The United Nations in Afghanistan yesterday issued its Strategic Framework for Afghanistan for the period 2023-2025, outlining the priorities of the organization in support of the Afghan people.
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNMA) says the UN Strategic Framework articulates the UN’s approach to addressing basic human needs in Afghanistan, prioritizing the needs and rights of those most vulnerable, including women and girls, children and youth, internally displaced persons, returnees, refugees, ethnic and religious minorities.
The UN Strategic Framework was reportedly developed in close consultations with Member States, partners, and stakeholders.
The United Nations Country Team and partners have identified three complementary and mutually reinforcing joint priorities as it supports the basic human needs of the Afghan people: Sustained Essential Services in key sectors such as health, nutrition, education, employment, water, sanitation, hygiene, social protection, and protection that are accessible to all, affordable, and can be delivered free from all forms of discrimination; Economic Opportunities and Resilient Livelihoods through the creation of an enabling environment that facilitates economic growth and the provision of decent work opportunities, especially for excluded groups such as women; and Social Cohesion, Inclusion, Gender Equality, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law – as prerequisites for sustainable development and peace in Afghanistan – strengthening civil society engagement and advocacy for alignment of Afghanistan’s normative and legal frameworks with international human rights instruments.
The UN Strategic Framework has a special focus on the delivery of principled assistance in response to the increasingly restrictive environment facing all Afghans, in particular women and girls.
The ban against Afghan women working for the UN adds to earlier restrictions placed on Afghan women and girls by the de facto authorities: against women working for NGOs, against women working for other diplomatic entities; preventing girls from attending secondary and tertiary education institutions; against girls and women visiting public parks, baths, and gyms.
These and other edicts limit the physical movement of women and girls and their participation in economic, social and public life.
