198
Figure 11.12: Places women went to the month before the survey, by place of residence
11.7 Women and development
Al over the world, women play a central role in economic and social development. The World Survey On The Role Of Women In Development 2014, by UNWOMEN states clearly that
‘
w
omen’s knowledge,
agency and collective action are central to finding, demonstrating and building more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable pathways to manage local landscapes; adapt to climate
change; produce and access food; and secure sustainable water, sanitation and energy services
’ UNWOMEN 2014, p. 16.
To assess the position of Afghan women in development, it is necessary to look at the way women and men perceive the current situation in the country. In the ALCS 2013-14 specific questions were posed
to men and women separately about the situation of the household and the district where they lived. The questions were asked to the head of the household
– who was almost invariably a man – and to the most senior female household member, who would either be the wife of the head of household or the most
active and important female member. Three questions were asked: 1 ‘How would you compare the
overall economic situation of the household with 1 year ago? ’ 2 ‘To what extent are you satisfied with
the police in this district doing their job of serving and protecting the people? ‘ and 3 ‘How do you rate
the security situation in this district? ’.
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
90 Family
Friends,neighbours School
Shop for food Buy clothes
Children to school Work
Festivity, Eid Mullah for Tawriz
Collect firewood Fetch water
Visit clinic Collect trash
Begging
Percentage National
Urban Rural
Kuchi
199
Table 11.7
shows the percentage distribution of women and men ’s assessment of the economic situation
of the household at the moment of the survey, compared with a year earlier. In general, both men and women give a rather gloomy view of where their household economic situation is moving. Only 16.9
percent of women notice an improvement in their economic situation much better or slightly better, while 44.0 percent think the situation is worse slightly worse or much worse. Men even see the
situation more pessimistic than women with percentages of respectively 15.0 percent positive and 50.4 percent negative. The sum of the cells in Table 11.7 below the diagonal cells indicates the percentage
of women with a better assessment of the current situation than men and the sum above the diagonal cells when women have a worse assessment. In total 28.7 percent of women have a more optimistic
view than men on the households economic progress and 19.9 percent a more pessimistic view.
Table 11.7: Perceptions of the senior female household member and the male head of the household on the present economic situation of the household compared with one year ago in percentages
Mens Womens perception
perception Total
Much Slightly
Same Slightly
Much better
better worse
worse Total
100.0 3.1
13.8 39.1
30.2 13.8
Much better 2.7
1.2 0.7
0.5 0.2
0.1 Slightly better
12.3 0.6
4.8 4.7
1.9 0.4
Same 33.5
0.6 4.0
20.8 6.5
1.5 Slightly worse
32.5 0.5
3.1 9.2
16.2 3.5
Much worse 18.9
0.1 1.2
3.9 5.5
8.3
In terms of women ’s opinion on the job the police is doing to protect and serve the people, women are
quite positive
Table 11.8
; 74.9 percent are very satisfied or mildly satisfied with the police. Men are equally satisfied 75.2 percent. About 10 percent of women and 12.6 percent of men are moderately or
very dissatisfied. In 20.2 percent of cases is women ’s opinion of the police better than men’s, exactly
the same percentage have a worse opinion about the performance of the police.
Table 11.8: Perceptions of the senior female household member and the male head of the household on the way the police in the district is doing its job of serving and protecting the people in
percentages
Mens Womens perception
perception Total
Very Moderately
Not satis- Moderately
Very satisfied
satisfied fied, not
dissatisfied dissatisfied
dissatisfied Total
100.0 40.5
34.4 15.1
4.6 5.4
Very satisfied 41.1
29.6 8.8
2.1 0.4
0.2 Moderately satisfied
34.1 7.9
19.7 4.6
1.0 0.8
Not satisfied, not dissatisfied 12.3
1.5 3.5
5.6 1.0
0.6 Moderately dissatisfied
6.6 0.8
1.7 1.9
1.5 0.7
Very dissatisfied 6.0
0.6 0.7
0.8 0.7
3.2
Despite the many instances of violent attacks in the country, many women consider their district secure; 72.1 percent of women think their district is very secure or moderately secure
Table 11.9
. Men share their opinion with 72.8 percent of men indicating that the situation is secure. Less than 10 percent of
women 7.8 percent and men 8.2 percent consider their district very insecure. About an equal proportion of women judge the security situation better or worse than men 17.4 percent against 19.3
percent.
200
Table 11.9: Perceptions of the senior female household member and the male head of the household on the security situation in the district in percentages
Mens Womens perception
perception Total
Very Moderately
Not secure,
Moderately Very
secure secure
not insecure
insecure insecure
Total 100.0
35.7 36.4
12.5 7.5
7.8 Very secure
38.0 27.7
8.3 1.2
0.4 0.4
Moderately secure 34.8
6.1 22.7
3.6 1.7
0.8 Not secure, not insecure
10.4 0.8
2.8 4.8
1.3 0.7
Moderately insecure 8.6
0.7 1.9
1.9 3.1
1.0 Very insecure
8.2 0.4
0.7 1.1
1.0 5.0
The above tables show that no real large differences between women and men exist on the perceptions of the economic and security situation in the household and the district.
Another way to look at how women contribute to the development process is by examining the fields in which they consider most development assistance by the government is necessary to improve the
situation in their community. In two different modules in the ALCS 2013-14, questions were asked what the head and the most senior female in the household considered the first, second and third most
important type of government assistance to this community their household would most benefit from.
Table 11.10
summarises the priorities of government assistance women and men indicate that would most benefit their communities. Next to the first, a second and third priority an extra column was added,
which shows the sum of the first three priorities and indicates how many times each priority was mentioned. The priorities were ordered according to the number of times the priorities first, second and
third were mentioned in total by women. Table 11.10 shows that generally the development priorities of men and women are quite similar. Both
men and women agree that the most important way in which the government can assist their community is by the construction or repair of local roads. Previous chapters showed that many families face
difficulties to reach educational, health and other facilities. Road construction and repair scored highest for both sexes, as first priority, but was also most mentioned in the three priorities combined: 43 percent
of women and men mentioned this priority either as first, second or third priority. Even more than men, women would like the government to construct or improve local health facilities. This priority was
mentioned by 40.9 percent of women and 36.8 percent of men. As many dwellings in Afghanistan still have to cope without electricity, it should not come as a surprise that a large group indicate the provision
of electricity as an important priority. This priority even scores higher than increased security 27.3 percent for men and 25.1 percent for women.
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Table 11.10: Priorities on type of government assistance to the community the household would most benefit from, by order of priority, and by sex in percentages
Development priority
Priority
First Second
Third Any
M W
M W
M W
M W
Total 100
100 100
100 100
100 100
100 Construction or repair of local roads
17.9 18.6
15.4 15.1
10.4 9.4
43.7 43.1
Newimproved local health facilities 9.2
11.5 15.7
17.9 11.8
11.5 36.8
40.9 Electricity provision
10.7 11.8
10.3 10.5
12.9 14.4
33.9 36.7
Increased security 13.8
9.8 5.9
5.5 7.6
9.8 27.3
25.1 Improved drinking water quantity
15.9 15.7
5.2 4.1
4.7 3.7
25.8 23.5
Improved drinking water quality 4.6
8.0 4.3
3.8 2.8
2.7 11.6
14.5 Newimpr. local education facilities for girlsboys
2.9 2.5
6.7 5.5
7.7 6.1
17.4 14.1
Increased employm. opportunities for womenmen
3.9 2.5
6.9 5.4
8.3 5.4
19.0 13.2
Increased employment opportunities for men 2.5
2.5 4.0
4.7 4.4
4.8 10.9
12.1 Bridge constructionrehabilitation
2.2 1.8
4.8 3.5
3.7 2.4
10.8 7.7
Rehabilitation of irrigation system 5.6
3.4 3.7
2.3 3.2
1.7 12.5
7.4 Vocational skills training for women
0.1 1.1
0.4 2.3
0.8 3.7
1.4 7.0
Literacy training for women 0.2
1.1 0.4
2.6 0.7
2.9 1.3
6.6 Other
3.2 2.0
2.0 1.5
3.3 3.0
8.4 6.5
Increased employment opportunities for women 0.3
1.1 0.7
2.6 0.8
2.2 1.8
5.9 Vocational skills training for both womenmen
0.4 0.7
1.0 1.5
2.0 2.6
3.4 4.8
Newimproved local education facilities for girls 0.9
1.1 1.7
1.8 1.8
1.8 4.4
4.7 Improved agricultural services
1.5 1.0
2.5 1.6
3.2 2.0
7.2 4.6
Newimproved housing in community 1.2
1.1 1.5
1.7 1.7
1.6 4.5
4.4 Improved veterinary services
0.9 0.9
1.4 1.5
1.4 1.4
3.7 3.7
Literacy training for both womenmen 0.3
0.3 1.1
1.1 1.4
1.4 2.8
2.8 Disarmament of local militiacommanders
0.4 0.4
1.0 0.8
1.0 1.5
2.4 2.6
Newimproved local education facilities for boys 0.4
0.4 1.2
1.1 1.4
1.0 2.9
2.4 Newimproved micro-credit schemes
0.4 0.3
1.2 0.8
1.3 1.0
2.9 2.1
Reformedimproved local justice systems 0.3
0.2 0.5
0.6 0.7
0.6 1.6
1.5 Vocational skills training for men
0.1 0.1
0.2 0.3
0.5 0.7
0.7 1.1
Literacy training for men 0.1
0.2 0.3
0.2 0.4
0.4 0.8
0.8 Local land or housing dispute settlement
mechanisms 0.1
0.0 0.1
0.1 0.2
0.2 0.3
0.4
A quarter of men and women want the government to increase the quantity of water. The improvement of the quality of water, local education facilities for girls and boys, increased employment opportunities
for women and men and men separately are all high on women ’s and men’s priority list and score
higher than 10 percent for all three priorities combined.
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12 HOUSING AND HOUSEHOLD AMENITIES
Summary. Housing conditions of the Afghan population are overall poor, but improving, with large
differences between urban and rural communities and among provinces. The most impressive improvement has been observed in the percentage on people having access to safe water, which increased
at national level from 46 to 65 percent in only three years, reaching the MDGS target of 61.5 percent for 2020 more than five years in advance. In addition, the proportion of households with access to any source
of electricity has increased significantly, from 69 to 89 percent. Other improvements are registered in a slight decrease of the urban slum population, use of solid fuels, and in a slight increase of improved
sanitation, access to roads and use of communication means.
Housing tenure, which can be seen as a useful proxy for income or wealth of people, is characterized by high-levels of owner-occupied dwellings, with almost 90 percent of households
– more in rural than in urban areas - owning dwellings. The majority of the Afghan households live in single-family houses
– more in rural than in urban areas. About 60 percent of the entire number of permanent dwellings in the
country have been constructed after 1995, but only less than 3 percent in the last three years. Traditional mud houses continue to form the majority of housing in Afghanistan, with external walls made of mud
bricks 68 percent and roofs constructed with wood and mud 74 percent. Dwellings have approximately the same number of rooms in urban and rural areas. Around one-third of the dwellings
have two rooms and close to another 40 percent has three or four rooms. Kuchi households lives in the majority in one tent, and in about 30 percent in two tents.
The percentage of urban population living in slums is almost 74 percent of the total urban population in Afghanistan almost 5 million people. Slum dwellers, as defined by the MDG indicator 7.10, a re still a
very significant number, even if their number and proportion have slight decreased in comparison to the 2011-12 NRVA. This indicator is affected by the high level of overcrowding, high number of dwellings
made of non-durable material, lack of access to improved sanitation and lack of access to improved water supply.
The figure for safe drinking water 65 percent of the population uses improved drinking water sources –
MDG Indicator 7.8 showed, however, a very significant improvement compared to 2007-08, when it was only 27 percent. The situation improved in rural areas in particular, where the percentage using
improved sources increased from 20 2007-08 to 58, but relevant disparities remain at geographic level: in seven provinces, the percentage is below 30 percent. The situation with regard to sanitation improved
slightly 4.5 percent more compared to 2011-12 NRVA data, but continues to be poor, with only 39 percent of the population having access to improved sanitation 13 percent if using the old definition,
which did not include the category of covered pit latrines as improved sanitation facilities. The still widespread lack of basic infrastructure for water and sanitation implies high risks of potentially fatal
diseases, and is especially detrimental for the health and survival chances of infants and young children.
Physical access to rural communities is often problematic in terms of access to drivable roads. However, almost 93 percent of households reported to have access to their dwellings by an unpaved or paved road
that is in a distance of less than 1 kilometer, showing a remarkable progress compared to 2011-12 NRVA data.
Health conditions in the household are further impaired by the use of solid fuels for cooking 76 percent and heating 95 percent, with minor improvements in the last three years. Solid fuels are largely used
over the country for heating purposes, but only by the 27 percent of the population in urban areas. The most widespread source of electricity at national level is solar and wind energy, which account for 48
percent, more than the double of the 22 percent registered in the 2011-12 NRVA data. It is the most frequently reported source of electricity in rural areas and among the Kuchi population. Internet is used
only by 2 percent of the population, while the use of mobile telephones is rapidly increasing among the Afghan population.
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12.1 Introduction
Kategori