Law and Order Trust Fund receives European donations
The Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA) has received a donation of 30 million euros from the European Commission, with a further 5 million euros from the German Government and 5 million euros from the Government of the Netherlands. The contribution is expected to support a better trained and appropriately funded National Police that should contribute to enforcing the rule of law and order across Afghanistan .

The Trust Fund will use the contribution not only to reimburse salaries of the Afghan National Police, but also to support the Ministry of Interior to procure and maintain non-lethal equipment; rehabilitate and reconstruct police facilities, such as check posts; and to the enhance the process of recruitment and institutional development.

World Bank: $120 Million boost for impoverished Afghan rural communities
Impoverished rural communities in Afghanistan will benefit from a $120 million World Bank grant to improve and expand the National Solidarity Program (NSP), a community-driven development program designed to combat rural poverty through support to rural infrastructure and community-level governance.

The Second Emergency National Solidarity Project, approved on 7 December by the World Bank, will support expansion of NSP to new districts, and strengthen community-level governance. The program facilitates a process through which rural communities organize themselves and identify their development needs and priorities.

The NSP is being implemented by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and since starting in 2003, it has reached over 65 per cent of Afghanistan 's rural population, or about 14 million people in 16,254 communities across Afghanistan . The grant will allow NSP to reach out to some additional 4,300 communities across Afghanistan .

So far NSP has made significant progress. Some of its notable achievements are:

• 28 per cent of the population now has access to drinking water and improved sanitation
• 11 per cent of children are learning in reconstructed school buildings
• 18 per cent of the population has access to improved irrigation systems
• 25 per cent has access to markets through improved secondary or tertiary road networks

WFP distributes food to thousands of vulnerable Afghans
The World Food Programme (WFP) has just completed distributing over 312 tons of mixed foods in Laghman and Nangarhar provinces under the food-for-work and tuberculosis patients programme.

The tuberculosis programme aims to provide nutritious food to TB patients in Afghanistan during their treatment programme and encourages them to attend specialist clinics to ensure they complete the eight-month treatment cycle, and prevent the spread of TB. This programme covers the entire country and runs until the end of 2008 with a budget of around $50 million for food support.

From January to November of this year over 20, 000 TB patients have been assisted with the provision of over 7,700 tons of mixed foods, including wheat, pulses, cooking oil and iodized salt.

Overall, across all programme activities this year, the WFP has distributed 98,000 tons of mixed foods to about 3.5 million vulnerable people across Afghanistan .

UNICEF/ WHO vaccination campaigns in western Afghanistan
Every day around 600 children die from largely preventable diseases and illness in Afghanistan . The health of Afghanistan 's children must come first and you will have seen a huge effort taking place this year to vaccinate Afghanistan 's children against diseases such as measles, polio and tetanus.

We are glad to say that this drive continues with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) supporting the Ministry of Public Health to carry out an immunization campaign against measles, neo-natal tetanus and polio from 16 to 21 December in the two western provinces of Herat and Farah.

Twelve districts in Kandahar , Zabul, Uruzgan and Helmand will also be covered on the same dates.

The measles mortality reduction campaign will target children from 9-59 months old; the maternal, neo-natal tetanus vaccine will be administered to women of child bearing age (15-45 years old); and the polio vaccinations will be provided to all children under five years old.

Once again we encourage all families and communities to cooperate with this vital vaccination campaign to safeguard the well-being of Afghanistan 's children and prevent unnecessary deaths.

In conjunction with this campaign, Dr. Fatimie, the Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan, has arranged together with his Pakistani counterpart, Nasir Khan, to launch National Immunization Days for polio eradication in Pakistan .

Dr. Fatimie will cross the border at Torkham on 12 December to provide polio vaccine to a child in Pakistan . Then he will be joined by Nasir Khan in re-crossing the border to provide polio vaccine to a child in Afghanistan where immunization drives will be held in the Afghan districts bordering Pakistan .

The exchange of visits is to indicate the importance the two Ministers place on the next campaign rounds and their determination to succeed.

WHO-funded “eye camps”
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Noor Eye Hospital are assisting the Ministry of Public Health in the prevention and treatment of blindness through conducting “eye camps” in different cities.

At the Bamyan “eye camp” supported by WHO last month, a team of doctors and nurses from Noor Eye Hospital saw 500 eye patients in 15 days. One hundred patients with cataracts were provided free surgery, and within 20 minutes their sight was restored.

In addition to Bamyan Province , “eye camps” were held in two districts of Badakhshan province in September. Surgery was provided for 300 blind cataract patients free of charge.

WHO also supported a training course on primary eye care for the supervisors of NGO-supported health facilities last week in Jalalabad. After the training, the trainees will train the doctors and nurses of their respective health facilities on eye care in Nangarhar province.

New UNAMA office opens in Badghis province
On Saturday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) opened a new regional office in Badghis province - in the west of the country.

The opening of this office is in direct support of the local population and in support of those organisations and agencies that are endeavoring to deliver increased development in the region.

The new office will closely cooperate with the local government and governors and with all the administration to strengthen good governance and the rule of law, as well as monitor human rights issues.

New offices have already been opened in Zabul and Kunar provinces this year and we will continue to open more offices across the whole country until spring of next year. We firmly believe that our presence can help contribute to the stabilisation of Afghanistan .

The new office builds on our current network of eight regional offices and two sub-regional offices and will help us to listen closely to the needs of the people, the community, the elders and the local authorities to get a better understanding about what can be done to help to bring prosperity to Afghanistan .

New UNFPA counseling centre for post trauma victims
The people of Afghanistan have suffered immensely over the last few decades, from both violent conflict as well as natural disasters. Many Afghan women have had the additional burden of suffering from domestic violence. This has all resulted in a real need to deal with people suffering from post-traumatic stress for which there have been little resources.

We are therefore glad to announce that much needed help and support is now being provided by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), in partnership with the Ministry of Women Affairs and CARITAS, who will be providing psycho-social support to Afghans through a new psycho-social counseling centre that opened in Kart-e-Se yesterday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, UNFPA Head Alain Sibenaler said, “Without psychological wellbeing, no person can enjoy their health. The people of Afghanistan have been through a very difficult time in the recent past and have had to adsorb many physical and psychological traumas. These people need our support.”

This is the beginning of a comprehensive approach to help people deal with psychological trauma stemming from different forms of disasters and violence and is especially targeted at returnees, internally displaced people, and victims of a natural catastrophe and domestic violence.

Afghanistan 's first environmental photo exhibition
In order to raise and reinforce environmental awareness in Afghanistan and to support the development of environmental journalism and media, NAI Supporting Afghan Open Media, the Center for International Journalism (CIJ) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are implementing an environmental journalism training project, which was launched at the end of October 2006 and will be ongoing until the end of December 2006.

As part of this project, from December 16, the project partners will present the results of their work in the first-ever environmental photo exhibition in Afghanistan. “Kabul's environment in pictures” will present 11 photo stories under the authority of renowned photographer and trainer Beth Wald, winner of the Rowell Award 2006, together with a handbook on environmental journalism by Jeff Hodson, of Internews Earth Journalism Network.

The French Cultural Centre will host the exhibition for two weeks after the official opening, which will be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday 16 December.

Guest Speaker

I would like to welcome Sikander Khan, a senior official from UNICEF in Afghanistan , who is here to talk about a new UNICEF report launched today – State of the World's Children 2007 . [The report can be found at www.unicef.org ]

The report argues that one of the major constraints in realizing the rights of children is discrimination against women that leads to discrimination against children. To help put this into the context of Afghanistan I'd like to hand over to Sikander.

Sikander Khan: Thank you very much. The report that has been launched today is the State of the World's Children Report 2007 , which basically looks into the challenges that are being faced by the children of this world. Four messages are key to this particular report. None of these four messages are new to anyone, but I think they require focused attention to make a difference in the lives of the world's children.

Gender equality and the well-being of children go hand in hand. If we invest equally, if not more, and if we go for gender parity, undoubtedly, child survival and development can be achieved. Gender equality also gives us a double dividend – it benefits both women and children. Healthy, educated and empowered women have healthy, educated and confident daughters and sons.

Women's equal rights and influence in key decisions that shape their lives and those of their children must be enhanced in three distinct areas – the household, the workplace and the political sphere. Gender equality is not only a moral imperative, it is pivotal to human progress and sustainable development. The challenges before the world are the Millennium Development Goals, which every nation is trying to achieve. If women are excluded from that effort, it is unlikely that those Goals will be met.

This report provides a clear road map on how to achieve gender equality. The most important factor is education. Abolishing school fees and encouraging parents and communities to invest in girls education is required, so that we do not exclude girls from contributing to development. This requires action in terms of governmental budgets, in terms of investments by donors and investments by the communities in which the children belong. It's an investment issue on the one hand.

On the other hand, it's a legislative issue, which implies that all property laws, inheritance laws, all rights become equal so that there is a fair playing field for women in a country. Measures to respond to and prevent domestic violence and gender-based violence also need to be put in place. Legislative quotas for women's representation in parliament should be enforced and strengthened. Engaging men and boys to make them realize and understand the importance of equal partnership is crucial to all of this. We also need to improve in the area of research and data collection on issues such as maternal mortality, violence against women, education and employment.

With regard to the situation in Afghanistan , the first challenge is the well-being of the family. If you invest in a man, you invest in a man. If you invest in a woman, you invest in a family, including children. This realization needs to be accepted. With regard to education, 1.5 million girls at this point are learning in this country. That is a big achievement. However, there are about 1 million between the ages of 7 and 12, who are not in school yet. And 1.4 million, out of the 1.5 million that are in school, are in urban centres.

Let's ensure that mothers and children do not die from preventable diseases. Let's try to meet that challenge. Let us invest in these children. Let's not make children play the role of parents before they're actually ready for it. And I'm referring to child marriages. Let's work towards the reduction of gender and geographic disparities. Lastly, through you, I would request that we get the message out there – that the challenge before us is to invest in families, their well-being, and especially in women. And while doing that, let's not forget the youth of the country, who are the future.

Questions and Answers:

Question - BBC: ( translated from Pashto ) What are the main challenges for children in Afghanistan ? And secondly, what are the practical measures the UN and other agencies will take in this regard?

UNICEF: ( translated from Pashto ) Keeping in mind the last three decades of war in Afghanistan and I believe some of you were children at that time, I would prefer not to be a child in this country. But before these wars, I would prefer to be a child in Afghanistan . There are three main challenges for children in Afghanistan – security; poverty; and uncertainty about the future.

Regarding the part of your question as to what the UN and other agencies can do for children. They can work in three fields - protection; education; and the right to survive. Afghanistan has the third highest rate in the world for under-five child mortality. UNICEF is working to register mothers and their children. UNICEF cannot act independently; help from the Government side and other agencies is also required. The same applies for education and also protection.

Question – Tolo TV: ( translated from Dari ) How would you evaluate the situation of children in Afghanistan ? Also, what are your plans for the children who are living on the streets?

UNICEF: These are the key challenges that we are facing. Child labour and the phenomenon of street children are major issues due to poverty. There are some measures that can be taken and are being taken right now. First, there are efforts to expand “drop-in” centres for children living on the streets so that at least for a few hours, they can have access to “normality”. This will give them the opportunity to learn, to wash and have some normalcy. But the community support for those children must be revived. Communities have to take the lead in bringing these children back into their communities.

Child labour is another side of the story, and is an issue of under-employment. Some work is going to start in the New Year to address issues in that regard. But again, it is a challenge to the nation. But we will be there to support and assist to the extent possible.

Senior PIO: If I may also just add, many UN agencies run food distribution programmes at schools to encourage families to send their children to school. There has been significant progress with such programmes in Afghanistan .

Question – Internews: ( translated from Dari ) How many children in Afghanistan are facing problems?

UNICEF: I wish I knew. It is very difficult to put a percentage on it. But I can safely say that there is no part of the country where a child does not face difficulties. The difficulties vary. Violence, and the fear of violence, affects all children in this country.

Question – Ariana TV: ( translation from Dari ) According to a 2002 report by the Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs, 50,000 children were involved in difficult activities or work. Among them, 6,000 were living in Kabul . Do you have any new information in this regard?

UNICEF: No new report has been issued yet, but it will come out soon. There is an effort going on right now to try to capture the data on the situation, not only in Kabul , but also in other parts of the country, so that a response can be instituted along with the Ministry of Labour.

Senior PIO: I think what we're really struggling with here is to quantify the issue. The sad reality is that after nearly three decades of war in Afghanistan , there is a real dearth of statistics. That's one of the challenges we're facing right now. There are very few, if any, Afghan children that have not been affected in some way by the conflict over the past decades.

Question: ( translated from Dari ) I would like to know about inheritance laws. Equality between the rights of men and women in that regard is against Islam.

UNICEF: No constitution, law or religion advocates inequality. When it comes to inheritance laws, there are formulas used to arrive at inequality in a particular fashion. The equality in any system needs to be quantified in order to move forward. This particular issue is a global challenge and is not just related to Afghanistan . It's not just about a piece of land being divided up in a particular way. There are many other issues that need to be looked at to ensure an equal share.

Question: ( translated from Dari ) (inaudible) … it may take a long time, maybe a century, … girl child issue and the traditions of Afghanistan…

UNICEF: I wouldn't say a century because that is too long to wait. Let us improve on what we understand to be the well-being of children. Once we know what the well-being of a child entails, I think all parents will actually move towards that. Maybe 100 years ago, the well-being of a girl was thought to be different from the well-being of a boy. But today, the world has moved on and parents are wiser and now know what it means to ensure the well-being of a child.