Helvetas Handeln für eine bessere Welt

In partnership with local communities and authorities, HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation run projects in the north and east of the country are helping about half a million people to improve their livelihoods.

The project area experiences regular flooding and damage of farmland during the rainy season. Protective structures such as reservoirs and check dams along with increased vegetative cover reduce soil erosion and the occurrence of floods. At the same time, these measures improve soil fertility so that the farmers can obtain better crop yields. This ensures that they have enough to eat and can sell the surplus to earn some money.

Another focus of HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation’s work is funding girls’ schools and adult literacy courses. The teaching is aimed at satisfying the participants’ immediate needs. On the one hand, they learn practical things for their daily lives, such as managing the natural environment in a sustainable manner; on the other, they are more likely to find work if they can read and write.

Communities in the project area also benefit from a drinking water and sanitation project. Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation funds local authorities, communities and small companies to build public utilities, and also raises awareness about hygiene and better sanitation to improve people’s health.

Afghanistan has had no peace since the overthrow of the Taliban regime. The security situation may deteriorate further with the withdrawal of NATO troops. Natural disasters make people’s lives even more difficult, but thanks to committed local councils, there has also been some progress, for example in education.

The Taliban regime was overthrown as part of the US war on terror. Since 2004 Afghanistan has been an Islamic republic led by President Hamid Karzai. His government has the difficult task of establishing a functional government and providing basic services in cooperation with the United Nations. After NATO’s planned troop withdrawal in 2014, Karzai will have to guarantee national security with his own army and police force. Since this was announced, the government has faced a surge of activity by militant groups.

The country’s development has stagnated. Afghanistan is still the poorest country in Asia. There are bottlenecks in health and education provision. Every second person has no access to clean drinking water. The economy is in shambles, people have very few possibilities of earning an adequate income. Their livelihoods are threatened as much by violence as by droughts and flooding.

In spite of all these difficulties, some positive developments are evident in Afghanistan. With the help of local people, the provincial and district authorities are striving to foster development and security. There is noteworthy progress in education and health services, and infrastructure is being reconstructed in the less remote areas.