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Moreover, it is still of the utmost importance to increase public awareness on the importance of respecting people's human rights. It is essential that people are aware that the lack of justice, education and prevailing negative cultural practices have a direct negative effect on the realisation of human rights, especially for women and girls. Increased public awareness can also help to push the government to comply with its national and international human rights obligations. The EU itself therefore encourages the government to ensure proper and faster implementation of all key international human rights treaties ratified by Afghanistan.
The EU recognises the key role of civil society in promoting human rights, gender and democracy, and in consolidating political participation and representation. For example, the EU funded Family Guidance Centres and shelters provide relief to victims of violence and abuse, including crimes such as rape, human trafficking, underage and forced marriage, exchange of women and girls to settle disputes (known as baad), and those threatened by honour killings. The centres help women with violent husbands, support women and girls facing prison sentences fleeing abusive situations, and assist girls as young as nine who have been sold as brides to men of all ages.
Another example is the EU's support in protecting and defending the rights of children at risk, particularly street and working children. Decades of conflict have led to widespread displacement throughout the country. The high number of returning refugees, internally displaced people and labour flows from rural Afghanistan has also led to the setting up of homes in informal, unpla
On human rights, the EU realises that it is necessary to take a long term approach, recognising the long lasting significance of apparently only small improvements.
In 2001, Afghanistan's health indicators were the worst in the world. The Afghan government, supported by donors, in particular USAID, the World Bank and the European Union, has overseen real progress indicating that Afghans are living longer, more women have access to medical care during pregnancy and childbirth and more children survive to reach their fifth birthday.
For example, access to primary health care services has increased from less than 10 percent in 2002 to around 65 percent now. The infant mortality rate has decreased from 257/1000 live births in 2000 to 97/1000 live births in 2010, according to a 2010 nation wide survey. According to the same survey, the maternal mortality rate decreased from 1600/100 000 in 2008–2009 to 372/100 000 two years later. Of course, this is still unacceptably high and the EU will continue to work with the Afghan government to improve the health of all Afghans.
The considerable progress in the health sector is largely due to the implementation of a government-led Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) and an Essential Package of Hospital Services (EPHS) implemented by NGOs and funded by USAID, the World Bank and the EU.
Since 2001, the EU has committed a total of € 216 million in support of the health sector (including health policy & administration management, infectious disease control and basic health care). By funding non-state actors for the delivery of BPHS and EPHS, the EU supports the provision of basic health cares services to more than five million Afghans in ten provinces, even in some of the most insecure and underserved areas of the country.
The BPHS has been critical in ensuring that all stakeholders focus on the common strategy established by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). This approach has made BPHS shorthand for a series of policies and strategies focused on the delivery of high impact primary health care, with adequate resources and efforts dedicated to improving service coverage to rural populations, equity in access to services and maintaining the focus on the poor, carefully monitored and evaluated.
EU institutional support to MoPH at central and provincial levels focuses on better linking service delivery and sector governance as well as on improving sector stewardship, as essential milestones towards a sector-wide approach to health. Pivotal governance areas (policy, pla
In addition, the Provincial Health Directorates (PHDs) have been supported to play a key role in supervising the performance of NGOs' service delivery and provision of technical advice. Progressively, PHDs are expected to assume regulatory functions at the provincial level and be able to work effectively with the for-profit sector.
In 2010, the EC allocated a fresh € 73 million to ensure the continuation of its support to the Afghan Public Health and Nutrition Sector. Institutional support to the Ministry of Public Health continues to produce positive results in terms of the health and nutrition status of the Afghan population.
On 28 January 2013, the European Commission a
Seventy per cent of the Afghan population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. But this work is affected by seasonal and chronic unemployment and many Afghans are forced to find work in the illegal economy as a better source of revenue.
Agriculture and rural development remains the most promising growth sector. Agriculture has a high multiplier impact on developing countries’ economies and contributes to environmental protection. The needs of the sector are huge in terms of financing as well as in terms of re-organising intervention logic. The EU has emerged as the leader of this sector. More than its funding levels, this leadership has been built on the ability to coordinate donors and communicating on their behalf with all cluster ministries in order to frame a national policy approach. Outside agriculture, existing rural development programmes aiming at developing secondary transport infrastructure critical to linking up rural communities, fostering off-farm employment through rural enterprises and consolidating local governance institutions have strong conceptual complementarities.
The emergent link with local governance institutions is partially the outcome of strong EU policy dialogue with both the Ministry of Rural Development and the Independent Directorate for Local Governance. Considering the poor state of Afghan rural communities and the potential of the agricultural sector, the absorption capacity of the sector is huge – and since a substantial part of the population lives in rural areas, the impact will be broad and significant. In terms of poverty reduction and stabilisation of growth, agriculture and rural development should therefore remain a priority for the government. This is confirmed by the fact that the government has indicated its desire that ARTF expands its support to this sector, a process which has been largely facilitated by the EU.