya
Rabaya, a 45‐year old mother of six children who lives in suburbs of Kabul town, has been a member of BRAC Microfinance Afghanistan. Her husband is not capable of earning and the family is fully depended barely on the income of her two young sons. Like most female children, she had been dropped out of school early, even though she dreamt of being educated. She was finding it hard to cope and meet the basic needs of the family. This forced her family to live under harsh economic conditions with no hope of escape.
Ms. Rabaya started to search for an alternative source of income. She knew that BRAC office gives loans to poor women to enable them to engage in viable income generating activities in order to ensure their better livelihood. She saw in the VO meeting, joys on the faces of the loan beneficiaries.
She made up her mind and joined as an active member of her nearest village organisation (VO). She took an initial loan of Afs. 30,000. She bought cloths, threats and other necessary materials for manufacturing the couches. She sold these couches in the local market with the help of her two young sons. Now, she earns around weekly 1,200 Afs considering all other expenses.
Rabaya is now able to meet the needs of her family, husband’s treatment and has made allowing keeping her children in school. She is very happy and grateful to BRAC, and deeply believes that such kind of loan play a crucial role in development and poverty alleviation, especially for women. Rabaya encourages the neighbor’s women to take loan from BRAC and invest the loan amount in the yielded sectors.
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Death Benefit
Many families struggle to remain financially stable after the death of an earning member of the family. When an existing member passes away, BRAC Afghanistan pays the departed memberʹs family a sum of 5,000 Afs. All micro finance beneficiaries are entitled to this benefit. This benefit is paid to the person, nominated by the member, during his/her time of admission in the village organisation.
Developing an Automated Report in branch offices
BRAC Microfinance Afghanistan had developed an effective and efficient MIS through automated every branches for better management and operation of the programme from its inception in Afghanistan. Branch offices delivered the automated report in every month to Central office. Central office preserved these report in central data bank after necessary checking and find out the deviation of the data that provided by branch offices. Accounts department make necessary ratio analysis so that management take necessary decision to effectively implement the program.
Loan Disbursement (In million US$ in the year 2008)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct No v Dec
Cumulative Savings Balance (In million US$)
2005 2006 2007 2008
VO members Progression
2005 2006 2007 2008
03 2.5 02 1.5 01
20 10 05 04 00
12000 10000 8000 5000 4000 000
Credit
BRAC Afghanistan provides credit to its VO members to initiate different types of income generating activities.
Members of BRAC Afghanistan microfinance programme must have some savings to be eligible for collateral free loans for individual activities.
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Small Enterprise Project (SEP):
Small Enterprise Project (SEP) was initiated to provide loans to small enterprises with growth potential. The Programme aims to generate income and create new employment through enterprise development in the rural and semi urban areas of Afghanistan. BRAC Afghanistan initiated this project with the aim to develop and expand existing businesses as well as to create new businesses for income generation and employment creation. The staff members conduct a survey in the community and gather the required information needed to run the programme. At the same time, the staff members make a list of all prospective clients and maintain a register. In this register, the names of potential clients, their addresses, name of the businesses, investment, and a ʹprobableʹ amount of SEP loan needed are noted.
Business Sector
Financial assistance is provided to renovate small enterprises such as bakeries, grocery stores, weaving businesses, stationary stores, cloth/clothing businesses, pharmacies, home appliance delivery stores and shoe making factories.
Objective of the programme:
♦ Provide loan through a simple loaning process that encourages rural people to come forward and take loan without delay.
♦ Provide opportunity to the small/medium enterprises that fall within the working area of the BRAC Afghanistan Micro Finance Program.
♦ Motivate small/medium entrepreneurs in the rural and urban areas to do better, thus creating job opportunities.
♦ Provide valuable information about production and marketing of products.
Adequate Loanee for the product:
♦ Small and medium term business ♦ Tailoring ♦ Embroidery ♦ Beauty parlor
♦ Home based business ♦ Women headed small shop
Key Features of SEP Loans are:
♦ Loan range: Afs. 50,000 – 700,000 (US $ 1000‐14,000)
♦ Loan products: Credit facilities to small and medium Business.
♦ Repayment:Equal monthly installments ♦ Loan Duration: 1 year ♦ Collateral needed.
Achievements of SEP (In the Year 2008)
Province covered 19District covered 92Number of Members 9,239Borrowers 8,692Members’ Savings (US$) 376,487Disbursement (Cum.) (US$) 32,076,217Disbursement‐ 2008 16,866,368Portfolio Outstanding (US$) 9,705,790Repayment Rate 98%
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A small loan goes a long way for a shopkeeper in Kandahar City
Mohameed Kasem a 32 years aged young business man lives in Kandahar City. His shop “Address Bakery” located at near the karez bazar branch office of BRAC Afghanistan. He maintains a family consisting of fifteen members including three children and before it was very difficult to him to cope and meet the basic needs of the family and also sent his children in school. He has been in the business for more than 4 years. As there were not any financial institutions working in Kandahar, he was running his bakery shop with his own capital. Moreover, he was not getting opportunity to expand his existing business for the absence of financial assistance from external sources.
BRAC started its lending operation in Kandahar province in March 2007; a wide window opened for new and existing entrepreneurs in that region. He was told that BRAC Afghanistan, with the assistance of MISFA delivers the financial services in a cost effective way and moreover in an honest, timely and efficient manner.
Mohammed Kasem had taken Afs. 3,00,000 from BRAC kazer bazar office with a view to enlarge his business in May 1,2008.The loan terms was 12 months with equal monthly install size of Afs. 29,375.Before taking loan from BRAC, his capital was approx. Afs. 6,00,000 and he had four employees to work his factory and shop. Now, his capital reached to Afs. 10,00,000 and engaged another two employees with monthly net income of Afs. 40,000.He has been repaying his installments according to the schedule of the loan and aiming the second loan to further enlarge his business. He told that one good thing inspired him to take the further loan in future because of BRAC’s credit staff’s good manner and reasonable terms of loan.
Mohammed Kasam now able to send her children to school using his own money and improve his family living condition. In future, he has a plan to send his children in capital city Kabul for better education.
Observing his success in the business some adjacent shop keepers became influenced and taking loans from BRAC. These loans has a ripple effect in the society because it is not only the borrowers who get benefit from these loans, but also the social status has increased a lot for the improvement of financial condition through business. Besides, creates a job opportunity.
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Agriculture & Livestock Development and Credit Support Programme (ALDCSP):
In Afghanistan, there is a wide scope for the development of agricultural activities aiming at improving households’ social and economic condition through the provision of loans complemented with training and technical support. Therefore, BRAC Afghanistan implemented its Agriculture & Livestock Development and Credit Support Programme (ALDCSP). BRAC Afghanistan provides credit facility under this programme to its beneficiaries with various types of training and technical support. Small and marginal farmers will be the main target groups of BRAC’s ALDCSP. These farmers are active in agriculture, poultry and/or livestock.
Objective of the programme:
♦ To generate income and create employment opportunities for small and marginal farmers.
♦ To develop existing entrepreneurs by providing technical assistance and financial support.
♦ To increase agricultural production and practices.
Characteristics of the Programme:
♦ Loan range: 15,000 Afg ‐ 100,000 Afg (US $ 300 ‐ $ 2,000)
♦ Loan products: Agriculture, Poultry, Livestock and Agro‐based Enterprises.
♦ Repayment: Equal weekly installments ♦ Loan Duration: 1 year
The Performance of ALDCSP
Year No of Clients
No. of Borrowers
No. of Loans
Disbursed
Loans Disbursed (US$)
Sep 06 11,297 9,296 11,842 2,923,452
Dec 06 13,528 11,225 14,846 3,735,500
Dec 07 20,614 17,316 29,589 8,936,917
Dec 08 22,083 17,9292 40,401 15,205,080
Alternative Livelihood Rural Finance Programme (ALRFP): It is said that opium cultivation has flourished in the country’s southern desert regions since the time of Alexander the Great (4th Century B.C.) when it was used as a medicine. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has increased significantly in recent years. In 2004, 67% of the global opium poppy cultivation took place in Afghanistan. In this alarming point in time, BRAC Afghanistan inaugurate a new programme called Alternative Livelihood Rural Finance Programme (ALRFP) during the end of the year, assisted by Micro‐finance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA), which is a division of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) in the provinces where opium cultivation poses a serious problem.
In this programme, BRAC Afghanistan will provide credit to those who are only involve in poppy cultivation activities and we start this program only to those areas where poppy grows abundantly and consists with the people whose family are involve in opium cultivation directly or indirectly. BRAC believes that these people will find more benefit and get back their traditional opium cultivation and take credit and invest in different products.
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Objective of the programme:
♦ Assist the target group in achieving economic independence from humanitarian assistance.
♦ To increase agricultural practices and thus agricultural production.
♦ Provide required technical supports along with financial support to the beneficiaries to rebuild their livelihood.
♦ Provide financial assistance and required trainings to the family members of the laborers and opium cultivators who are engaged in opium cultivation.
♦ Provide credit facilities to the small and medium businesses located near the market areas of opium cultivation, which will create employment for the people who are directly or indirectly involved in opium cultivation.
♦ Build a sustainable operation that would help beneficiaries in the future.
ALRFP programme also divided into three components such as microfinance, small enterprise project and Inkishap (Agriculture & Livestock and other income generating activities). Since this is a large community related programme, BRAC Afghanistan involves the community in most cases. BRAC Afghanistan also will develop different types of training programmes to those whose family are involved in opium cultivation directly or indirectly. BRAC Afghanistan staffs discuss with the VO members and with their male family members and also with other people of the villages and they could get different training programmes such as Layer Farming training and refresher, Cow rearing training and refresher, Sheep and goat rearing training and refresher, Wheat and Maize cultivation training and refresher, Vegetables Cultivation training and refresher for their great involvement and participation. Characteristics of the Programme:
♦ Loan range: 10,000 Afg ‐ 500,000 Afg (US $ 200 ‐ $ 10,000)
♦ Repayment: Equal weekly installments ♦ Loan Duration: 1 year
Achievements of ALRFP (In Year 2008)
Province covered 02Number of Members 3,659Borrowers 2,823Members’ Savings (US$) 15,339Disbursement (Cum.) (US$) 1,006,481Disbursement‐ 2008 (US$) 112,196Portfolio Outstanding (US$) 217,376Repayment Rate (Cum) 81%
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Agriculture Development Programme Agriculture is considered as the mainstay of economic development in Afghanistan. BRAC Afghanistan Agriculture Development Programme targeted farmers for livelihood improvement through adoption of modern technology and sustained agriculture practices throughout the country. Being initiated in early 2004, the programme now has extended remarkably throughout the country.
Specific Objectives
♦ Generate income and create
employment opportunities ♦ Involvement of marginal farmers in
agriculture sector development especially vulnerable women and women – headed households
♦ Capacity building of the farmers by providing technical training
♦ Increase agriculture production and make the country self sufficient in food
♦ Improve the quality of agriculture products by providing technical and financial support
The Agriculture Programme components have
been organized in the following manner:
1. Agriculture Model Farmer & Extension Worker and
2. Agriculture Growers: a) Vegetable Cultivation farmer b) Wheat/Maize/Rice Cultivation
farmer c) Horticulture Nursery farmer
and d) Orchard Gardening farmer
BRAC Afghanistan has developed a total of 820 Agriculture Model Farmer and Extension Workers who are the key farmers in the community level for accelerating the agriculture activities. Their prime duty is to supply input (technical and material support i.e. seed, manure, pesticide etc.) to the grass root level farmers. They are responsible to visit farmers at the village level, arrangement of training and refreshers to the farmers, transferring new technology to the farmers and motivate them to adopt high yielding crop variety for better yield. , transferring new technology to the farmers and
motivate them to adopt high yielding crop variety for better yield.
Vegetable cultivation ensures food security and nutritional requirement for a family. This is the most important and prioritized activities of BRAC Afghanistan Agriculture Development Programme. Farmers usually grow tomato, turnip, radish, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, bean, onion and potato in their farm lands. Up to December 2008, BRAC has developed a total of 3,515 vegetable growers and their total cultivated land is 4,259 jerib/852 hectares.
Wheat is the major cultivated crop in this country and also given priority by BRAC for its cultivation by the farmers. Up to December 2008, BRAC has developed a total of 4156 wheat growers and their total cultivated land is 7,966 jerib/1,593 hectares.
Maize cultivation in Afghanistan has been increased notably for its various uses. BRAC also developed maize growing farmers in the country. Up to December 2008, BRAC Afghanistan has developed a total of 1,529 maize growers and their total cultivated land is 2,495 jerib/499 hectares.
Rice has been considered as the food for all Afghans. In the northern and eastern regions of the country, rice cultivation is a popular practice among the farmers. BRAC Afghanistan also developed maize growing farmers in the country. Up to December 2008, BRAC has developed a total of 695 rice growing farmers and their total cultivated land is 1,432 jerib/286 hectares.
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The horticulture sector is the most prominent and potential in the export market of the country due to its demand and quality. There is an estimated 0.6 million farmers who are directly involved in horticulture crop production. Keeping this importance in mind, BRAC Afghanistan has developed orchard gardening farmers and horticulture nursery owners for accelerating fruit production in the country. Up to December 2008, BRAC Afghanistan has developed a total of 885 farmers who cultivated 1,527 jerib/305 hectares of land by fruit tree orchards and horticulture nurseries.
Agriculture Programme Performance
Training PO (Agriculture) 31 Agriculture Model Farmer & Extension Worker 820
Agriculture Grower 7,962 a) Vegetable Cultivation farmer 2,014 b) Wheat Cultivation farmer 3,647 c) Maize Cultivation farmer 1,326 d) Rice Cultivation farmer 90 e) Horticulture Nursery farmer 326 f) Orchard Gardening farmer 559
Programme Number of Agriculture Model Farmer & Extension Worker 820
Number of Agriculture Grower 10,118 a) Vegetable Cultivation farmer 3,515 b) Wheat Cultivation farmer 4,156 c) Maize Cultivation farmer 1,529 d) Rice Cultivation farmer 695 e) Horticulture Nursery farmer 339 f) Orchard Gardening farmer 827
Environmental Projects
BRAC Afghanistan has successfully implemented one of the Green Afghanistan Initiatives (GAIN) projects in Northern Afghanistan during 2008. The project has been handed over to the Department of Agriculture in Balkh province of Afghanistan. Being titled as the “Balkhab Rod Integrated Environmental Protection Program (BRIEPP),” the project has given the Afghan people an innovative livelihood opportunity in the country.
Seedling production and private nursery establishment were among the major tasks of this project that has carried out by BRAC Afghanistan. A total number of 800 private nurseries have been established and beneficiaries were given training on nursery establishment and management, collection of seeds, seed sowing, cultural operation like weeding, watering, pruning, transplantation of seedling, pest and disease control etc. Capacity building of the staffs of Department of Forestry and Ranges under the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock was also a milestone of this project that enabled the trained staffs to continue the nursery project for longer period.
Objectives of nursery project:
The overall objectives of the nursery project were:
I. To restore ecological status of Balkh province by increasing tree covers
II. To ensure quality seedling production and increase the supply of fuel wood, pole, timber and biomass
III. To reduce depletion of tree resources by bringing all suitable available land in the rural areas i.e. roadside/marginal/fallow under tree cover with the active participation of rural poor
IV. Involvement of communities and private sector in management and conservation of natural resources
V. Generate income and employment opportunities for the rural poor, focused on women
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Performance of Nursery Project
Number of Central Nursery established
02
Total land of Central Nursery 12 ha Total seedling production 3,552,517 Total man days worked in the nurseries
360,229
Total Private Nursery established 800 Total Mixed food distributed to beneficiaries
1037.46 MT
Total Seedling distribution to Community Nurseries
1,959,587
Case Study: A success story of a struggling woman
“This nursery project initiated by BRAC Afghanistan has brought a tremendous change in my life,” said Shamila, a 45 year old poor women living in Nahri Shahi district of Balkh province. She is a very hard working woman and proved herself an uncompromising character to fight against poverty among other women workers working with her in the BRAC Afghanistan operated nursery project. At the initial stages of the project she used to work as a daily basis in the nursery and eventually she participated and became one of the owners of a private nursery out of 800 throughout the project areas. She had received 6 days training on nursery establishment and management. At the end of training she received 2,000 different variety fruit tree seedlings and one set of equipment for working in the nursery. Besides, she also received mixed food for 6 months and fertilizer to for the seedlings being planted in the nursery. After one year her seedlings became so healthy and ready for marketing. She sold 1000 best fruit and non fruit seedlings at a total cost of 46,200 Afghanis (fruit seedlings @ 50 Afs and non fruit seedlings @ 30 Afs) and rest of the seedlings to be sold next season with a higher price. Like her, most of the private nursery beneficiaries have received such profit from selling of seedlings of their nurseries. “Now I become self sufficient in my livelihood with children and family,” “I would appreciate BRAC Afghanistan to build our capacity in such a wonderful work that we can continue till we are alive” was expressed by Shamila, an
overwhelmed women being succeeded in her struggle against poverty.
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Livestock Development Programme
The inhabitant of Afghanistan is highly dependent on farming and livestock raising particularly sheep and goat. Livestock production is common across the country and is an integral part of various farming systems in Afghanistan. Major livestock products are wool, hide, fat, mutton, milk and milk products (cream, butter, curt, yogurt, ghee and cheese). The livestock and livestock products jointly constitute major income source for most livestock holders in the country. BRAC Afghanistan began its livestock activities in 2003 through financial and technical support as well as health care services for the animals and birds through treatment and vaccination. Specific Objectives
♦ To increase livestock productivity and
production throughout the Afghanistan ♦ To decrease the mortality and
morbidity of animals through prevention and provision of quality veterinary services and drugs for the treatment of animal
♦ To build the capacity of the livestock rearer by providing technical training
♦ To promote and develop improved traditional and appropriate animal husbandry practices
The Livestock Program components have been
organised in the following manner:
1. Livestock Clinic 2. Training Program 3. Sheep, Goat, Cow and Poultry Rearing 4. Poultry Development Worker 5. Artificial Insemination 6. Livestock Extension Worker
Animal health services has critically affected due to the prolonged unrest situation of the country. Health care of livestock animal is important part of livestock development. To provide animal health care to the village level, BRAC had established 5 livestock clinics throughout the country and served basic treatment, vaccination and medicines to the animals at the village level. The treatment was conducted with the support of
local people as they pay service charge to sustain the clinic activities.
Training is an integral part of livestock development program in order to enrich technical knowledge of the farmers and paraprofessionals. Besides financial support, BRAC Afghanistan organised various training programmes on poultry rearing, cow rearing, sheep and goat rearing, poultry development, artificial insemination and livestock extension worker. The duration of the training programmes are between 3 days to 21 days where as the artificial insemination worker training is one month long. Up to December 2008, a total of 615 livestock extension worker, 775 poultry development worker, 1,902 livestock farmer, 53 para professionals, 372 broiler farmers and 23 artificial insemination workers have received training.
Poultry rearing is very popular among the afghan communities. Most of the families in the rural areas rear the birds for a regular benefit for the whole family. BRAC Afghanistan has developed poultry development workers to mobilize the poultry rearer so that they can effectively utilize the product. Besides poultry, most of the rural dwellers in Afghanistan have engaged with livestock rearing such as cow, sheep and goat within their premises. Along with the technical training, BRAC provides financial support to the beneficiaries who have no financial access to purchase sheep and goats. This program provides an opportunity to earn a handsome amount of money for the poor households.
BRAC Afghanistan has initiated artificial insemination in several provinces throughout the country. Till December 2008, a total of 23 artificial insemination workers received training and they are working in Nangarhar, Kabul, Parwan, Kapisa, Baghlan, Kunduz and Balkh provinces. Up to now, a total of 2,314 animals have been inseminated in all these areas.
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Livestock Development Programme Performance
Training Poultry and Livestock Extension Worker
1,390
Poultry Development Worker 775 Artificial Insemination Worker 23 Poultry Rearer 600 Sheep and Goat Rearer 600 Cow Rearer 600
Programme Poultry bird vaccinated 80,075
Livestock animal vaccinated 54,924
Number of cow inseminated 2,314
Number of sheep and goat treated 16,450
Number of cow treated 21,159
Active poultry rearer 1,247
Active cow rearer 5,195
Active sheep and goat rearer 3,876 BRAC Afghanistan has always given a high priority for agriculture and livestock development in Afghanistan. Crop cultivation by modern means and tools as well as use of high yielding crop variety for cultivation in rural areas will increase productivity compared to traditional system. Orchard gardening and horticulture nursery establishment in rural areas will regain the glorious past of abundant fruit trees and eventual economic stabilization of the country. Rearing of poultry, cow, goat and sheep will rehabilitate the economical status of the poor population of the country. Value chain development will bring economic sustainability of the whole country. BRAC is always working with dedication to achieve these goals in Afghanistan.
A success story of a struggling woman “Safura, a 37 year old widow with 4 children living in Dehdadi district of Balkh province. Her husband died few years back with no agriculture land left for his family. After his death Safura became so frustrated and helpless with her children to sustain. She was thinking to buy a cow or sheep for rearing but she did not have any money or access to credit to buy cows or sheep. One day she came to know that she could take loan from BRAC office located in nearby areas. She decided to enrol her in the Enterprise Organization to get loan for a cow rearing project. She received 10,000 Afghani from BRAC and purchased one cow. Besides providing loan, BRAC also provides her training on cow rearing. She became interested to participate in training for 3 days on cow rearing. She told that this training has helped her to understand several aspects of cow rearing such as feeding, keeping them in clean place, needs of health care like de‐worming and artificial insemination. After some period Safura received enough milk from her cow. Using the second loan from BRAC, she bought her second cow. Currently, she has two cows and two calves, and gets seven litres of milk everyday. Each week, she earns Afg. 1,000 from selling the milk to her neighbours and in the market besides feeding her own children. She regularly pays the instalments of her loan and plans for better income opportunity in the future. She is now capable to send her children to school. She is very much grateful to BRAC for the financial and training supports given to her. “Each women who get distressed or helpless can become self sufficient with their mental courage and integrity,” she believes.
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INFRASTRUCTURE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES ………… Challenges for Infrastructure Development
The effects of occupation and war have adversely affected Afghanistan’s infrastructure which is still in ruins. The lack of capacity of the grassroots level administrative bodies (availability, knowledge and competence) is among the most serious problems affecting the Afghan infrastructure. BRAC Afghanistan, as a partner NGO, works with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) continuing support to develop the ability of Afghan communities to identify, plan, manage and monitor their reconstruction and promote a new democratic development paradigm, whereby communities make decisions and manage their resources involving the relevant govt. departments.
The Infrastructure and Social Development Programme (ISDP), established in the year 2002, helped to rehabilitate Afghanistan to set direction and provide leadership as well as skilled labor to rebuild the infrastructure and deliver critical social services. ISDP is one of the important programme of BRAC Afghanistan which is being implemented in Nangarhar, Helmand, Paktika, Samangan, Badghis, Parwan, Kapisa, Kabul and Takhar provinces through rebuilding communal infrastructure ; including roads, canals, karezes and school and strengthening community capacities through participatory processes and trainings, promoting accountability and responsible use of public and private resources. The ISDP has five components. These are: National Solidarity Programme (NSP), Education Quality Improvement Programme (EQUIP), Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project (CBDRR), National Area Based Development Programme (NABDP) and Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (WATSAN).
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National Solidarity Programme (NSP) BRAC Afghanistan has been implementing the National Solidarity programme (NSP) since in the year 2003 as a facilitating partner of the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) in the provinces of Nangarhar, Paktika, Helmand, Samangan, Badghis and Takhar. NSP alleviates rural poverty and builds a foundation for improved local governance by establishing a national network of elected Community Development Councils commonly known as CDC, strengthening community capacities through participatory processes and trainings, promoting accountability and responsible use of public and private resources. 217 staffs are engaged to run the NSP programme.
Goals of NSP
♦ Establishing a national network of elected Community Development Councils (CDCs),
♦ Funding priority subprojects to improve access to social and productive infrastructure, markets, and services;
♦ Strengthening community capacities through participatory processes and training; and
♦ Promoting accountability and wise use of public and private resources.
The CDCs will serve as a consultative decision‐making body that includes men, women, and traditionally marginalized members of the community. Through participation in NSP and other programs, communities will acquire or strengthen the skills and attitudes necessary to define, manage, and govern their development.
PROGRAMME CYCLE
Community Mobilization
The sequence of programme activities in the community begins with the community mobilization. Extensive field staff visits each community and arrange meetings with the key stakeholder groups to make the whole community aware about the goals, and objectives of NSP and to participate in the CDC election process irrespective of men and women. Apart from the community, meetings with the Government officials, commanders, community leaders, Imams, members of the Loya Jirga, and
village leaders are also conducted to ensure their participations and support.
Survey and Cluster Formation
A survey is done by using prescribed form in each community to enlist the family number, population, eligible voters, widow and disable and identification of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), refugees including their socio‐economic and demographic background. Data are collected in prescribed format and then compiled. Afterwards, clusters are formed during the survey in each community based on the geographical location of households and number of families. However, the community through a consultation and meeting determines the clusters. According to the guidelines in the NSP Operation Manual cluster is formed with not more than 20 families.
Process of Election and CDC Formation
BRAC Afghanistan works to create awareness among local populations about the election process and to convince rural administrators that their power will not be threatened by transparent election procedures. On the Election Day two ballot boxes were kept for each cluster, one for men and another for women, inside the centre for maintaining privacy and parda. BRAC disseminates the date, time and place where the election is being held. On the day of CDC election, voter lists, ballot papers, ballot boxes with lock and keys, formats for result sheet are brought to the central community gathering place. Social Organizers divides voters into clusters. Volunteers keep notes with tick marks on the voter list after confirming the votes besides their names. After completion of casting votes, BRAC, PMU and RRD personnel open the ballot boxes in front of the villagers for counting and completing the result sheets with confirming signatures of elected persons. The Executive Committee of the CDC is formed through election and is declared in public. Each CDC consists of 10‐30 elected representatives from the community structuring Chair, Vice‐chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Members. After election CDC is registered with the Provincial RRD and immediately opens a Bank Account for receiving Block Grant money for implementing sub‐project.
Community Development Plan & Sub‐project preparation
The communities are assisted in identifying their immediate needs and actions required to meet the needs through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods. First approach to a community development plan is to set‐up priorities of the projects selected by the community and as soon as the priorities have been set‐up the process of sub‐project preparation is started. A detailed engineering survey is followed by a preliminary sketch survey by the social organiser. After survey, the required engineering drawing –design and cost estimation are done maintaining standard construction code and norms especially following the technical manual of the Oversight Consultant.
Sub‐project submission and approval
After completion of CDP, the proposed sub‐project proposal is prepared with the assistance of BRAC Afghanistan and cross‐checked to be financially and technically sound. Afterwards, the sub‐project is submitted to the provincial oversight consultant office for approval. Oversight Consultant verifies/checks and sends it to the central (Kabul) Oversight Consultant office for allocation of Block Grant money against each sub‐project. Money is received by the concerned CDC members in installment and they start the work immediately after receiving the money. A completion certificate is issued to the CDC by OC/RRD after appropriate completion of the sub‐project.
Implementation of sub‐projects
After approval of the project proposal by the oversight consultant the concerned CDCs make a regular liaison with the FP for block grant money. The CDC ensures 10% contribution to the projects either in form of cash capital investment or in kind. As soon as the block grant money is available the CDC immediately start the implementation process of the project maintaining all rules and regulation of NSP with the help of FPs. CDC has to maintain transparency in all levels, quality control by appointing technical person as per provision of NSP during the implementation of the project and so on. The communities have chosen varieties of projects which includes, hand pump, Culvert & bridge, road, pipe water supply, diesel generator for electricity, water intake, dam and protection wall construction, aqueduct, micro‐hydro power, solar power, school and public bath. A good number of vulnerable women and disabled persons have been supported with income generating activities like carpet weaving, tailoring and sheep rearing under productive asset transfer programme.
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Capacity Building
Capacity building is an integral part of NSP and it is two way‐folds, one for the staff and the other one for CDCs. BRAC Afghanistan has identified a series of training for its staff, CDC members and communities. In addition to training, workshops, forums, and exchange and exposure visits were also organized for the CDCs as a part of capacity building. The training categories are Refresher on NSP, Community Mobilization, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Community Development Plan and Project Proposal, Technical Aspect & Engineering Issues, Supportive Supervision and Monitoring, Applied TOT, Sub project Proposal preparation ,Approach to Rural Development (ARD), NSP Forms and Procedure, Accounts & Procurement Policy on NSP, Effective meeting conduction, Operation and Maintenance, Accounts and Procurement Policy, Training on Health & Hygiene, Leadership Development, Training on Enterprise Development, Income Generation & Entrepreneurship Development, Training on Adult Literacy.
PROJECT MATRIX (In the Year 2008) No of districts
No of CDC
Sector Name Project Name Quantity (Nos)
Hand pumps 11,262
Shallow well < 50 m 2,288
Water Supply network 98
Reservoir for network 301
Water Supply
Deep well > 60 m 125
Canal Construction / Cleaning 492 km
Dam 50
Intake 78
Karez 406 km
Protection/ retaining wall 91 km
Irrigation
Water reservoir 131
Culverts 2267
Bridge 28
Infrastructure
Road 2,880 km
Sheep rearing project 1,194
Sheep distribution 19,557
Carpet weaving project 111
Livelihood
Tailoring project 790
Primary & secondary school 15 Building construction
Class room construction 33
Diesel Generator 9,854
Micro Hydro Power Project 82
Power
Solar Power (Panel) 10366
Public Baths 156 Sanitation & Health
Clinic 1
38 2,487
Rural Development Community Center 52
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NSP Bridge is blessing for Nangarhar”
Malak Sahar Gul, a 60 years old man says “now our children and populaces have easy access to the school and Health Care Unit (HCU)” He is a Chairperson of Bud Khaki Daga CDC in Batikot district under Nangarhar province. Bad Khaki Daga CDC (Community Development Council) consists of 292 families and 2500 inhabitants are living in this community. This community is located in such a geographical point where there was no road access. The people of this community had to cover along distance by foot or donkey riding in order to get the District Bazzar, schools, health care unit or other significant life related facilities. The communication system was totally cut off by a big canal which was flowing between this community and District bazar. Therefore the children and patients of this community were suffering more to get to the school or Clinic. Even many mothers have been lost their lives during maternity cases due to no proper communication system to health care unit.
“It was our good luck that a program by the name of NSP started in our community in the year 2006 form the government side. This was the greatest opportunity for us to make this bridge through NSP program until to save ourselves from many miseries and difficulties of life.” Says Ms. Jamila, a local woman under this community regarding bridge and National Solidarity Program.
Now there is very nice and strong bridge over that canal which has cut of the community with the all types of life facilities. “If NSP had started earlier in our community my mother might not be died” This is the feeling of another 11 years old boy by the name of Waqas who is reading in class four in a primary school. He said that his mother has died due to delivery case because there was no good communication system, so his father tried more to take his wife in a bed/ char payee to the district health care unit. Due to far distance his mother lost her life on the way to the hospital. This community people are very happy to the present government especially to MRRD (Ministry of rural rehabilitation and development) for the construction of this bridge through NSP programme in their community. Now the children, women and men all have easy
access to all type of life related facilities in having a prosperous and delighted life in own community.
My Long life expectation is fulfilled”
A 25‐years Lena, a member of Qasam Abad.CDC of Behsood district under Nangarhar province and a student of tailoring course expressed her feelings that my long life expectation has been fulfilled due to get the access in income‐generating activities through tailoring skill. She also said that this was her expectation to become a tailor but she could not get any opportunity to learn tailoring. Fortunately in 2006 a programme by the name of NSP has been started in our community. At that time we mobilized our females to form a female sub‐committee and made a community development plan where in the tailoring sub‐project was selected a part of human capital development. The selection of the project is the right of the community people. By hearing such words, I started to motivate and mobilize our community women and female sub‐committee members to select a tailoring project as the second priority. Finally we received the block grant and practically started the tailoring project. The day of starting this project is the happiest day of my life because through which I could fulfill my long life expectation to become a skilled tailor.
The community people passed the comments that through out the history, women of Afghanistan have not been involved in productive development activities. They haven’t received any opportunity to play their roles in the development. With the establishment of new democratic government in Afghanistan, women get the chance at least to share and express their feelings, opinions for the development of their community as well as country. The government started such a programme by the name of National Solidarity programme in the community level in all over Afghanistan which provides such environment to women to show and play their roles in development of Afghanistan. In this program the total power of decision making regarding the prioritization, selection and implementation of the development project has been given to the CDC (Community development council) and related community people.
Water Reservoir & Drain system increases the Agricultural Production in Mansoor Qalai Khan Mohammad, a poor farmer of Mansoor Qalai Village of Charbaran district in Paktika Province. He has 8 children in his poverty torn family. His children did not go to school due to extreme poverty. He has 150 jarib land but those were out of irrigation facilities. He was not so well off to irrigate his land by deep well for cultivation. Poverty and malnutrition was cohort of his family. His wife had to collect water for household from long distance.
Charbaran district is 85 km far from provincial headquarter of Paktika and Mansoor Qalai is one the far village of Charbaran district. It is 20 km far from Charbaran district center. Before the inauguration of National Solidarity programme a large meters of areas of the village drains were fully damaged. The water could not pass to watering the agricultural land. As a result, every year production was less and income of the villagers was such a less that they could not feed whole year. Even if the flood occurs, community people had to suffer from many problems. They had to reconstruct the water drain stone mud (clay) & sand. However, after few days it would be demolished naturally. The water could not reach to require agriculture land because the leakages of water drain wasted maximum water. The crops lands got less amount of water resulted less amount of production. He is no poor. He has now six cows to milk 15 kg per day, which fills his family nutrition. His children go to school for education. His wife collects water from nearby water reservoirs for cook. Her kitchen and meal are more hygienic and nutritious. Khan Mohammad is now happy with healthy family.
By implementing the water reservoir & drain project under National Solidarity Program, thousand of people like Khan Mohammad are benefited. The quantity and quality of the crops and products, which gain from agricultural land, is much more. On the other hand, people are able to save their time in collection water. Water is flowing to long distances and villagers are taking water from reservoir and drain. People feel comfort and they are free from different types of socio‐cultural problems. This water reservoir
with water drain project is built with the technical assistances of BRAC‐Afghanistan and MRRD. The community people are proud on such a project and also benefited from this project. People of Mansoor Qalai (village) along with Khan Mohammad praise National Solidarity Programme (NSP) and urge government to implement more projects in village level to eradicate poverty from rural Afghanistan.
Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project (CBDRR)
Afghanistan is prone to various types of natural disasters such as heavy flooding, atrocious droughts, lethal earthquakes, debilitating snowfalls and occasional pest attacks and forest fires. Being one of the most impoverished countries in the world, Afghanistan has lacks the necessary infrastructure to dealing with such disasters. The protracted conflict has rendered the country unable to adequately provide the essential services required of a government, hence the international NGOs currently operating in Afghanistan have decided to undertake a disaster management project to meet in association with the government of Afghanistan the challenges of any future natural disasters.
Goals of CBDRR The overall goal of the project is designed to minimize the effects of possible future disasters on the most vulnerable communities, particularly in rural areas. The immediate objectives of the proposed project are to understand vulnerabilities of communities at risks of disasters and find out the process of mitigating such risks in the Afghan context.
OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
BRAC Afghanistan has noticed the need for a disaster management project to deal with disasters that occur particularly in the remote areas of Afghanistan. This will be a need based project as most of these disasters that occur completely destroy the existing social order and the livelihood of the community. It is imperative that the government gets a helping hand from the international NGO’s that are operating in Afghanistan in dealing with natural disasters.
BRAC Afghanistan has been operating the Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project funded by OXFAM NOVIB in Samangan Province.
By the end of 6th month; Disaster Management Unit (DMU) is fully functional with minimum 2 personnel in place with sufficient training and exposure at central level. Institutional support systems are also in place to enable the DMU
personnel to monitor, update, coordinate and enhance the community in the project area.
By the end of 12th month, BRAC Afghanistan will
have created awareness among the target communities on the potential hazards and risk of disaster through formation of village level committees and training, By the end of 18th month, communities would have been organised into groups to undertake in identifying of their key vulnerabilities and increase their copping mechanisms through active group activities that prepare them for managing emergency situations at their own levels. By the end of 24th month (end of the project) at least 10 communities (1000 households) are self‐empowered, and participate proactively, & coordinate with other stakeholders on disaster risk reduction activities. The village level disaster management plans are in placed as an institutionally.
A glimpse of CBDRR
Province covered 1No of village selected 6District covered 1No of offices 2No of households covered by Survey 1,102Village Level Disaster Management Unit (VLDMU) formed
40
ToT has been conducted for persons 30No of personal/ group contact 25,209Meeting with VLDMU 1,678Orientation on disaster for school going children
714
Expenditure (US$) 190,000
Water Supply and Sanitation Project (WATSAN)
BRAC Afghanistan as Support Organisation signed an agreement on 28th January, 2007 with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) to implement Rural Water Supply and Sanitation project in primarily 8 districts of Kabul and Badghis provinces.
The Project’s objective is to support the implementation of the Government of Afghanistan’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Policy/ Strategy which emphasizes basic water supply service for all, improved health through Annual Report 55
integration of health and hygiene education with water supply and sanitation, community cost sharing, ownership and management including operations and maintenance.
Water supply and Sanitation Project is funded by Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) grant which is administered by the World Bank.
Objective of Watsan ♦ Improve the health of rural
communities in Afghanistan by increasing awareness through integration of health and hygiene education with the provision of safe and sustainable water supply and sanitation services; and
♦ Strengthen and build the capacity of government (central and provincial) for sector development and that of NGOs, the private sector and the communities to scale up provision of sustainable water supply and sanitation facilities.
A glimpse of Watsan
Province covered 2District covered 8Population covered 98,940No of offices 4No of tube well installation 160Latrine construction 505Hygiene education training for family
3
Pipe scheme 1,678Expenditure (US$) 275,000
Education Quality Improvement Programme (EQUIP)
BRAC Afghanistan started the EQUIP programme in April, 2006. The objectives of EQUIP are encouraging and facilitating initiatives of communities and schools to construct classroom space, enhance the girl enrolment and increase the capacity of schools to improve the quality of education. Currently, BRAC Afghanistan is implementing this programme to deliver the School Quality Enhancement & Infrastructural Development services.
The programme has provided Education Enhancement (materials) to 389 schools with capacity building training for SMC (School Management Committee), PTA members. Besides, this programme completed 46 schools infrastructure in Kapisa and Parwan province.
Project period: April, 2006 ~October, 2008
Achievement of the EQUIP
Province covered 2District covered 17Education enhancement 389Infrastructures completed (School bldg) 46Capacity building training for SMV & PTA members
389
Orientation course, using science apparatus organized
119
National Area Based Development Programme (NABDP)
BRAC Afghanistan signed an agreement on May 26, 2007 with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) to empower community institutions to articulate and address their own needs and priorities in relation to poverty reduction and livelihoods enhancement, through participation in integrated rural development planning and implementation processes. BRAC Afghanistan is awarded to implement the project and started operating the National Area Based Development Programme in the 22 districts of Nangarhar Province. As a Facilitating Partner, BRAC Afghanistan implemented the National Area Based Development programme in all 22 district of Nangarhar Province for establishment of DDA (District Development Assemblies) and Formulation of DDP (District Development Plan).
Project period: May, 2007 ~April 2008
Procedures: Establishment of the DDA
NSP
In Districts where the National Solidarity Programme has been operating, the procedure for selecting DDA members will build on Community Development Councils (CDC) established by NSP. BRAC Afghanistan will ask for a large forum by inviting the CDC chairpersons and vice chairpersons to determine their clusters based upon the common criteria agreed by the communities, which can be for instance access to common property resource, social/tribal affiliation, historical ties, and geographical distance etc. Ideally, the number of clusters in each district will not exceed 15. In the subsequent stage of the forum, they will select two representatives per cluster who will henceforth compose the DDA members. The total number of DDA members will not exceed 30.
Non NSP
In many districts there are established, Non‐elected traditional district Shuras, consisting of representatives from the different Hawzas. These Shuras include many of the local power holders, incorporating landowners, commanders, religious leaders and maleks.
Interim DDA Assembly:
Traditional Non‐Elected District Shuras
In Districts where the National Solidarity Programme is not in operation or has not organised CDCs, the procedure described below will lead to the establishment of the Interim District Development Assembly (DDA) through Traditional Non‐Elected District Shuras. All members of the Interim District Development Assembly through Non‐Elected District Shura will be informed that their status is temporary until NSP has established CDCs in the district. The district governor will identify two persons from each village. The cluster will then be formed based on the geographical and demographical aspects. The number of clusters will be from 10‐ 15 members. Each cluster will then select two representatives and subsequently, the DDA will be established with 20‐30 members.
Preparation of District Development Plan
DDA prepared DDP following several stages; with the output being a broad‐based and multi‐Sectoral medium/ long term plan according to the ANDS sectors. The ANDS provides a framework for analyzing common issues where potentials, opportunities and strengths, problems.
Achievement of the NABDP
Province covered 1District covered 22No of DDA formed 22No of DDP established 22Expenditure (US$) 603,,715
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BRAC TRAINING AND RESOURCE
CENTRE (BTRC)
……. to achieve project aim by improving skill and knowledge
Training is an integral part of the development process and it is essential to build the skills and knowledge of staffs to sustain progress. To revive it, BRAC Afghanistan has established the BRAC Training and Resource Centre (BTRC) in May 2003 to look at future developments of the country through improving the management competencies of development practitioners and to enhance the operational skills of BRAC Afghanistan’s staff.
The BTRC has already earned reputation as one of the deliberate interventions in the arena of capacity building of development professionals in Afghanistan. From its inception, the BTRC has been providing support to foster the capacity of the organisations including government ministries, local, national and international NGOs, UN organisations, donor agencies and BRAC Afghanistan’s staffs. The ever increased demand of training, the BTRC has opened up its second training centre in Mazar‐e‐Sharif in the year 2004. The goal behind establishing these training centers are to improve the management competencies of development practitioners, to enhance the human potentials and operational skills of the programme participants.
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Specific objectives of the Training Centre:
♦ To develop and provide training courses for Development Practitioners and Program Participants of BRAC‐Afghanistan;
♦ To develop the Capacity of Government Organisations and others Non‐Governmental Organisations by providing needs‐based professional trainings;
♦ To extend appropriate support and facilities to other Organisations for organising trainings, seminars, and workshops.
Training Components
♦ Capacity development of the staff members of BRAC Afghanistan and program participants.
♦ Capacity development of the officials and professionals of the Government Organisations and others Non‐Governmental Organisations.
♦ Institutional capacity development of partner organisations through training and non‐training interventions of women focused national NGOs.
The method of capacity building programme of BTRC encompasses two dimensions i.e. Training interventions and Non‐training interventions. BTRC offers training courses on various development issues both for the government and non‐government professionals while non‐training interventions are offered for long‐term organisational and institutional sustainability. All these interventions are categorized into four specific areas of capacity development and implemented by four Faculties of BTRC.
i. Education and Gender. ii. Finance and Accounts, iii. Health and Development, and iv. Development Management.
Training Performance
Participants from its inception 17,315 Participants – in the year 2008 2,967
Training course conducted ‐2008 158
In 2008, BTRC conducted 158 batches of training courses with accommodated 2,967 trainees from different organisations like BRAC Afghanistan, national and international NGOs, donor agencies and the different ministries of Afghanistan.
The training courses were: Training Of Trainers (TOT), Strategic Planning, Project Proposal Writing, Report Writing, Supervision and Monitoring, Gender and Development, Micro Finance Operations Management , Micro Finance and Accounts, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (SEP),Communications Skills Development, Basic Teachers Training (BTT), Education Management and Development, School Management for SMC; Financial Management, Development Management, Project Planning and Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Negotiation Skills, Professional Skills for Administration Staff, Managing Organisational Performance, Motivation and Team Work. Education Management and Development, Community Mobilization, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Approach to Rural Development , Leadership and NGO Management , Organisation Development (OD), Human Resource Management (HRM), Community Mobilization Course.
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47%
15%
9%
29%BRAC
Others Organization
EC/Government
NOVIB
The graph shows the percentage of training programmes which is conducted by BRAC Training and Resource Centre (BTRC) for different Government organisations and Non‐government organisations.
However, International donor agency NOVIB organised training course with BTRC for local NGOs under the NOVIB project. Participants from more than hundred NGOs (local, national and international) attended in the training courses offered by BTRC in the year 2008. Some of the national NGOs participated in the training programmes are: Afghan Women Council (AWC), Education and Training Centre for Poor Women and Girls of Afghanistan (ECW), Skills Training and Rehabilitation Society (STARS), Legal and Culture Services Organisation for Afghan Women and Children (LCSOAWC), Noor Education Center (NECO), Health and Development Centre for Afghan Women (HDCAW). International NGOs include: The Asia Foundation, Aga Khan Foundation, German Agro Action, United Nation Mine Action Committee of Afghanistan (UNMACA), Concern World Wide, ACTED, and International Rescue Council (IRC), From the donor agencies: UNDP, UNAMA, UNIFEM, and FAO also participated in different training courses.
Major Achievements
♦ Successful accomplishment of NOVIB‐OXFAM funded ‘Capacity Development for Local NGOs’ project; 13 (thirteen) Non‐training and 41 training interventions have been implemented during the project time to 2,370 professionals of 41 Local Afghan NGOs;
♦ Developed Monitoring tools, techniques, guidelines and reporting system for Ministry of Education in view of ensuring quality education throughout Afghanistan;
♦ Accomplishment of EC Project (The project has been extended no cost basis for another 1 year) Under this project 9 Management Training Modules have been developed and conducted for the Senior MoPH officials in 11 provinces;
♦ Capacity Building Support to the Staff of Presidency House, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Office of Administrative Affairs;
♦ Successful completion of 3 months long course on English and Computer Literacy to the BRAC staffs in collaboration with the BRAC University;
Exposure visit to Bangladesh
♦ Developed module on Subject Based Training (English) for Basic and Secondary Schools Teachers. Delivered training to the Government Teachers in collaboration with BEP;
♦ Strategic Plan Development Support to 25 Local CSOs (Funded by Rights & Democracy).
Introduced New Courses
In 2008, BTRC offered some new training courses for National, International and Government Ministries. These courses were; Health planning and Budgeting, Participatory Learning and Action, Negotiation Skills, Professional skills for Administration Staff, Managing Organisational Performance, Motivation and Team work.
Graph show ing the percentage of female and male participants in the courses
55%45% Male
Female
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Strategies: Course Implementation
Training Principles
Training is the systematic development of knowledge, skills and behavior of every individual. Each human being has her/his own way of absorbing the learning from training. To have the best outcome from training courses, training are made needs based, learner centered, experiential and flexible. Training examples are provided from best practices of human dealings in the working fields.
Training Methodology
The methodologies used in the training are interactive, experiential and participatory. Some of the participatory methods used in the session facilitation are : lecture followed by discussion, groups discussion ,brain storming, structured experience, Simulations, role play, case study , video show , exercise ,buzz group, learning partnership, field exposure ,demonstration, fish bowl, question‐ answer and focus group discussions.
Curriculum Development Process
To accommodate the demand of the participants, the training courses and materials are tailored on the basis of clients’ necessitate. BTRC strongly believes in the dynamic involvement of stakeholders in the curriculum designing process. BTRC follows a continuous process of training needs assessment, reviewing and revisiting that helps in developing the training curriculum.
Process of Developing Faculty members
Capacity development of facilitators is an important phenomenon. The capacity building process for faculty members follows some key stages ‐ especially for the newly recruited facilitators:
a. Attachment with senior trainer ; b. Course observation c. Co‐ facilitation with the senior trainers; d. Translation of reading materials e. Training conduction f. Study circle g. Training provided at home or abroad
Training Coordination
A full time Course coordinator is employed to co‐ordinate during the training sessions. The
responsibilities of course coordinator is to monitoring and providing support to the requirements of training participants and facilitators. In order to overcome the language constraints, national faculties are involved in interpreting the training sessions in local language. The national trainers are engaged in translation, adaptation, and session facilitation too. The training course coordinators, facilitators and interpreters are responsible for ensuring the quality of training.
Facilities and Services
BTRC offers a wide range of training courses that consider the national and international development organisation. An experienced group of professional faculties, national and international are continuously working to strengthen the process. There is a well equipped and organised training centre with all modern facilities, class rooms, dining hall, library and staff dormitories. The audio visual training aids and equipment available include Multimedia, OHP, Video camera, TVs, VCRs, photocopiers, scanners and computers with internet connection.
Capacity of BTRC
Total Training Centres 2 Kabul 1
Mazar e Sharif 1 Total Classroom accommodation 3
Kabul 2 Mazar 1
Total Trainers 16 National Experts 10 Expatriate Experts 6
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BRAC Afghanistan Women Training & Production Centre (WTPC)
Women’s access to income generation activities (IGA) was seriously limited, and as a result, women headed households have struggled to make ends meet.
Taking into consideration for women’s access in IGA, BRAC Afghanistan has launched the Women Training & Production Centre project since May 2003 with a centre in Koshal khan areas of Kabul city. The programme aims to increase Afghan women’s involvement in livelihood projects through provision of capacity building and direct access to income generating activities. The women who joined the training programme came from the poorer households in the neighborhood. A total of 220 such vulnerable women have received the vocational training and thereafter the follow up results suggest that they have engaged themselves in various income generating activities such as tailoring shop. A number of 20 women (selected from larger group) have acquired basic management, quality control and production supervisory skills. Approximately 1,00,000 multi purposes bags have been produced. UNICEF purchased the large number of bags from the centre and used them to promote their education program initiatives. BRAC education program also provided these bags to the students as an education material. From July 2007 to October 2008, WTPC produced 15,577 bags, 4,503 wall calendars and 15,050 wall magazines and delivered it to BRAC Afghanistan education programme. Number of women now engaged in tailoring and hand waived and earn an income per month Afs.6,000~8,000 that give financial support and look after their families in a sustainable way.
BRAC Afghanistan has been using its experience that gathered from WTPC, to set up tailoring center in the community under the govt. affiliated human development programme for the capacity building of rural women since 2003 and moreover setting the goals in terms of
making progress would still have the role of placing emphasis on the very poor and on raising living standards in 6 provinces i.e Nangarhar, Samangan, Badghis, Helmand, Takhor and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan. A huge number of women benefited through this initiatives.
BRAC Afghanistan deeply believes that such kind of activities play a crucial role in development and poverty alleviation, especially for women. Simply providing a source of training for income generating activities have increased self esteem and a sense of accomplishment from their participation in economic projects. Further, the plan is underway to expand similar type of training centers for women in other provinces of Afghanistan where BRAC Afghanistan has been implementing other programmes.
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Support Programmes
Monitoring & Evaluation Unit
BRAC Afghanistan has designed a monitoring and evaluation strategy for a smooth and effective implementation of the project and it is also the part of BRAC Afghanistan’s internal controlling mechanism of programmes. BRAC Afghanistan set up an individual unit in named monitoring & evaluation unit in the year 2004.Through the data collection, analysis and judgment of selected indicators enabling managers to determine whether key activities are being carried out as planned and having the expected impact on the target population.
Monitoring is also an effective tool to see if the implementation is appropriately objective oriented and to ensure greater transparency and accountability of its overall management and internal observation procedures. All complaints regarding misadministration, abuse of discretion, corruption, financial misappropriation and discrimination fall under its coverage. Findings of Monitoring unit are disseminated through narrative report to senior level management, program managers and stakeholders on assessing the effectiveness of the project components with an indication of corrective measures if required.
A total of 304 monitoring supervision conducted by the BRAC Afghanistan’s monitoring department in various programs perspective.
Internal Audit
Internal Audit Department assists the BRAC Afghanistan management to maintain organisational transparency and accountability through routine internal audit, investigation, physical inventory and other assignment.
Internal Audit emphasizes the creditability of all financial transaction and safeguard of BRAC Afghanistan’s assets in Afghanistan. The department ensures the implementation of policies and procedures which was set by the management. The department also prepares a narrative report with an indication for the review committee and also quarterly report is prepared for the Audit committee. Internal audit department were conducted audit in 240 branch offices of different programmes in different locations in Afghanistan.
Public Affairs and Communication Public Affairs & Communications department of BRAC Afghanistan is responsible for highlighting
the BRAC Afghanistan’s programme activities towards ensuring a proper understanding of BRAC in Afghanistan and aboard. The department engages itself in multiple activities like identify building and public relation exercises, internal communications, media relations, publicity materials, advertisement development, event management, brochures, annual reports and web communications.
Finance & Accounts Division
BRAC in Afghanistan has a highly professional accounting department supported by a computer section. BRAC Afghanistan also has an accounting manual that provides guidance as to how a project should be handled and the internal control should be performed. Despite minor variations at times as per the donor requirements, all projects are subject to comply with the terms and rules mentioned in the manual.
BRAC Afghanistan prepares its financial statements under the historical cost convention on a ‘going‐concern’ basis. BRAC Afghanistan generally follows the accrual basis of accounting or a modified form thereof for key income and expenditure items.
BRAC Afghanistan’s accounting records and financial statements are maintained and presented in accordance with the principles of fund accounting. BRAC Afghanistan maintains its books of accounts and records on a programme or project wise basis. The programmes of BRAC Afghanistan are mostly implemented through 187 field offices. The financial activities of both Central office and Field office are performed through computer software (automated) owned and maintained by BRAC Afghanistan itself. The Cumulative Group to assist the poor (CGAP) has awarded BRAC Afghanistan for compliance with international financial reports standards for the year 2005.
Human Resource Division
Human Resource Division works for modernizing and executing human resource development plan of BRAC Afghanistan besides its regular functions such as recruitment, hiring of expatriate experts from different countries, orientation and performance appraisal.
This department also working to ensure the working environment where BRAC staffs has received proper safety and fruitfully
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accommodated with all facilities. BRAC Afghanistan also maintained special software for keeping records of staffs’ vital information which helps proper systematic ways for staffs’ development. Meanwhile, this department is responsible to update the necessary corresponding with government authorities and personal taxes.
Procurement
BRAC Afghanistan has developed “BRAC Procurement Guidelines and Implementation Procedures” as a standard procurement strategy for quick delivery and maintain the product quality as well as keeping the strong store management. Materials are procured jointly with logistic department and kept them in central office store. BRAC has two stores in Kabul and 24 stores in provincial levels.
Material requisition is generated in field office and sent to the central office. Upon approval, central store sends the materials to the field office according to the requisition. If the price of the requisition is above USD 100, three quotations are collected by procurement officer along with a person from Accounts, Audit or Program. Procurement and logistic department prepares a comparative price/specification statement of materials, which is forwarded to Program Coordinator and Program Manager as “table of authority” for approval. If the purchase value exceeds USD 200,000, a tender is floated in a national Daily Newspaper and opened by a tender committee.
For small supplies/equipment, provincial level office originates material requisition based on their requirements and forwarded to central office through proper channel. After getting approval from central office, field office procures the goods.
IT Department
BRAC Afghanistan has set up an individual IT department which was started in the year 2003 as a support programme to ensure transparency, accuracy and efficiency of its development programs by operating specialised software and computerising the system. The main responsibilities of IT department was designing and developing its own software for keeping records and measuring any deviations through skill programming and operation of automation. IT Department also provides IT related supports to all programmes of BRAC Afghanistan both in the
central and field levels such as networking, internet service, designing as well as maintaining the BRAC Afghanistan’s own web site etc. Besides, BRAC Afghanistan has hardware section consist of skilled experts under IT department for solving the trouble shooting in any offices if required.
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BRAC Afghanistan’s Operational Management …………transparency in decision making
BRAC Afghanistan’s policy to create and sustain “harmony at work” to yield bets possible outputs from member of staffs. BRAC Afghanistan fosters share and decide ideology which allows practice of dignity and self esteem. All concerns, ideas and inputs related to organisation, from central level down to provincial level, are address with deserved admiration and priority. Technical, financial and administrative assistance are sought and received from Central office with in shortest possible time.
BRAC Afghanistan has a total of 3,649 staffs currently working over 25 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, with 3,477 staff of which are national and 172 are expatriate experts in various development field. A set of responsibilities has been delegated to each of them with a defined job description. Decision making process is based on hierarchy of the management structure. Provincial station in‐charge is authorised to decide on immediate and relevant activities related to projects requirement and logistics, staff shuffling with in the provincial project frame work and security issues as well. Other issues apart from the mentioned are subject to central approval. The provincial offices are staffed with a provincial accountant to strengthen and ensure transparency in the decision making processes. The country office is empowered to decide on all country specific issues related to the organization. The executive director for overseas operation makes visit to the country office on a set schedule to provide and provides inputs/suggestion whichever and whenever relevant.
BRAC Afghanistan has its internal reporting mechanism in function, both programme wise and as a whole for the organisation. Implementation of a particular programme is adequately taken care off by a set of experienced professionals of relevance. This is again shared with concerned MIS system of Ministries/donors. BRAC Afghanistan has a proven track record to follow the donors’ guidelines in both management and disbursement of funds.
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