Promoting Women's Leadership and Participation
in the Civil Service
The government of Afghanistan has committed to increasing the number of women in the civil service to 30%, under the Afghanistan Millenium Development Goals (AMDG), the Afghanistan Compact and the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).
Promotion of women's status in the civil service will surely redound to better service for the public we serve. As ministries and agencies, we have a moral responsibility to our constituents to keep on improving our service and help improve the lives of the people we serve. As we improve the lives of the people we serve, we should also improve the lives of those who serve these people. Supporting women in the civil service towards leadership will definitely have a positive effect on their respective families.
– Dr. Ahmad Mushahed, Chairman, Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission, Afghanistan, at the Project Launching Ceremonies, November 15, 2007
Identifying the Issues
While developing the National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan (NAPWA), many problems affecting women in civil service were identified. These issues were presented to the Independent Afghan Reform and Civil Service Commission (IAR-CSC) during the First Congress of Women in Government organized by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) in October 2005.
In June 2007, MOWA and UNIFEM committed to assist the IAR-CSC in conducting an in-depth analysis of the issues and pilot a set of policy and program interventions to address the obstacles to women’s participation and leadership.
These three organizations are currently conducting a four-phased project funded by the governments of Italy and Norway in collaboration with other ministries to institutionalize a comprehensive program for the promotion of women’s status as civil servants.
Equal participation of women in the civil service does not only promote good governance. It makes governance even better!
- Dr. Hussn Banno Ghazanfar, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Afghanistan
at the High Level Dialogue on Promoting Women’s Status in the Civil Service,
31 January 2008
The Project
This project was officially launched in September 2007. Research was conducted in November 2007 to analyze the situation of women in the civil service and the policies and programmes that affect women’s role as civil servants. The findings of the project have been presented to research participants, international gender advisors, senior ministry officials and the Afghan Parliament.
In order to reach 30% of civil service participation for women, six focal points of action have been prioritized and adopted for pilot implementation for a period of one year.
Focus Areas
The six focal points in the current project are:
- Developing a five-year affirmative action plan for women in civil service.
Along with the development of the plan by ministry officials, senior officials will be briefed on the plan, independent women’s representatives will be selected for the appointments board, a directory of women leaders will be developed, and a recognition award will be presented to ministries that reach the 30% target; - Implementing IAR-CSC’s Gender Equity Policy, including disaggregating gender data, disseminating the policy, and monitoring its implementation;
- Gender mainstreaming in senior manager performance evaluations, preparing trainers, conducting staff meetings at the IAR-CSC, conducting job and promotion interviews, and compiling a database of IAR-CCS;
- Developing gender equality mechanisms such as a men’s gender equality network, an internship programme for female college students, an annual women’s congress, and a collection of profiles of successful women leaders.
UNIFEM