By Rebecca Haines
Executive Summary
The research conducted for this paper is the final instalment in a set of research products focused on the social inclusion of women and girls in subnational governance processes in fragile contexts. The other research products include case studies from Rwanda and Burundi, which feed into a thematic paper on women in local governance structures in fragile and conflict-affected settings. The thematic paper assesses relevant global literature and presents six promising pathways for women’s influence in subnational governance, based on the existing evidence base. It then extracts a set of key findings from the two case studies, particularly outlining obstructing and enabling factors for women’s participation and influence in local governance processes.
The research presented in this paper was based on the same conceptual framework as the foregoing work and explores the same central lines of enquiry. However, it focuses on a context that differs considerably from the two previous case studies in several ways. Most notably, Afghanistan is in the midst of long-term active conflict, and at the time of data collection and writing, was continuing to experience a sustained upward trend of intensifying violence. Secondly, as compared with the other two countries of focus in the series, Afghanistan’s government has a far less formalized subnational governance structure. These points, along with a different set of cultural characteristics, drove adaptations to the research focus.
This exploratory research examines the social inclusion of women in subnational governance in Afghanistan, with a focus on informal and semi-formal governance bodies and processes. It seeks to identify which groups, positions, mechanisms, and sectors are currently providing opportunities for women’s participation and influence in public decision-making. It also explores how women’s participation and influence may be changing, and the key obstructing and enabling factors that impact that process. It then provides an assessment of the findings against the six promising pathways identified in the central thematic paper, and points to any additional pathways that have potential for enabling women’s increased voice in local public affairs in Afghanistan. Finally, it concludes by offering a set of recommendations for donors, practitioners, civil society and government.
This research is a product of the multi-country Every Voice Counts (EVC) programme, an inclusive governance programme managed by CARE Nederland and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The social inclusion of women is a central focus of the programme, including within community-based and subnational public decision-making spaces. In Afghanistan, along with CARE Afghanistan, the programme has been implemented by the Afghan Women’s Resource Centre (AWRC), the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF), and the Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC). The research aims to contribute to future programming and initiatives focused on supporting women to have a stronger public voice and gain influence in public affairs in fragile contexts, including within Afghanistan itself.
Conceptual Framework and Methodology
The core lines of enquiry for this research series were derived from CARE’s Gender Equality Framework, which conceptualizes the factors that contribute to gender equality within three domains: agency, relations, and structures. Questions were included within the research tools that explore women’s participation in local governance within each domain. Likewise, the research assesses the identified obstructing and enabling factors against the three domains of the Gender Equality Framework.
Furthermore, the research series applied a three-part participation spectrum within its conceptual framework and analysis. Based on the work of Anne-Marie Goetz, this paper distinguishes between ‘access’, ‘presence’, and ‘influence’. ‘Access’ focuses on opening arenas of influence to socially-excluded groups, ensuring that they are technically allowed and enabled to participate. ‘Presence’ entails the physical or numerical occupation of a decision-making space or process. It may also entail institutionalizing presence provisions, as in the case of legally enshrined quotas. ‘Influence’ requires that those present also have power, including substantive opportunities for voice. Based on this spectrum, the research assesses the degree to which the identified barriers tend to obstruct women’s participation at the level of access, presence, or influence.
The research is based on a set of focus group discussions and key informant interviews with women and men at community level, and a further set of key informant interviews with government staff and members of civil society organizations at district, provincial, and national levels.
