The INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE (IRC) is one of the largest and longest-standing NGOs working in Afghanistan. IRC began working with Afghan refugee communities in Pakistan in 1980, and began implementing programs inside Afghanistan in 1988. IRC has earned the trust of local people through our commitment to the region, rooted in the belief that we must support local communities to achieve gender equitable, sustainable development and reduce dependency on international assistance. IRC’s programs in Afghanistan work to achieve Durable Solutions for our communities, and are grounded in the five guiding principles of Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, Participation, Capacity Building, Partnership and Holistic Programming.

In Fiscal Year 2006, IRC Afghanistan implemented programs with a total budget of almost US$ 11 million. Programming expected to continue at a similar level for the current year. Our programs are implemented from six offices, in Kabul, Herat, Nangarhar, Paktya, Logar, and Khost. We currently have approximately 650 employees, of whom 99% are Afghan nationals. Funding is provided by the Government of Afghanistan (GoA), US Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), USAID, US Displaced Children and Orphan’s Fund (DCOF), the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), Stichting Vluchteling (SV) and several private foundations.

PROGRAMS

Governance:  After nearly three decades of war, Afghanistan and its people suffer from severely weakened political institutions and processes and damaged confidence in the country’s political systems. IRC is a leading facilitating partner of the Government of Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Program, which works to address these issues.  The program lays the foundation for community-level governance by helping communities identify, plan, and mange their own development projects. Over the past three years IRC has helped to establish 933 community-elected Community Development Councils. In turn, the councils have spearheaded over 1,100 projects with a total budget of US$ 36 million, ranging from the constructions of roads, schools, hospitals, and irrigation systems to the creation and implementation of literacy and vocational education classes.  In 2007, this work will continue as IRC expands its governance work to new communities and builds on its work in communities where it currently operates. In addition, IRC will further develop our governance programming to support the creation and build the capacity of District Development Assemblies.

Education & Child Protection: The literacy rates in Afghanistan are among the lowest in the world. The problem is particularly acute for women and girls; by some estimates literacy rates are roughly 50% for males and 20% for females. As part of the USAID-funded Partnership for Advancing Community-based Education in Afghanistan (PACE-A), the IRC is currently working in six provinces to bolster Afghanistan’s education system. Our education program aims to improve access to and the quality of education through the establishment of community-based schools in rural areas, developing curricula, helping students enter government schools, training teachers, establishing and mobilizing parent teacher associations and school management committees, conducting adult literacy classes, and supplying classrooms with education materials. Among our accomplishments in 2006, the education program enrolled over 5,000 students (including nearly 4,000 girls) in community-based schools, integrated over 3,500 students into government schools, conducted literacy training with 1,445 adults, and trained over 800 teachers. Additional support for the program is provided by SV and private foundations.

The IRC’s child protection program conducts community education, health, and advocacy activities designed to raise awareness of the rights and needs of children, with particular attention to the needs of children with disabilities. In 2006, these activities were implemented in 24 remote rural communities in Western Afghanistan, and through a pilot initiative 49 children with hearing and visual impairments were successfully integrated into the formal school system.

Vocational Education & Training: Recent changes in the Afghanistan’s political, economic and social environment have created a high demand for skilled workers, which cannot be met by the current labor market. In Afghanistan’s changing environment, many people lack the necessary skills to earn a living. Poverty is widespread, and the overall unemployment rate is estimated at 40 percent. In 2006, IRC was the sole implementing partner of the GoA’s National Skills Development and Market Linkages Program. Working in concert with long-established local partners, we provided vulnerable women and men from across the country with increased wage and self-employment opportunities through market oriented skills training, linkages to micro-credit, and business development support services. Through the program, over 2,000 people (including over 900 women) graduated from apprenticeship and center-based training programs, the majority of which realized significant wage increases after graduation. In 2007, we will expand on this work with a follow up project targeting 2,600 beneficiaries, including 35% women and 5% people with disabilities.

Environmental Health & Engineering: Since 2002, more than 3.5 million war refugees have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran. Over a half million more are expected to return in 2007. The communities to which they are returning, stressed by war and draught, often lack basic resources to safely support the existing population, let alone additional returnees. With support from ECHO and PRM, IRC helps returned refugees and their communities address critical water, sanitation, and shelter needs. In 2006 alone, IRC facilitated the construction of over 800 shelters and 1,300 latrines, sunk 162 wells, helped cultivate 1,100 hectare of land through 9 irrigation projects, and gave thousands of families the basic tools to prevent the spread of water-borne disease through hygiene awareness training and the distribution of hygiene kits. In 2007, such projects will continue to be a major focus of IRC’s work in Afghanistan, with a particular emphasis on supporting the GoA’s Pilot Program of Land Distribution to Returnees.

HIV: Although Afghanistan is assumed to be a country with low HIV prevalence, there is scant data on the country’s actual HIV prevalence. However, several factors indicate that the country is at risk for an HIV epidemic. These include limited public and medical-provider knowledge about blood-borne infections and their prevention, the massive influx of returning refugees from neighboring countries with high rates of intravenous drug use, significant unemployment and poverty, and the country’s high level of opium production. To learn more about blood-borne diseases and associated attitudes and practices in Afghanistan, IRC is supporting the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the Naval Ambulatory and Medical Research Unit (NAMRU-3) in projects that, among other things, seek to identify high risk behaviors, determine the prevalence of blood-borne infection among high risk groups, develop capacity for volunteer counseling and confidential testing, and measure community knowledge of and support for harm reduction practices.