I was in Afghanistan from March 1 to the end of August, 2007,
under contract from the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) and seconded to the National Area-Based Development
Programme (NABDP), part of the Afghan Ministry of Rural
Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). My title was
Communications and Reporting Advisor. After than, until 2021,
I continued to work remotely, pro bono, with people in
the country that are working for MRRD or local NGOs.
Here's what I did in-country in Afghanistan:
- Rapidly edited and rewrote all proposals,
donor program reports, meeting reports, field reports and
presentations for all the divisions of NABDP, which included
community development (development of local governance
structures & guidance in local people identifying local
development priorities), rural economic development,
implementation of rural infrastructure projects (water
supply and sanitation projects, construction of schools,
irrigation and flood control, construction and maintenance
of public facilities, energy projects, construction of
health clinics, and rehabilitation of roads and construction
of culverts and bridges), institutional development and
gender mainstreaming. In addition to writing, this took
regularly meeting with and observing office meetings by
NABDP staff. This activity, along with the second bullet,
took up around 60% of my entire work time in Kabul.
- Wrote, edited and rewrote press releases, web
pages and video scripts for Afghan MRRD staff in the
ministry's communications department.
- Co-authored a Guide for Facilitating the
Preparation of Women-Focused Development Plans in
Afghanistan with the NABDP gender specialist, to be
used by all divisions of NABDP.
- Developed a
series of online photo-sharing albums, via Flickr, for
NABDP, sharing photos that had been taken over
the previous two years by staff of all of the different
initiatives of NABDP, many of which had never been shared
outside the program before, and leading to the photos being
used in a variety of UNDP and MRRD online and in-print
publications, including the UNDP annual report for
Afghanistan for 2007. Also taught Afghan staff in the NABDP
communications office to update the account with new photos,
write descriptions and tag photos with keywords.
- Developed How to take
photos in a culturally-sensitive manner, particularly
with regard to respect for local customs regarding
women, and to meet various needs, e.g. to show female
participation. This resource was developed in
2007, for Afghan staff working at NABDP, by my own
initiative, upon seeing the archive of photos that Afghan
NABDP engineers and program staff had taken in the field.
- Developed a presentation
for Afghan women on public speaking. This
resource was developed in 2007, per the request of Afghan
female staff working at NABDP, who were being asked more and
more to make presentations to colleagues.
- Developed a comprehensive
list of questions to answer in preparation for reporting
to donors, the media & general public. I
developed this with a colleague in Afghanistan, to help the
local staff at the government ministry where we worked know
what information donors and UN agencies regularly asked for,
and what we anticipated they might start asking for; what
subjects the media regularly asked about or reported on, and
what we anticipated they might start asking about or
reporting on; and what information could be used for
evaluation purposes later.
- Visited Panshir and Kandahar to see NABDP
projects in-person, observed a District Development Assembly
(DDP) in process, talked with Canadian military
representatives regarding provincial reconstruction teams
(PRTs), took photos and interviewed local staff for program
updates for donors.
- Created a 12-page summary for donors of the
results of an Emergency Winterization Assistance Project
that took place in 2006, and created a 17-page summary for
donors regarding the emergency Embankment of Oxus (Amu
River) from the previous year, which covered 15 districts in
4 provinces (Balkh, Jawzjan, Kunduz and Takhar) and which
protected agricultural land, government buildings and houses
and directly benefited almost 400,000 people. Both of these
tasks required interviewing MRRD Afghan staff and reviewing
program documents written by others, many of whom were no
longer with MRRD.
- Updated all NABDP pages on the MRRD web site,
more than doubling the amount of content on the site for the
program, overseeing the translation of this new material
into Dari and Pashto, and training Afghan counterpart to do
this upon my departure.
- Recruited and hired an Afghan counterpart for
the communications department.
- Served on interview panels in for two UNDP
recruitment drives for other departments for Afghan staff.
- Attended the UN Volunteers retreat; though I
have never served as a UN Volunteer myself, I worked for
four years at UNV headquarters, and was invited to
participate because of my close association with the UNV
program.
- Created a handover note for my international
replacement, something I did not have when I took over this
position.
Here's what I did after leaving Afghanistan in 2007, pro
bono, for Afghan staff in-country, until August 2021:
- Edited major reports written by the Afghan
NABDP staff person I hired back in 2007, to ensure clarity
and correct grammar, and to offer suggestions for additional
information. Also advised her regarding communications
strategies for MRRD's Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and
Hygiene Promotion Program (Ru-WatSIP).
- Advised the Afghan NABDP staff
person I hired during her graduate studies in Kabul
and Australia.
- Edited the communications strategy for the
Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development Facility
(CARD-F) for an Afghan colleague, and developed a Twitter
strategy for CARD-F.
My time in Afghanistan, as well as Egypt and Jordan, lead
me to develop:
I wish I had created and delivered some workshops on volunteering
for NGOs in Kabul. It wasn't part of my UNDP contract, so I
would have had to do it on my own time. But I wish I had. There
are so many NGOs in Kabul - there were a lot back in 2007. They
really could have used guidance on the fundamentals of effective
volunteer engagement, and some advanced training on keeping
women and children safe within program delivery.
One of the biggest things I learned while in Kabul was about
the realities of economic development activities. Namely, what's
NOT needed in most cases is another handicraft program. I
also learned that poverty
isn't beautiful nor romantic.
After the Taliban
My work on behalf of Afghanistan continues. I have worked to
help co-workers flee the country, and continue to work on behalf
of colleagues left behind. I am working to advise colleagues who
were able to flee and are now living abroad.
Digital
Dunkirk: online volunteers scramble to help endangered Afghans
get visas & out of Afghanistan
My
request to my US congressional representatives regarding Afghan
refugees
Our
Lady of the Manifest: the icon for a very particular community
of online volunteers
Fleeing
Afghanistan: "Experiencing the Dark Time: Caught Up In a Cage":
a first hand account, edited by me, of fleeing Afghanistan in
2021.
Fleeing
Afghanistan, Living As a Refugee: Safe, But Without Joy: a
first hand account, edited by me, of the aforementioned asylum
seeker and her life as of September 2023.
Also see:
- Index of all of my resources
for working in development -- human, community,
institutional and environmental (with
information about aid, relief and humanitarian efforts as
well).
- How
to Pursue a Career with the United Nations or Other
International Humanitarian or Development Organizations,
Including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
- Reality Check: Volunteering Abroad /
Internationally
- Recommendations
for UN & UNDP in Ukraine to use Twitter, Facebook,
Blogs and Other Social Media to Promote Reconciliation,
Social Inclusion, & Peace-Building in Ukraine
(PDF).
This is a draft document I submitted to UNDP Ukraine just
before I left Kyiv in October 2014, having completed my term
there as a "Surge" Communications Advisor. This draft
document offers considerations and recommendations for
social media messaging that promotes reconciliation, social
inclusion, and peace-building in Ukraine. It provides ideas
for messaging related to promoting tolerance, respect and
reconciliation in the country, and messaging to counter
bigotry, prejudice, inequality, misperceptions and
misconceptions about a particular group of people or
different people among Ukrainians as a whole.
- My various producted developmed to
build public sector staff communications capacities
in countries where I've served..
- Lessons from
onlinevolunteering.org
Some key learnings from directing the UN's Online
Volunteering service from February 2001 to February 2005,
including support materials for those using the service to
host online volunteers.
- Basic Fund-Raising
for Small NGOs in the Developing World, a guide
I developed a decade ago and regularly update until October
2015. Requesting NGOs have been based primarily in Africa,
Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.
- Starting
a Nonprofit or Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).
The laws and procedures for starting a nonprofit
organization, an NGO, a charity or a foundation vary from
country to country. The laws and procedures are never
exactly the same. This page offers the general advice that
is applicable to any country, but you will still have to go
through country-specific requirements, which are NOT
detailed on this page but there is advice on where to find
them).
- Vetting
Organizations in Other Countries: A resource
that can help you evaluate volunteer-placement organizations
that charge you for your placement as a volunteer, as well
as for people interested in partnering or supporting an
organization abroad but wanting to know it's a credible
organization, that it's not some sort of scam, or an
'organization' of just one person.
- Hosting
International Volunteers: More and more local
organizations in developing countries are turning to local
expertise, rather than international volunteers, to support
their efforts. However, the need for international
volunteers remains, and will for many, many years to come.
This resource provides tips for local organization in a
developing countries interested in gaining to international
volunteers.
The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
available for purchase as a
paperback & an ebook
Completely revised and updated, &
includes lots more advice about microvolunteering!
Published January 2014.
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