17 ways urban Afghanistan is working toward 2030

Human security remains Afghanistan’s major challenge to development. However, Afghans are more optimistic about their future than in the past. you can see that optimism in our bustling, energetic cities.

UNDP supports the people of Afghanistan as they face old challenges and work to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

See these 17 inspiring ways Afghans are improving their cities and contributing to the SDGs, with a little help from undp.

Goal 1 — No Poverty

36% of Afghans live below the poverty line. Panjshiri farmer, Kazem, pulled himself above it after UNDP provided a greenhouse to help him grow cucumbers and tomatoes. It’s made a big difference to Kazem’s family:

“We can buy things that we have never had before. We even have our first carpet at home now, which is something every Afghan family should own,” says Kazem.

Goal 2 — Zero Hunger

In Jalalabad, Shakib is an example of aspiration. He’s only 12, but after school he sells boolani (a local food) to earn money for his sick parents at home, who would otherwise go hungry.

Goal 3 — Good Health And Well-Being

Most of Afghanistan’s malaria cases are in the east, which has more mosquitoes due to the humidity. In Jalalabad, UNDP and the Global Fund have distributed over 500,000 bednets – part of a distribution of 2.7 million countrywide in 2016 alone.

“Bednets prevent 13 other illnesses besides malaria, so I am happy we are protected now!” says Zahidullah, who got a free bed net for his family.

Goal 4 — Quality Education

Since 2002, school enrollment has risen steeply, boosting the number of girls in education from 3% to 36%, but access to education remains a challenge, especially in remote areas.

Third grader Freshta, from Gozo Omerz School in rural Panjshir, couldn’t go to school until a bridge built by UNDP connected her village to the outside world and changed her life.

“I am so happy that I go to school now. I am learning to read and finding lots of new friends,”says Freshta.

Goal 5 — Gender Equality

The numbers are bad for women in Afghanistan. They own only 5 percent of businesses, only 12 percent can read and write, and almost 90 percent have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

Abida and her classmates from Nooristan province are helping to change this. They are studying community nursing at a UNDP/Global Fund-supported school in Jalalabad. When they graduate, they will go to work in some of the most underserved parts of the country.

“I don’t waste a single day without learning,” says nursing student Abida. “I don‘t want to see a mother die on the way to a clinic, or see her child become an orphan.”

Goal 6 — Clean Water & Sanitation

Around 56% of people in Afghanistan lack access to clean water and sanitation. Women and children spend hours and walk long distances to collect water from rivers, streams or open wells, which are easily contaminated and cause fatal water-borne diseases.

UNDP projects have brought clean drinking water to more than 180,000 households across the country.

Goal 7 — Affordable & Clean Energy

Pyawasht village in Panjshir had no electricity. Doctors stumbled over mountain roads to reach their patients, kids couldn’t study after sundown, and women gave birth in the dark.

Then UNDP, built a micro hydro power plant, turning the power of the local river into electricity that could light homes, school and clinics.

This made big difference to people’s lives. For eight-year-old Husna, who’s top of her class at the local school, electricity has been a revelation.

“The reason for my success is having light in our house,” she says. “We also use the electricity at night to cook, wash dishes and watch TV.”

For 43-year-old Abdullah Huda, an electrician and micro hydro plant operator in Pyawasht village, electrifying Afghanistan puts bread on his table and brings light to his neighbours.

He used to be an ironsmith and earned barely enough for him and his family. But as the plant operator, he gets a salary collected by the micro hydro power council from families who use the electricity. He is paid about US$200 per month and the rest of the money is used for maintenance.

Goal 8 — Decent Work & Economic Growth

The literacy rate is only 32% in Afghanistan - partly because too many children have to leave school and start work. In Jalalabad, rickshaws are a good way to get around – and a way to earn a living for 19-year-old Faridullah. He rented this one and has been ferrying passengers for three months.

In northern Mazar-e-Sharif, UNDP works to strengthen local businesses run by women. The members of this food processing cooperative were struggling to make a living, but now they have access to new machinery and hands-on training related to production and marketing.

“Our income increased from US$90 to US$700 in one year,” says cooperative member Gulsom.

Goal 9 — Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure

Jalalabad is called the Evergreen City, but it’s also home to many industries.

These workers in Zainullah Ironsmiths are paid around US$6 per day. It’s not much, but with unemployment estimated at around 40%, they are happy to have the chance to work.

Steel worker Asad Khan says: “We produce doors, wheelbarrows, axes and several steel products. They’re made in Afghanistan and nothing is imported!”

Goal 10 — Reduced Inequalities

Single mother Mahgul Jaffary knows what inequality means.

“I have 4 children aged 9, 8, 6 and 4, but I don’t know my own age. I was married in Pakistan when I was very young – to a man who brought me to Kabul and promised me a good life. But the life I live now is far from what I imagined it to be. My husband beat me severely and then he left my children starving.”

Maghul now lives alone in Kabul, where she is part of a UNDP project supporting more than 100 vulnerable women to gain income generating skills, such as vegetable cultivation, food processing and the use of new agricultural technology.

Goal 11 — Sustainable Cities & Communities

In Jalalabad’s ironsmith bazar, Zubair and Zahir hold hands on the way home. They are poor and they both work as assistants to a shoemaker. 40% of kids in Afghanistan are out of school, according to UNICEF. Providing affordable education for Afghanistan’s young as they grow into adulthood is vital. They are the future of our cities.

“We don’t really like this work. We’d rather finish school and do something better with our lives.”

Goal 12 — Responsible Consumption & Production

Oranges, rice, olives and sugarcane grow in the fertile areas surrounding Jalalabad, and the city has cane-processing, sugar-refining and paper-making industries.

Safiullah, 22, makes US$9 a day to feed his family and two children by selling sugarcane juice on the city streets.

“Although, I was not able to continue my studies after high school, I can still feed my family using the natural resources we have in Jalalabad,” says Safiullah.

Goal 13 — Climate Action

The Panjshir valley is one of Afghanistan’s most peaceful areas, but it is threatened nonetheless — by climate change.

In this village, the citizens are discussing how to use a new storage facility provided by UNDP to keep food fresh for longer. It will allow 40 farmers to store potatoes, apples and peaches for up to six months, meaning they can sell for higher prices when these products are not normally available in the district market.

Goal 14 — Life Below Water

Band-e-Amir National Park in Bamiyan is visited by up to 5,000 tourists a day, which, at nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, is literally breathtaking. Afghanistan is a landlocked country so there isn’t much life below water. But it’s still home to more wildcat species than sub-Saharan Africa, as well as other endangered animals.

Afghanistan’s first female park rangers patrol Band-e-Amir to help tourists and ensure Afghanistan’s natural gem remains pristine and protected. Now, supported by UNDP, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, these four new rangers patrol the park from 8am to 6pm every day.

“We admit that our work is hard,” says 45-year-old ranger Nikbakht. “But there is no job that’s easy, and we think we make a great contribution.”

Nikbakht is also thinking of the future.

“We’re optimistic that the park will flourish,” she says. “And if my daughter becomes a ranger one day, I’ll be proud of her.”

Goal 15 — Life On Land

Panjshir is known for its scenic mountains and crystal clear rivers. Isolated and poor, its 140,000 people, mostly farmers, get by on a string of small-scale farms by the side of the river or hacked into the mountainsides. Their lives have always been hard, but are made even more difficult by desertification and regular floods.

Mubarak Shah remembers the bad times. As he recalls: “Six years ago, huge floods destroyed the canal and all the trees here. We repaired the canal by hand — but it was a short-term fix.”

As climate change makes flooding more frequent, these farmers are becoming extra vulnerable. The local canal helps water the land for 450 of them, so when it’s damaged, a lot of people go hungry.

UNDP has extended and reinforced the canal with stone walls. We’ve also built a “super passage” — something like a giant bridge for flood water, so runoff from the mountain goes over the canal and safely down into the river.

Goal 16 — Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

As Afghanistan rebuilds itself after decades of conflict, it needs a professional national police force capable of enforcing the rule of law, containing crime and protecting the Afghan population.

In the capital, Kabul, police officer Rana Hamidzada works on gender issues. With UNDP support, Rana has attended trainings and workshops on computing, accounting, gender and the law.

She says: “I have been working in the police for 34 years. Sometimes I visit schools and encourage the girls to join up. I think we need women to work in every field.”

17 — Partnerships For The Goals

Bamiyan is the largest town in central Afghanistan. Here, UNDP and the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme have partnered with the Green Afghanistan Association and local government to provide garbage bins, a waste recycling centre and awareness programmes to keep the streets clean and disease free.