Promoting employment and decent work through the humanitarian-development-peace nexus (PEDW-HDPN)

The Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) in Afghanistan is a key pillar of the ILO’s crisis response, aimed at promoting decent work through the rehabilitation and maintenance of priority infrastructure. The project focuses on creating and sustaining employment, decent work, and income-earning opportunities for vulnerable groups, including Afghan host communities, IDPs, refugees, returnees, women, men, and persons with disabilities (PwD). By using Local Resource-Based (LRB) approaches and capacity-building interventions, the ILO will rehabilitate essential infrastructure, generating immediate employment and income opportunities for the local population.

The EIIP strategy aligns directly with four priority areas within the United Nations' Area-based Approach to Development Emergency Initiatives (ABADEI) Programme for Community Resilience in Afghanistan, as it aims to:

1. Rehabilitate and maintain essential infrastructure to create and sustain livable conditions in vulnerable areas, ensuring the inclusion of families at risk of or engaged in child labour, including potentially women and ethnic minorities (Priority 1).
2. Provide a cash injection through immediate job creation and support the revitalization of local economies by improving infrastructure, both of which are vital for communities to cope with the current situation (Priority 2).
3. Adopt a climate-resilient approach to safeguard and sustain development gains from the outset (Priority 3).
4. Be designed and implemented in a participatory manner to ensure that activities are responsive to local needs and priorities and will contribute to local peacebuilding while empowering local stakeholders (priority 4).

• Provides decent jobs through the rehabilitation and maintenance of priority public infrastructure (mostly rural roads, flood protection works)
• Provides employment and income opportunities for both women and men, including persons with disabilities (PwD), host communities, IDPs through using labour-intensive work methods.  
• Ensures decent work principles and social and environmental safeguards are adhered to. 
• Infrastructure measures are complemented by training and awareness on employment intensive methods for contractors and partners, mainstreaming the EIIP as a viable approach for rehabilitation and maintenance of infrastructure.

www.eiipafghanistan.com 

Work is work, as I put my dentistry skills aside to earn a livelihood and dignity 

Mah Jabin has a compelling and touching story as one of the workers who has had to leave aside her dentistry skills to work on a road maintenance project in Mingjik District, Jawzjan Province. Originating from Mazar-e-Sharif, Mah Jabin who is well educated, having completed dentistry at one of the semi-high universities in Mazar-e-Sharif had to move to Mingjik district following her marriage to a person in Mangajik. Mah Jabin says, " As I began my new life in Mangajik, I thought the working conditions for a dentist in Aqcha market would be better than anywhere else" She wanted to continue her career but was unaware of the cultural restrictions on women working outside in the area. The ILO Community Liaison Officer (CLO), overseeing the project explains, "It is unfortunately the cultural stigma and perspective of the local community, that working women are shameless and against Islamic customs and traditions. When I arrived in the area, men were surprised to see me, and I rarely saw women walking on the streets." CLO says, "When I wanted the women to apply to work in the project, I was faced with aggressive behaviour from Some of the men, until finally, we came to the conclusion that women were not allowed to leave their homes, and the only thing they could do in the project was either washing clothes, cooking food, or baking bread. They were not allowed to participate in any activities outside their homes.”

Following this agreement, Mah Jabin was one of the few women chosen by the contractor company and the community council to carry out the mentioned activities, and after the CLO talked with Mrs. Mah Jabin, she accepted. The CLO remembers, "I was fearful, on whether Mah Jabin will accept the work, considering her qualifications, but this was the only opportunity that we could provide for her way I could help her so that she could earn through this project.” 

Mah Jabin says, "I worked for more than three months carrying out works as a cook, laundress and doing other activities to support the camp activities." Mah Jabin says, "It never occurred to me that I was doing a demeaning job of washing clothes, compared to my dentistry job, as the job provided me with a livelihood, dignity and resulted in me being financially independent. I was now not dependent on others, despite not being allowed to work outside my home, and I was playing my small part in the maintenance project, which was worth the world to me. To me the position or status is not important, the only thing that matters to me is working and working hard. I am now working hard, receiving a halal income, which is the greatest honour for me.” 

© EIIP/ILO

The CLO shares that, "What surprised me was how a woman moved from Mazar to Mingjik and is satisfied with life here, far from the conveniences of urban life which she initially had in Mazar Sharif." Mingjik is one of the remote districts of Jawzjan province, dry and barren, with many reliant on canal water and located about 15 kilometres away from Aqcha market, near Qarqin and Khamab locations of Jawzjan province, or the border of Turkmenistan.

There is limited potable drinking water, no electricity with a few able people having solar energy, no reliable telecommunication network, with no internet at all. There is limited choice for food. Mah Jabin says, "On my behalf, I sincerely thank and appreciate the International Labour Organization, Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan and others for hearing the voice of our poor and helpless people and holding our needy hand. We used to cover 13 kilometres in an hour or less to reach our destination, but now we cover this distance in ten minutes, which is extremely easy.” 

The CLO says, "One of the reasons why we recruited Mah Jabin as a worker was the inclusiveness integrated within the ILO and STFA programmes, and the extent to which they seek for the empowerment of the woman. I want women like Mah Jabin to be able to freely access work opportunities, gain income and skills, and be provided with a livelihood that can enable them to contribute to the family and community.