Guide to Community Engagement and Accountability to Affected Populations in Afghanistan

"Making the voice of the affected population a guiding principle by using country-specific information and feedback will ensure humanitarian action is more effective and accountable to the people and communities we aim to serve." - Dr. Aleksandar Sasha Bodiroza, Country Representative, UNFPA Afghanistan



Developed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Afghanistan, this guide provides guidance on effectively integrating practical elements of accountability to affected populations (AAP) in humanitarian work in Afghanistan. Improved accountability through more robust mechanisms ensures affected populations and people, especially women, girls, and persons with disabilities, in need of assistance are actively involved in decision-making and participate in the design and implementation of programmes. These opportunities to express demand for accountability are important, since the lack of functioning accountability systems is one of the systemic causes of vulnerability that exacerbates the impact of crises.



In Afghanistan, UNFPA has demonstrated the ability to scale up and respond to the emerging and deepening reproductive health and psychosocial needs of women and girls through its mobile health teams, family health houses, psychosocial counselling centres, and multi-purpose youth centres. These programmes, alongside AAP initiatives such as the Community Listening Initiative, provide a base to broaden and strengthen AAP. AAP initiatives can build on this strong base of community engagement, focusing on the rights and dignity of an affected community, ensuring that programmes are informed in a systematic way by the feedback received.



UNFPA stresses that institutionalising AAP means incorporating it into the foundation of the work done with communities in Afghanistan. Practically, this means systematising AAP by including it in policy, procedures, strategies, programme operations documents, capacity building, and in monitoring, evaluation, and audit processes.

In this context, the guide provides an overview of AAP approaches and activities that can be applied to any type of programme or operation at any point in the programme cycle, as well as tools to support accountability in the work of UNFPA and its implementing partners in Afghanistan. The guide can be used as portable cards for workshops or discussions on individual topics or as a manual, printable in its entirety. Embedded throughout are tools, training, and tips, which are identified in each section by a circle of Afghan Jali pattern work.

UNFPA staff, managers, and organisations supporting the implementation of UNFPA's programme in Afghanistan were consulted about what to include and how to word content for the Afghanistan context. Afghanistan-specific case studies are included throughout the guide, highlighting examples of good practice.



This guide will be updated periodically to inform the programme planning and overall decision-making processes within UNFPA in the Afghanistan response. Comments are welcome at any time and can be sent, along with enquiries, to husni@unfpa.org