The Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS)
What is the ANDS?
The Afghanistan National Development Strategy is "An Interim Strategy For Security, Governance, Economic Growth & Poverty Reduction".
The I-ANDS is the product of twelve-months of intensive consultations within Government and
with a wide array of stakeholders, including community and provincial representatives, the
ulama (learned religious leaders), the private sector, civil society, non-government organizations (NGOs),
the United Nations, donors and other members of the international community, senior Afghan
policy makers, and government ministries and departments. Read the full summary report from the ANDS website [PDF]
or go to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's ANDS website
Mainstreaming Gender in the ANDS
UNIFEM has recently completed its assistance to MOWA in developing the ANDS Gender Equity Cross Cutting Strategy (AGE-CCS). Assistance was also provided to MOWA in incorporating gender into the strategies of other ministries as well as the 23 sectors of the ANDS.
The other forms of support that UNIFEM currently provides to MOWA and the ANDS process include:
- Mainstreaming gender into the monitoring of compact benchmarks;
- Monitoring and providing technical support to working groups in the implementation of the 13 gender specific benchmarks of the Afghanistan Compact and the ANDS;
- Providing technical support to the MOWA ANDS Secretariat (see below), the ANDS Cross Cutting Consultative Group on Gender, and the CG2 Working Group on Gender Equity.
The MOWA ANDS Secretariat (MAS)
The MOWA ANDS Secretariat is composed of senior officials from MOWA and 7 international agencies serving as advisers.
Its main function is to serve as the technical arm of MOWA in fulfilling its responsibilities to mainstream gender within the Consultative Group processes of the ANDS.
The MOWA ANDS Secretariat meets twice a month and reports directly to the MOWA Technical Deputy Minister who is the ANDS expert within MOWA. The MOWA International Relations and Coordination Department serves as its secretariat.
UNIFEM