Integrity Score 380
No Records Found
No Records Found
Progress and Pitfalls of “Peace-Building”
in Afghanistan
continues...
It is clear from the survey results, focus-group discussions, and indepth interviews, that poverty and unemployment are the biggest factors
in causing local insecurity. Unemployment in Afghanistan is extremely
high, at 40–60 per cent, and in some places higher. Given that those who
are unemployed receive no social benefits, and many have large families to
support, its impact is severe and can drive people to desperate measures.
An elder of the Herat explained, ‘when people have no means of
surviving, they commit robbery’. Other groups expressed similar views,
often linking unemployment to criminality, disputes, and violence,
particularly over resources.
As one man from Behsoud district of Jalalabad said, ‘most of the conflicts in our area are on water and land and this is
among people who are jobless’. Oxfam’s programme experience in
southern Afghanistan also suggests that difficult social and economic
circumstances can be a significant factor in the decision of ordinary Afghans to grow poppy or join anti-government groups.
Another major cause of disputes relates to land, and this is corroborated by Oxfam and other surveys. A major survey in 2006 by the Independent Afghan Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) found that close to half of all local ‘problems’ related to property.
Likewise, according to an Asia Foundation survey, a majority of local disputes relate
to land or property. This is due to a range of factors: multiple systems of land ownership, incoherent attempts at land reform, the seizure of private and public land by successive power-holders, the destruction of legal records, population expansion, forced migrations, and waves of displacement and returnees. The situation has been exacerbated by the
impact of war and drought in causing a steady contraction in the supply of cultivable land, sometimes by as much as 80–90 per cent for a given
district.
To be continued.....