Our partner in Afghanistan, anonymised here for safety, has been working to support women and other marginalised groups across the country since 2010.
BackgroundOur partner is a non-profit organisation dedicated to enhancing women’s rights, promoting social cohesion, and supporting women and youth at the community and policy levels.
ReachFirst established in Kabul in 2010, the organisation has now worked across almost all provinces in Afghanistan.
ImpactOur partner has funded grassroots civil society organisations across Afghanistan, directly supported hundreds of women, helped reduce poverty and advocate for human rights.
Established in 2010, our partner works to support women, young people and civil society across Afghanistan – responding to the humanitarian crisis, rights restrictions and disempowerment of vulnerable people. The organisation hopes to help build an Afghanistan without discrimination or poverty, where everyone can prosper and enjoy equal rights.
Over the past 50 years, Afghanistan has faced complex challenges from conflict and natural disasters to food insecurity and political instability. But since the Taliban took over the country in 2021, conditions have worsened.
The rights of women are being steadily eroded, poverty is increasing, and international funding has mostly disappeared. Despite rising risks, civil society organisations continue to work in the hope that they can build a more equal, prosperous and peaceful future for their country.
Our partner supports young people, women and civil society to be actively engaged in addressing their own and their communities needs, and to influence government policies. Its training programmes provide Afghan people with tools to become agents of sustainable change – covering topics including peace, human rights, accountability, and advocacy and leadership. For example, in each province the organisation works in, our partner helps create a social cohesion and conflict resolution committee, made up of community leaders who receive training to resolve community conflicts and other challenges.
The organisation tackles gender-based violence, working with families and local authorities to address harmful norms, and it provides desperately needed humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups, including women, to rebuild their livelihoods and reduce poverty. As well as advocating for women’s rights at the local level, our partner also works to influence the international response to the challenges facing Afghanistan.
Peace Direct has partnered with this organisation since 2021, shortly after the Taliban took over the country. Together, we work on our Afghan Solidarity Fund joint initiative, a version of the Local Action Fund co-designed with this partner to support grassroots civil society in Afghanistan.
Our partner uses the Fund to support some its own work, but also to provide flexible, small-scale grants to local organisations it identifies across Afghanistan – enabling more of civil society to address conflict in their communities and protect the rights of people most at risk. In its first year, the Fund provided 25 grants to support women’s rights, peacebuilding and social cohesion in 5 regions across Afghanistan.
