Development Studies

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/10564

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Afghanistan

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Walking with broken crutches : exploring the effects of host-state fragility upon refugees : a research project presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (The Author, 2015) Foreman, Mark
    This research report explores the relationship between state fragility and the hosting of refugees in the context of the protracted Afghan refugee crisis, where fragile state Pakistan hosts Afghan refugees. The reality for the majority of the world’s refugees is that their hosts are neighbouring countries which are in varying conditions of state fragility. Some states are bearing the brunt of the global refugee burden despite their general struggle to provide basic services and livelihood opportunities for their own citizens. For these ‘fragile hosts’, providing for an influx of refugees would be untenable without significant international assistance. Following a comprehensive literature review looking at the complex interplay between conflict, state fragility, underdevelopment and forced migration, the report case study is prefaced by background chapters surveying the factors which triggered Afghan forced migration, and Pakistan’s fragile status as host respectively. This report then offers an analysis of two region-specific UNHCR documents which explores the relationship between Afghan refugees and Pakistan as ‘fragile host’. Various host-state incapacities were found to entrench endemic poverty and insecurity in the Afghan refugee population in Balochistan due to a lack of livelihood opportunities, and availability and access to quality services. These issues have also created barriers to local refugee integration, and the fluctuating interest of international donors has historically served to exacerbate these challenges. This report argues that a much-improved understanding of the multi-layered and complex regional, national and local relationships between protracted conflict, state fragility and refugee-host dynamics is needed in order to approach a sustainable solution.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Microfinance in postwar Afghanistan : towards a conflict-sensitive approach : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2006) Harvey, Michael David
    It is well established that microfinance has become a key tool to reduce poverty in developing countries. Previously unable to gain access to credit and savings products from formal providers such as banks, poor people can now take small loans to support income-generating activities, or build up small savings accounts for important expenditures. These services are offered by microfinance providers (MFPs), semi-formal institutions which often have development as well as financial goals. Because poverty tends to be widespread in countries emerging from war, the provision of microfinance is being increasingly recognised as crucial to post-conflict economic reconstruction. Most writers on post-conflict microfinance (PCM) have outlined the considerable challenges which MFPs face in these unstable situations, and have offered valuable operational advice on how to meet those challenges. However, little has been written on how PCM has impacted upon the clients themselves, or whether it has assisted them to re-establish viable livelihoods. Secondly, even though postwar situations are unstable due to unresolved sources of tension, most PCM literature lacks a systematic treatment of how the microfinance could be 'conflict-sensitive'. 'Conflict sensitivity' can be defined as taking preventative measures to reduce the possibility that development intervention will exacerbate tensions, and implementing pro-active strategies to help build peace. This study constructs a conflict sensitive system whereby microfinance goes beyond its traditional role of poverty alleviation to that of conflict mitigation. Afghanistan serves as context within which the concepts of conflict-sensitive microfinance are explored. Since the defeat of the Taliban in 2001, much of Afghanistan has enjoyed a period of relative peace and reconstruction after 22 years of intrastate war. However, the country still faces a number of challenges which could contribute to renewed violence, including poverty, inter-ethnic tensions, weak local governance, and the largest opium sector in the world. This study examines what role the young microfinance sector is playing in addressing these issues and what impact it is having on Afhgan livelihoods and society. The sector's success in helping to alleviate poverty and build peace depends on the extent to which MFPs in Afghanistan expand their services, coordinate efforts among themselves, and collaborate with other development and government actors in holistic, conflict-sensitive interventions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    How have women been empowered by gender-focussed development projects in post-Taliban Afghanistan? : reviewing the literature which incorporates the critical consideration of two gender focussed development projects : a research report presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (The Author, 2014) McMillan, Robert Melville
    This research report examines the empowerment approach within the Gender and Development (GAD) discussion, providing an emphasis on women’s empowerment as an instrument of post-conflict reconstruction in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Utilising a comprehensive literature review, the report establishes the framework of Naila Kabeer as a consistent base for the comparing and contrasting of two gender-focussed development programmes in Afghanistan. The contextual background of empowerment programmes pursued over the past decade in Afghanistan are presented with an examination of the challenges and opportunities encountered pursuing women’s political, economic, social and psychological empowerment. A specific consideration of the New Zealand-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan, and the Community Development Council initiative within the Afghanistan National Solidarity Programme is undertaken. The report concludes that while there have been enormous symbolic advances for women’s political empowerment in the national sphere, the more private and local the sphere examined: the less decision-making agency Afghani women are empowered to exercise. While seeking to provide opportunities for women’s economic empowerment the programmes have made little practical change to women’s income or financial agency. The two gender-focussed programmes examined have made significant compromises to the extremities of the local context, and are considered ‘gender accommodating’ rather than ‘gender transformative’. The large body of literature concerning Afghanistan substantiates that the road to gender equity will stretch across the generations and is necessarily gradual to remain sustainable. As Afghanistan enters further political turmoil, the empowerment attained by Afghani women in the past decade must be expressly guarded.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Humanitarian directed violence in Afghanistan : neutrality and humanitarian space : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Philosophy in the Institute of Development Studies at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2007) Gifford, Andrew George Cameron
    The increased violence towards humanitarian workers represents an insidious trend throughout Afghanistan. Humanitarian workers have become legitimised targets since the 2001 US led invasion of Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom. The increased identification of NGOs with Western military forces and the Afghan government makes the aid community a target by association, whether it is a real or perceived association by the belligerents. Neutrality for NGOs in Afghanistan has been lost. Overwhelmingly, authors and aid practitioners make clear statements about NGOs being legitimised for violence due to the perception of complicity, propagated by either the armed forces themselves or Coalition political leaders. However, army officers involved in the civilian-military relationship are dismissive of the NGOs plight and believe the issue of NGO neutrality to be overplayed. Indeed the Coalition’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams and the NATO commander in Afghanistan believe that the lack of co-ordination or pooling of NGOs’ resources with the military or one another is an impediment to development and improving the security in Afghanistan. The Taliban have gained de facto military control over a growing number of provinces, emanating from the South with humanitarian space in that environment diminished so as to be non-existent. The civilian-military relationship is not responsible for the loss of humanitarian space in its entirety. Opium production, warlord-ism, banditry, corruption, conflict of cultures, religion, and external funding of terrorism marry to produce a uniquely hostile environment not conducive to humanitarian intervention. The lack of heterogeneity between what NGOs agree is acceptable collusion in a civilian-military context also makes it unlikely that accepted operating procedures will be adopted by the civilian humanitarian community as a whole.