93

論文

Community-Driven Development and Women’s
Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan:
A Case Study on Community Empowerment Programme
for Women (CEPW) in Balkh Province, Afghanistan
Makiko Koyabu

I. Introduction
This study explores how Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach
adopted in the reconstruction programs has impacted on women’s empowerment
through the case study of “Community Empowerment Programme for Women(CEPW)” in Afghanistan.
The CEPW was conducted under the Enhancing Women’s Economic
Empowerment Project (EWEEP) by Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA) and the Afghanistan Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) for three
years beginning in 2005. According to Agreed Conclusion 1997/2 by the UN
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), gender mainstreaming is defined asa globally accepted approach which aims to achieve gender equality throughintegrating both women and men’s concerns and experiences into design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all policies and programs. In
this point of view, the CEPW introduced a new CDD approach for women’s
empowerment in post-conflict societies. The CEPW approach was unique
because it employed not only CDD but also a gender-mainstreaming approach.
Moreover, it promised women’s participation in community development
activities, and approaches women as a group.
After the mid-1980s, the concept of women’s empowerment emerged fromgrass-root women in developing countries in order to take initiatives for theirown development. Women at the grass-root level began to gather together totry and gain independence and improve their socio-cultural, economic andpolitical status by themselves. However, when it comes to the post-conflictsetting, it is argued that women’s empowerment is considered one of the94

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enormous challenges in the reconstruction and development process. Since UN
Security Resolution 1325 was adopted in October 2000, stating the importanceof the inclusion of women and mainstreaming gender into all aspects of postconflict resolution and peace operation, UN agencies as well as donors tried toempower women by promoting their participation in peace-building activities.
However, it is observed that women do not have enough space forparticipating in the early stage of the reconstruction process, even though
women have been the largest group who are affected by conflict and war. Porter(2007) claimed that even though women’s participation in peace-building
activities has been encouraged by many organizations such as the UN
Development

Fund

for

Women

(UNIFEM)

and

Non-Governmental

Organizations (NGOs), women remain seriously under-represented in these
activities. Porter (2007:2) mentioned that women’s “under-representation
exacerbates gendered inequality in peace processes and undervalues theunique contribution that women in conflict societies and transitional societies
bring to peace building.”
In the case of Afghanistan, through the reconstruction activities of thecountry, there were a lot of efforts made for improving women’s status. For
example, President Hamid Karzai signed the declaration, “Essential Rights of
Afghan Women” in January 2002. It guarantees women’s rights such as
equality between women and men, equal protection under the law, educationin all disciplines, freedom of movement, and freedom of speech and politicalparticipation(Islamic

Republicof

Afghanistan

2008).

However,thegovernment’s efforts were confirmed only at the formal level: there wereenactment of constitutions and legislation which guarantee equal rights andachieving a gender balance in judicial and governance institutions (Top-down)in 2002. For instance, under the Article 22 of the Constitution, Afghan women
have gained rights and equality with men; however, women especially at thegrassroots level continue to face certain difficulties in regard to their economic,
social, cultural as well as political life (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 2004).
This is because women are usually disregarded in mainstream development.
A bottom-up approach for women’s empowerment in community
development has been considered one of the effective means to encourage
women’s participation by the international community (World Bank 2006).
Therefore, the community development approach has actually been employedCommunity-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan95

to reconstruct war-torn communities like Afghanistan from the early stage ofthe reconstruction process.
One of the national priority programs for rural development, the National
Solidarity Program (NSP), which employed a Community-Driven Development(CDD) approach introduced by the World Bank, has been implemented all overAfghanistan in order to promote stability in rural areas. This implementation
has been made by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development(MRRD) with the support from the World Bank and other donors since 2003.
According to MRRD, the NSP aims to develop the ability of Afghan communities
to identify, plan, manage and monitor their own development projects, andempower communities to make decisions and manage resources during all
stages of the project cycle (MRRD 2009:1). Therefore, MRRD has tried to
implement the program for the entire rural population with an emphasis on
the inclusion of women, allowing heightened perception of community
governance.
Under the NSP program, the Community Development Council (CDC)
produces community development plans (CDPs) which prioritized the needs ofthe communities and decide on medium-term investment plans. A community
is defined based on existing government records of registration of 25 to 2,000
families. Under the program, communities are provided with block grants, inwhich they decide the use of such funds through participatory decision making
process. One block grant will be allocated to each community at a rate of
US$200 per family with an upper limit of US$60,000 per community (MRRD
2004).
As a result, over 21,706 CDCs have been established throughout all 34
provinces, and over 46,171 community projects have been completed (MRRD,
2009). As women’s participation is considered one of the priority areas under
the NSP, MRRD tries to promote gender equality in the NSP by establishingfemale CDCs in order to reflect women’s voices in the development plan.
Some studies about the NSP as well as CDD approach in post-conflictcountries have been conducted and revealed the effectiveness of the community
development approach in post-conflict countries. Nixon (2008:11) considers the
NSP to be one of the most wide-ranging development initiatives in Afghanistan
since 2001, and it is regarded by many as one of the most successful in termsof sub-national governance. Moreover, Nixon (2008:41) also states that the

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creation of CDCs under the NSP have introduced a dramatic change in thedevelopment resources available to many communities in the country. The
NSP promotes a historical change of the interrelations between the central
government and local communities, particularly with regard to the role ofwomen in local decision making (Boesen, 2004:4).
Even though the above mentioned scholars agreed with the effectivenessof CDD approach in post-conflict settings, they argued that women’s
participation in these activities were limited. The World Bank (2006:49)
evaluated the NSP that the program has made serious inroads toward genderinclusion, as it has offered women opportunities to be involved in the local
development councils and to take equal part in village-level activities. However,through the framework of NSP, participation of women in decision making
process is limited. For example, The World Bank (2006:35) criticized that theoperational procedures for including women in a community council did notensure that women achieved equal decision-making. It can be said that the
NSP did not employed gender mainstreaming approach into their activities.
Existing cultural barriers may prevent women from participating in thedecision making. Nixon (2008:41) claimed that there are barriers to genuine
participation of women in both development functions and governancefunctions of the CDCs. Boesen (2004:8) considered that despite alternative
arrangements to provide an avenue for women to influence decision-making,this may in practice be problematic in the context of specific relations between
male and female community members. Kakar (2005:2) also mentioned thatwomen and female CDCs lack legitimacy, meaningful participation and accessto pertinent information in relation to male CDCs and the NSPs process in thecommunity.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop a more appropriate approach for
women’s participation in decision making. Abirafeh (2009:9) claimed that “aidinterventions have actually made life more difficult for women, and that suchdifficulties might have been avoided if a more nuanced and sensitive approach
had been taken.” It could be said that women’s participation in community
development activities is one of the most crucial issues for community
reconstruction and peace-building in rural areas of Afghanistan.
Above-mentioned scholars show the following two points. First,
Community-Driven Development (CDD) is identified as an effective approach

Community-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan

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for the reconstruction of war-torn community in the context of community
governance. Second, even though some special arrangements have been madeto promote women’s participation in the activities, women have been unable toobtain meaningful participation. However, these studies could not reveal how
the programs conducted by Community-Driven Development approach has
impacted women’s participation in community reconstruction programs, or
how to enhance women’s participation in the programs. Moreover, the CDD
approach has not been analyzed through the gender perspectives.
Therefore, this paper evaluates how the CEPW has impacted women’s
empowerment in the post-conflict Afghanistan. The Community Empowerment
Programme for Women (CEPW) was chosen as an example because it is distinct
from other empowerment programs for women as well as from the community
development activities conducted by the NSP. First, CEPW took bothcommunity-driven and gender mainstreaming approaches as compared with
the NSP which employed only a community-driven development approach.
Second, CEPW considered women’s participation as a process for empowerment
while the NSP considered it as an output. In other words, CEPW considered
community-driven development activities as a tool for women’s empowerment,
and therefore focused on Female Community Development Council (FCDC),
which was established under the NSP, and put the council as active agents forcommunity development activities. Third, CEPW regards women collectively
and the community as a whole because many activities such as skills
development, income generation and literacy programs only benefit individuals
rather than the whole community and only address short-term problems whichcannot promote women’s empowerment or a sustainable livelihood.
The author was involved in the CEPW project in Afghanistan as acommunity development and gender expert as a part of JICA’s team from 2004
to 2008. Thus, the evaluation of the CEPW is to be made based on the author’s
participatory observation along with the data collected in Mazar-i-Sharif, andfour villages in Balkh province where CEPW was done. The author develops
her own empowerment framework by adopting some concepts of previous
scholar, Kabeer (1999), with particular focus on women’s access to resources,
their role as agents and their achievements.

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II. Women’s Empowerment and Community-Driven Development :Analytical Framework
1. The Level of Analysis
There are several levels to measure women’s empowerment and peacebuilding. As shown in the Figure 1, generally, these are divided into four levels,
namely national level, regional level, community level, and individual level. In
a post-conflict setting, two kinds of approaches, top-down and bottom-up, arecategorized for international assistance for reconstructing war-torn countries.
For instance, peace negotiation is carried out for establishing a stable country
at the national level. At the same time, gender equality is promoted by revising
the constitution and law to improve women’s status. However, the author
considers that this kind of top-down approach alone cannot empower women at
the grass-root level. In other words, the bottom-up approach is also necessary
to promote women’s empowerment and a stable society.
Therefore, this study focuses on women’s empowerment at a grass-root
level such as the individual and community level empowerment as shown in
Figure 1. Individual empowerment involves making choices, opportunities,i
Figure1. Level of Empowerment and Peace-Building

Top-Down Approach
Peace-Building

Women’s Empowerment

Negotiation, arbitration,state-building

Constitution, Law, Policies

National
Level

Integrative and exchange
power dominate
Community cohesion

Regional Level

Community Level

Organizing, networking

Choices, opportunities,

Reconciliation,
trust building

Networking, provincial policies

Individual Leveldecision making, access,control, participation

Bottom-up Approach[Source: Author, 2012]Community-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan

99

decision making, participation, access and control. Group organization isconsidered as one of the factors for community level empowerment. Peacebuilding at the community and individual levels is also considered along withempowerment in order to see the relationship. The author considers that there
is a relationship between women’s empowerment and community peacebuilding, in particular, community cohesion at the community level.
2. Empowerment Framework
As to the analytical framework, the author referred to previous works. For
instance, many frameworks for conceptualizing women’s empowerment havebeen developed by scholars and international organizations such as Narayan(2005), Nussbaum (2000) and Kabeer (1999).
Narayan developed a framework for evaluating empowerment and its
condition to development effectiveness; however, it focuses more on national
level reform to remove constraints and barriers that limit poor people’s social
choices. In other words, it focuses on structural adjustment rather thanfocusing on women’s empowerment at a grass-root level.
In contrast to Narayan, Nussabam’s framework focuses more on individuallevel empowerment by developing the idea of “human capability approach”.
She also developed the list of “the central human functional capability” aspolitical purpose. However, what is important underlying her idea is that
Figure 2.: The Author’s Overall Framework for Empowerment

・Social relationship・Sustainability
・Gender equality

Community
Cohesion

・Income/Employment
Achievements（Outcomes）

・Assets
Resources（Preconditionns） ・Information/Knowledge
・Mobility

Empowerment

Agency（Process）

・Capacity of women’s groups・Social relationship
・Decision Making[Source: Author. 2012]

Individual/Collective
Functional Capabilities
・Senses, Imagination, andThought
・Emotions・Affiliation
・Play

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people have freedom and the capability to lead the kind of lives they want tolead. In other words, her list identifies fundamental capabilities of each person
to expand their choices for their lives.
Kabeer’s (1999:437) framework of women’s empowerment consists ofresources, agency and achievement that covers the process of women’s
empowerment. Kabeer (1999) defines resources as the enabling factors thatallow women to exercise agency or choice. Agency is defined as the ability todefine one’s goals and act upon them, and achievements are the outcomes ofchoices (Kabeer, 1999). However, her framework does not cover the specificdetails in each category. In order to compensate for these missing points, theauthor borrowed ideas from Nussbaum and Kabeer, and combined both
frameworks to analyze the case of Afghanistan. Figure 2. shows thecomprehensive framework for this study.
3. Conceptualizing Community Driven-Development
In the case of Afghanistan, since more than 80 % of people live in rural
areas, rural community development is considered one of the focal points forthe reconstruction of the country by the government in order to establish astable society. Therefore, the government, with the support from international
donors, has started a community development program from the early stage ofthe reconstruction process. This study focuses on the Community Empowerment
Programme for Women (CEPW) being one of the activities of bilateral
cooperation between Afghanistan and the Japanese government somewhat
similar to the National Solidarity Program (NSP) which is one of the biggest
national priority programs for Afghanistan government.
According to the World Bank, the CDD approach in conflict countries isuseful and effective because it 1) supports micro-level recovery, 2) increases
efficiency, 3) builds social cohesion, 4) increases accountability andsustainability, and 5) improves empowerment (The World Bank 2006). Many
scholars such as Binswarnger, Reget and Spector (2009), Nixon (2008), andBoesen (2004) agreed with its effectiveness. The author explores what factors
affect reconstruction of the community through CDD activities, in this case the
CEPW. As such, the author focused on what the World Bank referred to as“building social cohesion” in its list. This is because social cohesion requires
interrelationships among people, for which it is necessary to include bothCommunity-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan

101

women and men. The main difference between the CEPW and the NSP is
whether or not it employed a gender mainstreaming approach for its activities.
The author identified three important components which are the result of
women’s active participation in community development activities such associal relationships, sustainability, and gender equity. Moreover, the author
considers these components to be what Kabeer called “achievement”, because
it is achieved through empowerment of resources and agency.

III. Overview of Community Empowerment Programme
for Women (CEPW)
1. Background of the CEPW
Afghan society, after twenty three years of war, was ruined. Under thesecircumstances, people, especially women, lived in harsh conditions, and thepromotion of women’s advancement was particularly deprived. In order toreconstruct Afghanistan institutionally, the Bonn Agreement was made in
December 2001. This agreement “served as a framework for the establishmentof sustainable and democratic governance in Afghanistan”, and “recognizedthat the participation of women and attention to their rights and status areboth a requirement and a vision of the national peace and reconstruction
process” (Ministry of Women’s Affairs year:n/a).
Based on this agreement, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) wasestablished in 2001 as a policy-making agency to promote gender mainstreaming.
Its mandate is policy coordination and advocacy to ensure that women are freefrom all forms of violence and discrimination, and women’s legal, economic,
social, political and civic rights are respected, promoted, and fulfilled in
Afghanistan. At the provincial level, the Department of Women’s Affairs(DOWA) has followed the mandate and vision of MOWA. DOWA is the “Field
Operations Unit” in the organizational structure of MOWA. DOWA is expected
to mainstream gender strategies into their policies and direct their services
towards the needs of women. DOWA also builds partnerships with donor
communities, such as NGOs and international organizations operating at theprovincial level to address the concerns of women.
In order to meet the mandate of MOWA, the Afghan government requested
the Japanese government to promote women’s advancement. Based on this102

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request, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported
capacity building for policy planning to MOWA from February 2005 for three
years. It did this by conducting the “Enhancing Women Economic Empowerment
Project (The Project)”. The objective of The Project is to support MOWA to
identify its own role and responsibilities in supporting women’s economic
empowerment. It does this through the implementation of small scale income
generation activities called “Community Empowerment Programmes for
Women (CEPW)”, and capacity development of MOWA staff.
The CEPW was one of the main activities of The Project, which provided
support to small-scale projects with special focus on enhancing women’s
economic empowerment. The CEPW activities were conducted in threeprovinces: Balkh, Bamiyan, and Kandahar. The three main objectives of theactivities were as follows:• To improve the livelihood of women and the community by providing theopportunity for women to engage in activities that will lead to women’s
economic empowerment;• To enhance the capability of MOWA/DOWA in understanding the socioeconomic situations of women, and developing gender-responsive policies
based upon the information collected; and,• Based on positive and negative lessons learned through CEPW, MOWA/
DOWA will promote gender mainstreaming at the national and provincial
levels.
Besides the capacity development of MOWA staff, a community-driven
development approach, in the CEPW, was employed for two main reasons.
First, even though MOWA/DOWA are expected to play important roles inpromoting women’s status in the reconstruction and development process in
Afghanistan, its staff did not know the real situation of women, especially inthe rural areas. DOWA was to play a critical role in reaching women in theprovinces and of supporting the government, NGOs, and civil society to makethem understand women and gender issues (MOWA/DOWA and JICA 2005).
Therefore, it was expected that DOWA would get a glimpse of the real situation
through monitoring CEPW activities in rural areas. Second, it is necessary to
promote gender mainstreaming not only at the policy and formal levels (fromCommunity-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan

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top-down), but also at the grass-root level (from bottom-up), which women in
grass-root level feel “peace dividend”. The majority of women in the districts
have been left out from the mainstream of the development field. Women at
the grass-roots level need to be empowered to raise their voices to be heard bysociety. To this end, the CEPW was created for women in such communities toimprove their livelihood and to lead them to become empowered.
This study analyzed women’s empowerment at the grass-root level, but
the author focused only on the second reason of the CEPW implementation inorder to see how grassroots women were empowered through participating incommunity development activities. The case of Balkh province is focused inthis paper because the author was directly involved in the project in thisprovince as a gender and community development advisor. Moreover, Balkhprovince is the only place among three which consisted of many different kindsof ethnicities such as Tajik, Hazara, Arab and Turkmen.
2. Implementation of the CEPW
A total of five CEPW activities were implemented in Balkh province in thefirst year, (2005): one jam-making project, two animal husbandry projects, andtwo radio programs for distributing information on women’s economic
empowerment. The jam making project gave training to vulnerable womenand promoted their access to market. Two sheep rearing projects provided
opportunities not only for village women to participate in economic activities
but also for the Female Community Development Council (FCDC) to takeinitiative and manage the small-scale project by themselves. FCDC is a
representative of women’s group in a village who were selected by votes fromall the village members including both men and women. One radio programprovided information and raised awareness on women’s participation ineconomic activities. The other radio program was utilized on the special
occasion of the International Women’s Day in order to provide information on
women’s rights and roles, and their value in communities.
Another six CEPW activities were selected in the second year (2006): two
sheep rearing projects, two cow farming projects and two radio programs. As aresult, a total of four projects were implemented with FCDCs. Two sheep
projects were carried on from the previous year, and two cow farming projects
were conducted by the new FCDCs. These projects provided more opportunities

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for village women to consider how they could increase their income or assets byusing sheep and cows as seed money. As for the CEPW for the media, theImplementing Partner (IP) provided information and produced the firstnewspaper about women and economic empowerment. IPs introduced modelcases of economically successful women through the radio program andnewspaper to give new ideas on women’s economic activities.
As a result of the implementation of those CEPW projects by IPs, about
2000 vulnerable women such as widows, jobless, disabled women and womenwith disabled family members were selected as direct beneficiaries and morethan 150,000 people had benefited indirectly from The Project within two
years.
During the implementation of the CEPW in Balkh province throughworking with local NGOs, media, and FCDCs, it became obvious that working
with FCDCs could produce the most effective and sustainable results for
women’s empowerment as well as community development in the post-conflictsociety. It is because the author directly witnessed more positive changes.
Therefore, the author focuses on the activities of FCDCs among the total of
eleven sub-projects in order to find out how the CEPW has empowered rural
women in the post-conflict society.
3. Analysis of the CEPW in Four Villages
The Community-Driven Development approach was directly applied tofour villages under the CEPW. There were both FCDCs and Male Community
Development Councils (MCDCs) established under the National Solidarity
Program in the villages. These four villages were situated in the suburban
areas of Mazar-e-Sharif, namely Dihidadi district in the west and Nahiri-Shahi
district in the east. The Project was not able to access far away districts forsecurity reasons. However, these two districts represented all ethnicities withdifferent backgrounds; therefore, the results of the CEPW in these areas would
be applicable to similar villages within the province as well as those in other
districts.
Activities of Village U
U village is situated in Dihidadi district, which is 20 km west from Mazare-Sharif, the center of the province. The population is approximately 1,800

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people (887 women and 923 men) in 311 households. The main ethnicity is
Uzbek followed by Arab and then others. Most of the villagers are either
farmers or workers at a fertilizer factory which was built by the Soviet Union
long time ago. Some women make handicrafts and embroidery, but most are
unemployed.
According to the proposal by U village’s FCDC, most of the women invillages in Balkh province are illiterate and unemployed. However, they havelivestock management skills. Therefore, an animal husbandry project was
conducted by FCDC in two phases for two years. The purpose of the activity
was to improve the livelihood of more than 110 families, and build theircapacities.
Since the women already had livestock management skills, the activities
were concerned with how they could increase their assets through utilizing
primary investment: in this case, sheep. For instance, the price of one sheep isapproximately 3000 Afghani (US$60). The beneficiary women raised thesesheep for 3 months, and sold them at the bazaar for the price of 5000 Afghani(US$100),with which they were able to buy two small sheep. Again, they could
raise these two sheep for another three months, and sell them at the bazaar.
Then, the women would have enough money to purchase three pregnant sheep,
which would bear three lambs later on. By doing so, the women were able not
only to improve their economic situation but also learn how to increase theirassets.
In the second phase of the sub-project, another 100 female sheep werebought to 100 new families of the village. In order to share the profits of the
sub-project with all the families, the FCDC employed a new approach.
Moreover, the work load was divided with the men in the village. As before, thesheep were raised by women beneficiaries for three months after distribution.
However, these sheep were recollected by the FCDC and allowed to graze inthe field with two male sheep which would get them pregnant. This was done
because women were basically raising sheep within their house compounds
due to their restricted mobility. It was difficult for women to take the sheep tothe field. Therefore, the village men took on this duty in order to raise thesheep in a better way. When all the sheep were pregnant, they were sent backto the original women beneficiaries until they bore lambs. When these lambs
grew up, they were distributed to new beneficiaries. This cycle would continue

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until all the families in the village had a primary investment (a sheep). As aresult of the two phases of the sub-projects, 210 poor women were given theopportunity to work and earn money.
Activities of Village S
S village is situated in Nahir-Shahi district, which is 20 km away from
Mazar-e-Sharif, the center of the province. The road is not paved, and there isno public transportation. Therefore, it is difficult for villagers to access the city
center. The village population is estimated at 931 (456 women and 475 men),consisting of 240 families, the majority of which are of the Hazara ethnicity.
Only 18 people are literate in the village. Most of the people are farmers, butjoblessness among the villagers is one of the most serious problems in thevillage. The FCDC was established in December 2004 under the National
Solidarity Program.
An animal husbandry project was also conducted in this village in twophases, but the approach was different from that of U village. According to the
proposal of the FCDC in S village, animal husbandry was considered women’s
job and it was a common income generating activity in the village. However,
women had lost animals after the protracted conflict and drought. Therefore,
the FCDC wanted to revitalize livestock activities in the village, and improve
women’s economic condition.
In the project, 100 sheep were distributed to 50 women beneficiaries, sothat each beneficiary had two sheep. The cost of each sheep was estimatedapproximately at 3,000 Afghani (US$60) as a primary investment. After the
women took care of their sheep for three months, the FCDC collected and soldthem at the bazaar from 4,500 to 5,000 Afghani (US$90 to US$100). With thetotal gained from selling the sheep, the FCDC bought pregnant sheep for 50
new beneficiaries. The remaining sheep and lambs were divided amongst thefirst beneficiaries. By doing so, the activity would be expanded and all thewomen in the village would benefit from the project.
In the second phase of the sub-project, 50 new sheep were bought to add tothe 65 female sheep from the first phase. The total of 115 sheep were raised by
the beneficiaries for three months, and then collected by the FCDC in order to
get them pregnant. The process was supported by rich sheep owners of thevillage who had male sheep. It took a month, after which the sheep wereCommunity-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan

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distributed back to the original beneficiaries. As a result, each beneficiary
would have two sheep, a lamb and a mother. After four months when the lambs
had been raised enough, they were distributed to new beneficiaries. In doing
so, the animal husbandry activities were revitalized in the village. The subproject also provided literacy courses for both men and women in order toimprove their basic skills.
Activities of Village K
K village is also situated in Dihidadi district, which is 20 km west ofMazar-e-Sharif. The population is approximately 1,697 people (872 women and825 men) in 303 households. The main ethnicities are Tajik and Arab. Only 73
out of 1697 women and men in the village are literate. Most of the villagers arefarmers growing, for example, wheat, vegetables and water melon. Animalhusbandry activities are also a common source of income. Therefore, the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) supported the village in improving
the quality and quantity of animal husbandry products. However, since the
FAO only provided training for livestock management, a dairy farming subproject was requested in the village.
The purpose of the sub-project was to provide opportunities for women to
engage in economic activities and improve their economic situation throughrevitalizing cow farming activities in the village. In the sub-project, 25 cows
were purchased for the primary investment. Each cow was distributed to
women’s groups of five, totaling 25 groups with 125 beneficiaries. Each memberof the group shared responsibility for taking care of the cow and the profits
came from selling milk at the bazaar. In each group, the member in charge ofcollecting milk for the day took the milk to the collecting point, where the
FCDC handled it every morning. The collected milk was sold at the bazaar
with support from men in the village and FAO for the FCDC. The money frommilk was also given back to the FCDC, and distributed to each group. Both
responsibility and profits were divided amongst each group. Ten percent of the
profits were kept in order to feed the cows. When a cow gave birth to a calf,
each member of a group would get one in turn, and all members would get one
within five years. The sub-project was very unique because the village people
shared cows among their members.

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Activities of Village P
P village is situated in Dehidadi district, which is 13 km away from Mazare-Sharif, the center of the province. The village population is estimated to be
2,450 (1,191 men and 1,259 women) consisting of 440 families. The majority ofvillagers are of Tajik and Arab ethnicity. About 220 people are literate in thevillage. The FCDC and the MCDC were established in 2005. Most of the people
are farmers, growing in particular wheat, watermelon and vegetables. Animalhusbandry is another source of income in the village and also supported by the
FAO’s livestock management training program. The purpose of the sub-project
was the same as the village K. However, a different approach was employed inthis village.
Here, a dairy farming cooperative and a village farm were established.
Twenty cows were purchased as assets for the village farm. The sub-project
covered 100 vulnerable women in the village, who were divided into ten groups.
Each group took turns according to the schedule to raise, feed, clean the cows,
and collect milk for the farm. The dairy farming cooperative, which consistedof members of the FCDC in collaboration with the MCDC was in charge ofmanaging the activities of the farm in terms of selling milk, and collecting anddistributing the profits among the beneficiaries. The milk was sold to the open
market and the FAO supported a milk center called Balkh Livestock
Development Association (BLDA) in Mazar-e-Sharif. The BLDA was equippedwith a machine for refining milk and had its own market; therefore, the profits
of the milk farm were ensured through an agreement with the BLDA. Moreover,the village contributed land for the village farm, and physical labor andmaterials, which were necessary for construction. It was a big challenge andthe first time to establish village cooperative with a village-owned milk farm.

IV. Impact of CEPW on Women, Men and Community
Women’s full participation in community development activities is one of
the main challenges for Afghan women because of historical and cultural
restrictions women are faced with. However, the Community Empowerment
Programme for Women (CEPW) can be considered as the program that goesbeyond the conventional approach of gender mainstreaming to expand“chances” and “choices” for women to participate in community development

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activities as active agents for their community’s development.
As explained in the previous section, the author referred to previous works
to conceptualize and construct the framework for this study as shown in Figure
2. In the case of the CEPW in Afghanistan, the author defined resources as
including income/employment, assets, information/knowledge, and mobility.
Agency was composed of the capacity of community-based organizations,especially Female Community Development Council (FCDC), social relationshipand decision making. Achievements stood for social relationships, sustainability,and gender equality, which the author considers to contribute to promoting
community cohesion.
By drawing on the findings from individual interviews, focus group
discussions of the impact survey, and the author’s experiences from theimplementation of the CEPW, the author explored the impacts of the CEPW on
women, men and community by analyzing women’s participation in community
development activities. The findings revealed the positive changes on women,
men and community through the implantation of the CEPW.
First, as for changes in “resources” which is based on Kabeer’s (1999)
notion of precondition for empowerment which allow women to exercise choices,
the author found changes in four categories such as income/employment,
assets, information/knowledge, and mobility through women’s participation incommunity development activities. For instance, all direct women beneficiaries
and 97 percent of indirect men beneficiaries answered that their income has
increased. Moreover, through the interviews, the author found that in four
villages “income” consisted of multiple faces such as cash income, products forown use, and products for exchange. This means that women not only increased
their “cash income” but also that they were able to save some household
expenditure by utilizing their products such as milk from cows and sheep, andanimal dung for fuel for their own use, or exchanging these products with othernecessary things such as eggs and vegetables.
Moreover, women were able to gain assets which were not common in the
Afghanistan culture. The study revealed that animals such as sheep and cows
distributed to women through the CEPW became their property. In otherwords, it can be said that men’s mindset also changed to allow women to obtain
their own assets. Women also increased the number of livestock by utilizing
distributed livestock as initial investment. It was found that information and110

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knowledge were other important preconditions for women’s empowerment.
Information and knowledge do not only include new skills for income generation
activities. For instance, the analysis showed that women gained other positive
results such as coping strategies to solve problems based on experiences and insharing their information with others outside their compound. As such, thestudy also indicated the expansion of women’s mobility:their activities go
beyond their compound such as within the village, Mazar-e-Sharif city, thebazaar and neighboring villages. Even though women still need permission
from their male family members to go out from the compound, they expanded
their chances and choices for their mobility through participating in the CEPW
activities. Moreover, more men started to allow women to go out after the
CEPW.
Second, regarding the changes in “agency”, which Kabeer (1999) mentioned
as ability to define one’s goal and act upon them, the author identified somechanges in the categories of social relationships, the capacity of communitybased organizations, and decision making. For instance, the study showed thatseveral kinds of social relationships, which were destroyed because of war andconflicts, were reestablished and enhanced by the CEPW. These relationships
were identified as among women, between women and FCDC, between womenand men, and village and governmental organizations. In order to evaluate
these social relationships, the author made use of Nussbaum’s (2000:78)
functional capability of senses, imagination, and thought, which she mentioned
as being able to use imagination and thoughts in connection with experiencing
and producing self-expressive work and events of one’s own choice. For instance,
women started to exchange their thoughts and started to trust each other.
Moreover, the author considered “play” to be one of the most important human
functional capabilities. This is because women were able to gather together todiscuss some of their problems, and they started to enjoy their gathering,which led them to have picnics and other social meetings where they could
enjoy talking and laughing together.
The capacity of community-based organization was also studied, especiallythe capacity of FCDCs in this case. In general, community-based organizations
play major roles in community-driven development activities such as the
CEPW and the NSP. FCDCs were established for the purpose of leading
development activities under the NSP which was led by the government ofCommunity-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan

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Afghanistan. However, the study revealed the fact that FCDCs were not
involved in the activities under the NSP. On the contrary, the CEPW was able
to make FCDCs play the key role for community development activities whichlead to positive changes in their capacity for conducting the activities for theircommunities. The author considered that these changes were related to what
Nussbaum (2000:79) called functional capability of “affiliation”, which she
defined as “being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show
concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction,
to be able to imagine the situation of another and to have compassion for thatsituation, to have the capability for both justice and friendship”. Along withthese changes, the study also has shown changes in decision making at theindividual as well as the community level. Women have awakened to thereality that they can also participate in the decision making process, while
men in the villages also started to admit women’s participation in the decision
making process both at an individual and community level.
Based on the findings of changes in resources and agency, the author
further explored and identified how women’s active participation in community
development has impacted on community cohesion, by finding the differencesin approach between the CEPW and the NSP. The author considered theanswer for this was achievements which resulted from changes in resources
and Kabeer’s (1999) notion of agency. It was found that the main difference
between the CEPW and the NSP was that the CEPW employed not only
community-driven development approach but also gender mainstreaming
approach. By doing so, the CEPW was able to cover and lead all the people,
both women and men, into community development activities. The author
considered that the achievements in this case was community cohesion, which
was what the World Bank defined as one of the effects of employing communitydriven development approach in the post-conflict setting. This is because
building community cohesion requires an interrelationship among people
which is generally considered to include both women and men. In theseviewpoints, the author identified three main factors; social relationship,sustainability, and gender equality as the components of community cohesion.
For instance, the CEPW was able to contribute in reestablishing social
relationships. The inclusion of both women and men for implementation of theactivities in the villages developed mutual understanding and cooperative

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structures between the sexes. Moreover, the study has shown that the inclusionof governmental agencies such as the Department of Women’s Affairs promoted
villagers trust in the government so as to develop a peaceful harmony as asafety net for the village people. Sustainability of activities also contributed tobuilding community cohesion. Through the process of implementing the CEPW,
the village people realized that they were the ones who worked for theircommunity development. The study also found people’s attitudes changed inthat they started to think about what they can do and want to do for theircommunities instead of waiting for someone to help them. Moreover, genderequality, which was considered one of the most important key components forbuilding social cohesion, was promoted in the villages. The CEPW which
employed gender mainstreaming approach enabled women to participate incommunity development activities which were missing in the case of the NSP.
In other words, the CEPW promoted gender equality at the household andcommunity level through encouraging women as active agents for community
development activities.
In conclusion, the findings of the study show that the CEPW has empowered
women, men and the community. The unique aspect of CEPW, namely, thecommunity-driven approach and gender mainstreaming approach promoted
women’s meaningful participation in community development activities. It
was not observed in the existing program of the NSP. Moreover, the study has
shown that women’s meaningful participation in community development led
to community cohesion by establishing social relationships, sustainability andgender equality in the targeted four villages. The author considered rebuilding
community cohesion is one of the important factors that can contribute to thereconstruction of war-torn communities. From this perspective, the CEPW canbe a highly effective approach in rebuilding social capital and creating harmony
among people in the areas.

V. Conclusion
This study aimed to explore how Community-Driven Development (CDD)
approach adopted in the reconstruction programs has impacted on women’s
empowerment through the case study of “Community Empowerment
Programme for Women (CEPW)” in Balkh province, Afghanistan

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The findings throughout the study have shown that the CEPW was one of
the effective approaches in promoting gender mainstreaming in community
development. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 mentioned
five important components of ownership, alignment, harmonization, results
and mutual accountability in development activities. It called for donors andpartner countries to follow the declaration in order to increase the effectivenessof aids “in reducing poverty and inequality, increasing growth, building
capacity and accelerating the achievement of the MDGs”.
The author considered that the community-driven development approach,the CEPW in particular, was the one in which the guiding principles in the
Declaration have been implemented at grass-root level. For instance, the
CEPW promoted ownership of community in activities. Regarding thealignment, the Declaration mentioned that “donors use strengthened country
system”. In the case of the CEPW, it focused on existing women’s group, the
FCDCs, to develop their capacities to involve in community development
activities. Harmonization was strengthened within communities and areas,
and with related governmental agencies.
Moreover, OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) further
developed the Declaration to include gender perspectives, and published “DAC
Guiding Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and Women’s
Empowerment” in 2008. It mentioned that the aim of the Paris Declaration
would not be achieved without progress of gender equality and women’s
empowerment. In other words, it promoted gender mainstreaming intodevelopment activities. However, it did not mention how to include gendermainstreaming perspective into the practice. In this point of view, the author
considers that the CEPW can be said to be one of the most successful projects
which put the Declaration and the guideline into practice. Moreover, the author
is able to provide important elements for which attention should be paid inorder to promote gender mainstreaming into practice. The elements are as
follows;
First, women should be recognized as active agents. For instance, there
were many activities implemented in Balkh province in order to empower
women. Under these projects, women only became the beneficiaries who were
the passive actors to obtain support from the outside. Moreover, the author
observed that community development activities under the NSP was carried

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out by men without women’s representation even though some portion of thebudget was promised to be used for women’s activities. The CEPW provided
those women, who were left out of community development activities, chances
for taking initiatives for their development. In other words, women became
main actors for participating in these activities. As a result, women in thetargeted areas were empowered and developed self-confidence throughparticipating in the process of implementation of the activities. At the sametime, it also affected men’s attitudes about women’s role in community
development. It can be said that the CEPW brought about a major change thatboth men and women started to work together for their community.
Second, gender sensitive approaches should be considered. In the processof implementation of CEPW, two gender sensitive approaches were identified.
For instance, when the CEPW was introduced in rural areas, the Projectcontacted and explained the purpose of the CEPW to key persons such as elders
and the Male Community Development Council (MCDC) before talking to
women. In other words, it needs to respect norms and culture of communities
in order to avoid unnecessary conflict not only with people in the villages but
also with donors. Once the Project obtained understanding and support fromthose key persons, the activities went smoothly to the end. Moreover, the places
where strict cultural restrictions on women exist, recruitment of women staff
and trainers are necessary. Generally, women are not able to communicate
with men unknown to them, and men do not allow women to communicate
with these men under the cultural norms. Therefore, establishing a comfortablesituation for both women and men by hiring women staff is important.
Third, women’s capacity development should be considered as a firstpriority. All the activities implemented under the CEPW were requested by
women based on the needs of women in the areas. Women in the targeted areas
discussed what they wanted to do by themselves, and developed the activity
plan by themselves. Although it takes some time for illiterate women to follow
the process, it definitely developed their capacities. Therefore, it is necessary
to focus more on capacity development of women from a long term perspective
rather than focusing on short term output. This would promote women’s notionof “sustainability” and “self-help”. The people started to think how they cancontinue the activities after the end of the project. Moreover, the people began
to consider not only their own profits but also the collective profit of all theCommunity-Driven Development and Women’s Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan

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communities.
In conclusion, the lesson learned from the CEPW, as a cutting-edge gendermainstreaming project on the household and community levels should be
noted. The CEPW has exemplified how donors can promote gendermainstreaming into practice, especially in the context of post-conflict settings.
The author has provided three main approaches which the CEPW paid
attention to, such as women as active agents, gender sensitive approach incertain contexts, and focus on women’s capacity development. Even though
this is a case study in a specific context, the case of Balkh province inAfghanistan, the author considers it is likely applicable for other post-conflictcountries in the world.

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Abstract

Community-Driven Development and Women’s
Empowerment in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan:A case study on Community Empowerment Programme
for Women (CEPW) in Balkh Province, Afghanistan
Makiko Koyabu

This study explores the relationship between the so-called “communitydriven development (CDD”) approach and women’s empowerment through thecase study of JICA’s (Japan International Cooperation Agency) “Community
Empowerment Programme for Women (CEPW)” in Afghanistan. This program
was designed to enhance women’s economic empowerment with the cooperationof Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA), in 2005-2008.
After the mid-1980s, the concept of women’s empowerment emerged fromgrass-root women in developing countries in order to take initiatives for theirown development. Women at the grass-root level began to gather together totry and gain independence and improve their socio-cultural, economic andpolitical status by themselves. However, when it comes to the post-conflictsetting, it is argued that women’s empowerment is considered one of theenormous challenges in the reconstruction and development process.
The CDD approach was developed by the World Bank in the late 1990s, at
the grass-root level in post-conflict settings today, and has been applied in
Afghanistan. One of the national priority programs for rural development, theNational Solidarity Program (NSP), which employed a Community-Driven
Development (CDD) approach introduced by the World Bank, has been
implemented all over Afghanistan in order to promote stability in rural areas.
Some studies about the NSP as well as CDD approach in post-conflict countries
have been conducted and revealed the effectiveness of the community
development approach in post-conflict countries. However, even though somespecial arrangements have been made to promote women’s participation in theactivities, women have been unable to obtain meaningful participation.
The CEPW developed by JICA was a modified approach of the CDD, andhas paid more attention to the participation of women in the community level

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development projects. In other words, the CEPW approach was unique because
it employed not only CDD but also a gender-mainstreaming approach.
This study evaluates how the CEPW has impacted women’s empowerment
in the post-conflict Afghanistan. The author was involved in the CEPW projectin Afghanistan as a community development and gender expert as a part of
JICA’s team from 2004 to 2008. Thus, the evaluation of the CEPW is to bemade based on the author’s participatory observation along with the datacollected in Mazar-i-Sharif, and four villages in Balkh province where CEPW
was done. The author develops her own empowerment framework by adoptingsome concepts of previous scholar, Kabeer (1999), with particular focus on
women’s access to resources, their role as agents and their achievements.
The findings throughout the study show that the CEPW was one of theeffective approaches to promote gender mainstreaming in community
development that can be considered as the implementation of “DAC Guiding
Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment”
in 2008.