Late Spring Update

Afghanistan is a country at war with large issues of poverty, growing land degradation, and weak governance. The country has seen little stability in the past three decades and war continues to impact people every day. The decades of conflict have resulted in dramatic drops in human, social, and economic indicators through the country. Afghanistan currently ranks 181 out of 182 countries on the human development index, far lower than any of its neighbors. Communities experience repeated conflict-induced displacement and destruction of homes and fields. War has led many of those who are able, including large numbers of educated people, to leave. It is estimated that most Afghans are suffering from some level of stress disorder as a result of the trauma and loss of war. Using any measure of poverty, Afghans rank among the poorest in the world. Life expectancy is 43 years old, infant mortality is 129 per 1000 live births, 31% are food-insecure, literacy is 28%, and 42% live below the cost of basic needs poverty line. The country has poor health, education, and nutritional status; weak social protection systems; and vast gender inequalities. There is a high vulnerability to external shocks such as drought and even the death of a family member.

All of this raises a number of questions like in a place where almost everyone is poor, what is poverty? What can accomplish poverty alleviation and development? What does peace-building look like?

Reading through the Afghanistan national development strategy today, I came across these quotes from Afghans defining poverty.

The poor are the ones with an empty stomach; the poor are the ones who do not have enough milk to make yogurt; the poor can’t plan the future and can’t foresee what will happen tomorrow. One man in Bamyan province said, the poor are the ones who can be sick today and be dead the next day.

In Afghanistan eating means growing your food for most of the population.  In Bamyan, bread and dairy products account for the majority of food. In late spring, the wheat is getting tall and gaining seed heads. Working together, groups of women are out weeding fields, bringing the weeds home in overflowing baskets balanced on their heads to feed precious sheep and cows. Men are out moving more dirt onto the potato mounds. The cash crop. One group woke me up at 4:30 this morning smacking their shovels around, the tool of choice here. It was hard to complain.

Yesterday, walking through the fields to my office, groups of people working all over, I came across a boy lying on his back, perfecting still, tucked in the furrow between two rows of potatoes, looking at the sky.