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Summary of the Report
Introduction
International concern to improve the care and protection of
children in times of war led to the appointment in 1994 of Graca
Machel as Expert to the United Nations Secretary General on the
Impact ofArmed Conflict on Children and the presentation of her
report on the subject in 1996. The same concern has prompted
regular meetings between fourchildfocused agencies working in
Afghanistan - Radda Barnen (Save the Children - Sweden), Save
the Children UK, Save the Children Federation, Inc and the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). In order to inform their
activities, the group commissioned this research into the situation
of children in war-tom Afghanistan.
The development of children in Afghanistan cannot be put on hold
until the fighting comes to an end. The need for action is urgent.
The research team set out to uncover not only the negative
consequences of armed conflict on children, but also the positive
resources that children draw on to deal with these consequences
and other factors that promote their wellbeing. They assessed
which children are especially vulnerable and selected examples of
good practice in the field of programming for children. Recognising
that longer-term, in-depth research is also required, the team
identified further areas for investigation.
The report is organised around the four constituent themes of
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:
· survival
· protection
· development
· participation.
Making a reality of the rights enshrined in the Convention is part
of the mandate of the four child-focused agencies. But in
Afghanistan, where the citizens have no recourse to their own
state representatives, there are huge barriers to promoting a
rights-based approach. However complex the difficulties, the four
agencies are committed to finding creative ways of helping the
children of Afghanistan break out of the cycle of armed conflict
and to assert their undeniable stake in a peaceful future.
Methodology
Semi-structured interviews with nearly 500 children aged 6-18
were the prime source of information for the research. These
were supplemented by focus group discussions with parents and
other adults working with children. The interviews were
distributed evenly across the five zones of Afghanistan, with two-
week visits to Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-i-
Sharif. Except in the case of Kabul, interviews were divided
between urban and rural settings.
The female consultant was accompanied by a male Afghan
research assistant and in each location the team was joined by a
female Afghan research assistant. Girls and boys were
interviewed in equal numbers.
The four agencies which commissioned the research specified
that particular attention should be paid to children with
disabilities, displaced children, working children and child soldiers.
These guidelines and the use of focus group discussions gave a
bias to the research, so that it does not yield the quantifiable
conclusions of a randomised survey, but instead is rich in
qualitative findings from particular contexts.
Survival
Children experience direct threats to their survival from weapons
of war which do not distinguish between military and civilian
targets. In the face of such direct threats they may continue to
live and work in a hazardous environment, or flee in search of
security and shelter. The report highlights the risks of mines and
unexploded ordnance to young boys in some urban residential
environments, to adolescent boys in mined rural areas and to
nomadic Kuchi children whose migration routes cross mined areas.
It was striking how in their search for security many children and
their families had repeatedly experienced displacement. Internally
displaced children were the least likely to know what the future
held in store.
After security and shelter, the next concern among internally
displaced households was the economic cost of displacement.
Both the boys and girls interviewed showed a willingness to
contribute to the household economy. It was remarkable and
encouraging that, although they were engaged in menial tasks
for long hours, children were not homeless or starving. The
majority of households did have the wherewithal to make a
living: they had assets and skills, and, despite the war and
frequently closed borders, the markets continued to function.
Displaced households appeared vulnerable in the short-term, but
those which had been displaced for longer had developed
strategies for survival. However households headed by a person
with a disability or a woman continued to be vulnerable:
in these households the oldest son had often become an
important breadwinner.
As well as depriving millions of Afghans of livelihoods, the war is
providing livelihoods for fighters and other
beneficiaries of conflict. Economic necessity is one of the engines
driving adolescent boys into military units. There is
a clear role for international agencies to advocate and support
the creation of opportunities for adolescent boys to earn
a productive living under the guidance of a skilled adult.
Protection
Discrimination on grounds of gender has an adverse effect not
only on the disadvantaged group, but also on the wider society
which is depriving itself of the resources of its excluded members.
The research team found a widespread frustration among girls at
their exclusion from education. In urban areas there was a similar
frustration among women at their exclusion from public
employment. All women interviewed were worried by the impact
on pre-natal and post-natal care of the Taliban restrictions on
female training and employment in the health sector and on
female access to health care.
The civic status of women was also seen to have an adverse
impact on children living in female-headed households. The
majority of children who were separated from their families and
were interviewed in 'orphanages' were known to have a
surviving mother. Both mothers and children, however, insisted
on the importance of keeping families together.
Of the children interviewed, 43 had a disability. There was some
evidence that children disabled by war had often suffered many
other losses. They and their families seemed to be coping less
well with the disability than was the case with children disabled
since birth, by disease or by an accident. Discrimination based on
disability also created disadvantage for children in households
headed by someone with a disability.
Although many Afghans deny that the current conflict is an ethnic
conflict, for some children their association with an ethnic group
makes them peculiarly vulnerable. The child's group may be
championed by a military commander with a personal interest in
perpetuating the war. Cross-border minorities may find
themselves made the vehicle for the ambitions of the
neighbouring state.
An analysis based on gender, disability and ethnicity are
indispensable to an overall assessment of vulnerability.
Development
Children's physical, mental and emotional growth are all affected
by armed conflict. However, historically assistance has been
directed towards the physical survival and development of
children - assistance which promotes their mental and emotional
development has been less widespread and is more contentious.
To the research team the core issue appeared to be the role of
the social world and the degree to which it enables survivor
populations to manage their suffering, adapt and recover. This
entailed a focus upon the collective and not the individual.
The most important site of development for the child is the home.
Parents were found to have an acute awareness of their
children's suffering and of the stress they themselves were
under. They identified economic worries occasioned by war as
their main burden, and felt that if this burden were lifted they
would be better able to rebuild their own and their children's lives.
It was encouraging to find that not all games and stories had
been militarised by the context of war. However, for security,
ideological and economic reasons, the opportunities for children
to enjoy recreational activities and explore their environment
were being curtailed. A substantial proportion of boys and girls
have some access to formal education, often through the
mosque, madresseh (religious schools) and home-based religious
classes. State-run formal education is closed to girls in Taliban-
controlled areas at this time, and across the country is beset by
problems of unavailability of textbooks and other equipment, and
a crisis in teacher training and salary provision. The children
interviewed attached a high value to education. Young children
saw in it a chance to improve their own future. Adolescent boys
and girls saw school as preparing them to contribute not only to
their own development, but also to that of their country.
Another place of learning is the workshop where boys are
apprenticed to a skilled adult. Girls were more likely to be leaming
skills at home.
All in all, the research team was encouraged to find that most
children could still point to a positive adult role model.
It is the task of agencies working on behalf of children not to
supplant but to add to the efforts of parents and other
Afghan adults working with children, whether they be the village
mullah, the primary school teacher, the skilled male
tinsmith or skilled female carpet weaver.
"Children have a vital stake in the conflict as members of the
generation that will live on to inherit the war-ravaged country."
the poverty of hunger is the poverty of being totally alone."
Participation
How far adults discussed the war with children varied. However,
it was clear that from an early age children discussed the war
amongst themselves. They were aware that it intruded upon
many aspects of their daily life, ranging from whether it was safe
for them to go outside to whether they would have to forgo
school and contribute to the household economy. Although radio
ownership was widespread, children explained that adults were
the main listeners. It appeared to the research team that there
would be scope for children's programming.
Children's identification with Afghanistan and their perception of
the war varied depending on their individual circumstances. The
children who most positively identified with their country were
those who had been forced to cross the border as refugees.
Explanations for the war divided into three categories:
· The overwhelming response was that leaders were fighting for
power and that recruits were coerced to join them.
· The second category of response was that leaders were fighting
for money and that recruits were joining them because they too
needed money.
· The third category of response was that people were fighting
for an idea, for Afghanistan or for Islam, and that recruits were
joining them voluntarily.
The most articulate respondents to these complex questions
were the adolescents. It was disappointing that across
Afghanistan the research team found only one initiative by an
international agency which was designed to build on the energy
and insights of this age group.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The development of children cannot be put on hold until the
permanent cessation of violent conflict. There is therefore a
particular urgency to interventions designed to benefit children.
This means that agencies working on behalf of children have to
be flexible and seize opportunities locally to encourage those
factors which promote the wellbeing of children. First and
foremost will be safety and security. Next will be support for the
efforts ofAfghan parents and other adults caring for children, to
provide an adequate livelihood for the household, and the
routine and example to foster the child's emotional and mental
development.
At the same time as providing practical assistance at a local level,
agencies have to act in unison at an international level to
advocate the prompt resolution of the armed conflict by peaceful
negotiation.
Agencies have limited resources and will therefore be selective in
their interventions. While an even distribution of assistance
should be maintained across the country, the nature of this
assistance should be based on a local vulnerability analysis
taking into critical account gender, disability and existing conflicts.
This research has confirmed the findings of Graca Machel's 1996
report, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children - that children
are less affected by a sense of hopelessness than adults, and
are less polarised in their views. Further research is needed to
understand how agencies can build more effectively upon this
capacity, and create a climate of optimism. Particular attention
should be paid to adolescents, for it is this group which has the
potential to lead Afghanistan out of war.
* Quotes in summary taken from the fall report
Owner: Patricia Sellick with research assistance of Sami Hashemi