Water Security and Human Development in Afghanistan.

Human development is about putting people at the center of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value. Since 2004, Afghanistan has published two National Human Development Reports, the first called Security with a Human Face, and the second Bridging Modernity and Tradition in 2007.

Upcoming 2010 Report

Third Afghanistan Human Development Report

Water Security and Human Development in Afghanistan
Human development is about putting people at the center of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value. Since 2004, Afghanistan has published two National Human Development Reports, the first called Security with a Human Face, and the second Bridging Modernity and Tradition in 2007.

The Third Afghanistan National Human Development Report (ANHDR-3) will explore the linkages between water and human development within the context and history of the country. These linkages raise important questions about state functions, social justice, equity and human security. They have generated a wide-ranging policy dialogue about sanitation and health, food security, community water sharing, and the distribution of obligations for ensuring agricultural productivity and national economic growth. Equally pressing, though less widely considered, is the challenge of empowering vulnerable communities to adapt to conditions of drought and unequal water access. For a large section of Afghanistan’s population, lack of access to quality and sufficient water is now either an imminent threat or a current reality. ANHDR-3 will explore the ways in which water access interacts and will continue to interact with wider factors to increase vulnerability, hold back poverty reduction, widen inequalities based on district, income and gender, and aggravate ecological pressures.

Focusing on the twin themes of water security for both consumptive and productive use as key determinants of human potential and human security,

ANHDR-3 will bring a distinctive perspective to bear on the water and development debate in the country. Concrete case studies looking at vulnerable groups and localities – areas with rampant disease resultant from poor sanitation infrastructure, rain-fed farmers in arid and semi-arid areas, localities prone to droughts and other water-related climatic shocks – will be commissioned to explore these mechanisms. ANHDR-3 will also highlight that water security is deeply embedded in social and economic structures – many of which have long been in place, many of which are new. Violence, poverty and inequality are the fault lines along which water access is determined. Especially vulnerable populations in areas of conflict, little government reach and infrastructure face the double jeopardy of being at greater risk and having limited capacity to reduce risk through market and other mechanisms. Research will also focus on developing sub-national indicators of water security and poverty to highlight areas of acute water and development stress.

In the face of rising insurgencies and the flight path of global power and ideologies, the faces of millions of human lives easily blurs. Otherwise mundane things, like a glass of water or finding a toilet – in the pivot of geopolitics – can be easily lost. This Report argues that water – its human costs, potential and its proper harnessing for human development – must be placed at the very heart of development concern.

The 2010 Afghanistan Human Development Report will be launched in Summer 2010.