Afghanistan (Hansard, 24 June 2004)

Mr. Gareth Thomas

DFID is helping to expand and strengthen civil society in Afghanistan by supporting civil society's engagement in the political process. DFID supported the development of the new constitution in1482W 2003 (£500,000). This included an outreach programme to make the wider community aware of the purpose of the Constitution and providing a reasonable understanding of its key features. DFID are now funding Swiss Peace (£500,000) to provide civic education for the Afghan elections and supporting the development of an independent media through our contributions to the Global Conflict Prevention Pool.

The UK is funding Action Aid (£157,680) to help increase both knowledge and awareness of the rights of women and women's participation in local governance in Afghanistan. Community level women's groups are being established and small grants made available to help build the resources and confidence of women to work together to seek solutions to common problems. These activities are being supplemented and supported by training and information sharing at the provincial level and a nationwide research project looking at the role of women in local governance in Afghanistan.

DFID also funds Government led national development programmes, which are being facilitated by a range of local and international non-governmental organisations. An example is the National Solidarity Programme (£3 million in 2003–04 with additional funding planned), which is building the capacity of hundreds of village development councils across Afghanistan and providing the resources they need to identify and address their own development priorities.

DFID also supports the British Agencies in Afghanistan Group (BAAG) here in the UK. This funding helps BAAG act as an effective umbrella group for non-governmental organisations, registered in the UK and working in Afghanistan and also facilitates information sharing and access to Whitehall Departments.