What I did in Afghanistan for UNDP and MRRD

I was in Afghanistan from March 1 to the end of August, 2007, under contract from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and seconded to the National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP), part of the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). My title was Communications and Reporting Advisor. After than, until 2021, I continued to work remotely, pro bono, with people in the country that are working for MRRD or local NGOs.

Here's what I did in-country in Afghanistan:

Rapidly edited and rewrote all proposals, donor program reports, meeting reports, field reports and presentations for all the divisions of NABDP, which included community development (development of local governance structures & guidance in local people identifying local development priorities), rural economic development, implementation of rural infrastructure projects (water supply and sanitation projects, construction of schools, irrigation and flood control, construction and maintenance of public facilities, energy projects, construction of health clinics, and rehabilitation of roads and construction of culverts and bridges), institutional development and gender mainstreaming. In addition to writing, this took regularly meeting with and observing office meetings by NABDP staff. This activity, along with the second bullet, took up around 60% of my entire work time in Kabul.
Wrote, edited and rewrote press releases, web pages and video scripts for Afghan MRRD staff in the ministry's communications department.
Co-authored a Guide for Facilitating the Preparation of Women-Focused Development Plans in Afghanistan with the NABDP gender specialist, to be used by all divisions of NABDP.
Developed a series of online photo-sharing albums, via Flickr, for NABDP, sharing photos that had been taken over the previous two years by staff of all of the different initiatives of NABDP, many of which had never been shared outside the program before, and leading to the photos being used in a variety of UNDP and MRRD online and in-print publications, including the UNDP annual report for Afghanistan for 2007. Also taught Afghan staff in the NABDP communications office to update the account with new photos, write descriptions and tag photos with keywords.
Developed How to take photos in a culturally-sensitive manner, particularly with regard to respect for local customs regarding women, and to meet various needs, e.g. to show female participation. This resource was developed in 2007, for Afghan staff working at NABDP, by my own initiative, upon seeing the archive of photos that Afghan NABDP engineers and program staff had taken in the field.
Developed a presentation for Afghan women on public speaking. This resource was developed in 2007, per the request of Afghan female staff working at NABDP, who were being asked more and more to make presentations to colleagues.
Developed a comprehensive list of questions to answer in preparation for reporting to donors, the media & general public. I developed this with a colleague in Afghanistan, to help the local staff at the government ministry where we worked know what information donors and UN agencies regularly asked for, and what we anticipated they might start asking for; what subjects the media regularly asked about or reported on, and what we anticipated they might start asking about or reporting on; and what information could be used for evaluation purposes later.
Visited Panshir and Kandahar to see NABDP projects in-person, observed a District Development Assembly (DDP) in process, talked with Canadian military representatives regarding provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), took photos and interviewed local staff for program updates for donors.
Created a 12-page summary for donors of the results of an Emergency Winterization Assistance Project that took place in 2006, and created a 17-page summary for donors regarding the emergency Embankment of Oxus (Amu River) from the previous year, which covered 15 districts in 4 provinces (Balkh, Jawzjan, Kunduz and Takhar) and which protected agricultural land, government buildings and houses and directly benefited almost 400,000 people. Both of these tasks required interviewing MRRD Afghan staff and reviewing program documents written by others, many of whom were no longer with MRRD.
Updated all NABDP pages on the MRRD web site, more than doubling the amount of content on the site for the program, overseeing the translation of this new material into Dari and Pashto, and training Afghan counterpart to do this upon my departure.
Recruited and hired an Afghan counterpart for the communications department.
Served on interview panels in for two UNDP recruitment drives for other departments for Afghan staff.
Attended the UN Volunteers retreat; though I have never served as a UN Volunteer myself, I worked for four years at UNV headquarters, and was invited to participate because of my close association with the UNV program.
Created a handover note for my international replacement, something I did not have when I took over this position.

Here's what I did after leaving Afghanistan in 2007, pro bono, for Afghan staff in-country, until August 2021:

Edited major reports written by the Afghan NABDP staff person I hired back in 2007, to ensure clarity and correct grammar, and to offer suggestions for additional information. Also advised her regarding communications strategies for MRRD's Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Program (Ru-WatSIP).
Advised the Afghan NABDP staff person I hired during her graduate studies in Kabul and Australia.
Edited the communications strategy for the Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development Facility (CARD-F) for an Afghan colleague, and developed a Twitter strategy for CARD-F.

My time in Afghanistan, as well as Egypt and Jordan, lead me to develop:

Women's Access to Public Internet Access, to support the development of women-only Internet centers/technology centers/etc., or women-only hours at such public Internet access points, in developing and transitional countries
Virtue & reputation in the developing world, which offers details that should serve as a caution to humanitarian and development workers wanting NGOs and government agencies to engage more on social media
Packing advice For First-Time Humanitarians & Aid Workers.

I wish I had created and delivered some workshops on volunteering for NGOs in Kabul. It wasn't part of my UNDP contract, so I would have had to do it on my own time. But I wish I had. There are so many NGOs in Kabul - there were a lot back in 2007. They really could have used guidance on the fundamentals of effective volunteer engagement, and some advanced training on keeping women and children safe within program delivery.

One of the biggest things I learned while in Kabul was about the realities of economic development activities. Namely, what's NOT needed in most cases is another handicraft program. I also learned that poverty isn't beautiful nor romantic.

After the Taliban

My work on behalf of Afghanistan continues. I have worked to help co-workers flee the country, and continue to work on behalf of colleagues left behind. I am working to advise colleagues who were able to flee and are now living abroad, as well as to help people doing their best to survive the Taliban regime:

Suggestions for mutual aid societies in Afghanistan: acts of survival as well as resistance. Mutual aid is a voluntary, peer-to-peer exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit for people in a particular neighborhood or region. It's sometimes called neighbors-helping-neighbors. It's usually informal: there's often no government agency or nonprofit organization organizing it, though that does happen. And it's usually not some huge, well-organized network: it's usually something done spontaneously, without careful, long-term planning. Mutual aid activities can be focused just on helping others to obtain food and medicine, but they can also be acts of resistance: they can be focused on helping people specifically who are being marginalized or oppressed by the government or by some or even a majority of people in an area. This resource reviews many different examples of successful mutual aid networks, including those that were done in response to inequities and repression and those that were done in defiance of the government or societal norms. It offers several ideas for creating grassroots mutual aid networks as a way to build solidarity with other Afghans, to survive the evils of the Taliban, and to reduce the suffering of people.

Digital Dunkirk: online volunteers scramble to help endangered Afghans get visas & out of Afghanistan

My request to my US congressional representatives regarding Afghan refugees

Our Lady of the Manifest: the icon for a very particular community of online volunteers

Fleeing Afghanistan: "Experiencing the Dark Time: Caught Up In a Cage": a first hand account, edited by me, of fleeing Afghanistan in 2021.

Fleeing Afghanistan, Living As a Refugee: Safe, But Without Joy: a first hand account, edited by me, of the aforementioned asylum seeker and her life as of September 2023.

Also see:

Index of all of my resources for working in development -- human, community, institutional and environmental (with information about aid, relief and humanitarian efforts as well).
How to Pursue a Career with the United Nations or Other International Humanitarian or Development Organizations, Including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Reality Check: Volunteering Abroad / Internationally
Recommendations for UN & UNDP in Ukraine to use Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Other Social Media to Promote Reconciliation, Social Inclusion, & Peace-Building in Ukraine (PDF).
This is a draft document I submitted to UNDP Ukraine just before I left Kyiv in October 2014, having completed my term there as a "Surge" Communications Advisor. This draft document offers considerations and recommendations for social media messaging that promotes reconciliation, social inclusion, and peace-building in Ukraine. It provides ideas for messaging related to promoting tolerance, respect and reconciliation in the country, and messaging to counter bigotry, prejudice, inequality, misperceptions and misconceptions about a particular group of people or different people among Ukrainians as a whole.
My various producted developmed to build public sector staff communications capacities in countries where I've served..
Lessons from onlinevolunteering.org
Some key learnings from directing the UN's Online Volunteering service from February 2001 to February 2005, including support materials for those using the service to host online volunteers.
Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs in the Developing World, a guide I developed a decade ago and regularly update until October 2015. Requesting NGOs have been based primarily in Africa, Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.
Starting a Nonprofit or Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). The laws and procedures for starting a nonprofit organization, an NGO, a charity or a foundation vary from country to country. The laws and procedures are never exactly the same. This page offers the general advice that is applicable to any country, but you will still have to go through country-specific requirements, which are NOT detailed on this page but there is advice on where to find them).
Vetting Organizations in Other Countries: A resource that can help you evaluate volunteer-placement organizations that charge you for your placement as a volunteer, as well as for people interested in partnering or supporting an organization abroad but wanting to know it's a credible organization, that it's not some sort of scam, or an 'organization' of just one person.
Hosting International Volunteers: More and more local organizations in developing countries are turning to local expertise, rather than international volunteers, to support their efforts. However, the need for international volunteers remains, and will for many, many years to come. This resource provides tips for local organization in a developing countries interested in gaining to international volunteers.

The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook

available for purchase as a paperback & an ebook

Completely revised and updated, & includes lots more advice about microvolunteering!
Published January 2014.

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What I Did in (& have done for) Afghanistan